Freebie Feelers... Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide

Freebie Feelers is a series where we download the free monthly console-specific or newly released free-to-play games to test their worth.This series will contain some useful information as well as plenty of personal opinion. While these articles may not be reviews, we hope that you will be able to use them to help decide whether that free download is worth it.

Credit to SENTACOLIS (Admin of the Vermintide Exterminators United Xbox Club) for the screenshot.

What is it?

December’s Games with Gold includes Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, the cooperative first-person action game set in the Warhammer universe. I know that ‘action game’ isn’t very descriptive, but there isn’t a widely accepted term such as “Left 4 Dead lookalike”. Without taking anything from Vermintide, I will say that it has a lot in common with the cooperative first-person shooter. Instead of zombies, you’ve got the Skaven, otherwise known as ratmen (or raaki if you’re a bit shorter). These rat bastards will stand in you and your group’s way at every turn, often overrunning inexperienced players.

While the game can be difficult, it is well worth it when victory is achieved and that sweet piece of equipment drops from the rewards table. Sure, holding off the Skaven horde is one thing, but decking out all your characters in epic gear is a goal in itself. All those weapons and trinkets will be necessary too, as the higher difficulties are relentless and will not let up for an instant. With every level having some sort of ambush, boss, or cavalcade of special enemies, players will find themselves in tight spots quite often.

Credit to SENTACOLIS (Admin of the Vermintide Exterminators United Xbox Club) for the screenshot.

What did you think?

Have to admit, I’ve been playing Vermintide for quite some time now. I’ve enjoyed every minute of the game as I personally love being challenged (fairly) once I’ve found something I’m good at. Between learning how every special enemy works and figuring out how to make the most of weapon traits and trinkets, I realised that I had spent well over 200 hours in the game since I picked it up. This may seem daunting to some, but I’ll simply say this: I didn’t look anything up until I had to.

Vermintide engrossed me so well that I wanted to figure everything out myself. Little did I know that the game was still being updated and that I’d have been able to learn everything I needed to with a few Google searches. On top of this, the game has a wonderful community on and off of Xbox with tons of people willing to help out new players. None of this even mentions that each level is different for one reason or another, there are five unique characters with their own personalities and weapons to choose from or the fact that players of all skill are accommodated to due to how weapon forging works.

Vermintide is simply a wonderful game that should be played by anyone even remotely interested.

Credit to SENTACOLIS (Admin of the Vermintide Exterminators United Xbox Club) for the screenshot.

Is it worth downloading?

Without a doubt. Even if you don’t think you’ll enjoy the game, you may be surprised at how much fun hacking down countless ratmen can be. Although the version that’s available until 30th December doesn’t include the game’s multiple DLCs, you can still play the maps with players that do own them. Hell, I’d be more than happy to run any reader through any of the game’s eight DLC maps so they can try them out! With another DLC and a sequel in the near future, Vermintide is clearly a title worth digging into.