Plan of Attack has sent us a preview code for Fatshark’s upcoming melee action game, Warhammer Vermintide 2, which gave us a small idea of what this new first person co-op game is all about. Given the fact that this is a preview build, we’ll not be focusing on its tech area. So, below you can read our First Impressions of it, accompanied by a video showing 10 minutes of gameplay footage.

The preview build allowed us to play one area and choose two characters; Knight and Shade. However, the preview build did not support DX12 or online co-op functionalities. Moreover, it lacked the talent trees and character progression systems.

Now I’ll have to be honest here, I’ve never played the first Vermintide. From what I know, Vermintide is a first person melee action game that relies heavily on co-op. The game is set in the End Times of the Warhammer Fantasy world, and throws hordes of enemies on players. Players must survive every wave and beat the bosses in order to progress.

Since a lot of key features are not present in this preview build, I can only comment on the combat mechanics and the overall exploration. Warhammer Vermintide 2 plays great. Players have at their disposal a set of moves and skills, and can use potions or items as they fight. Thankfully there is no mouse acceleration or smoothing issues, and everything feels like what you’d expect from a PC FPS game. The melee mechanics and character movement/agility are fine and I did not feel ‘restricted‘ or at a disadvantage, even when there were a lot of enemies on screen.

However, the level that was available in the preview build had some design issues. Sometimes it was difficult to figure out where I was supposed to go. The game does not feature any minimap and the level design was not that ‘friendly‘. It felt like some levels from Wolfenstein 2 (where you have no clue where you should go next). And that’s an issue that Fatshark will have to address. Since there is no mini-map, a small hint arrow would be a welcome inclusion.

The preview build did not feature any graphics settings and – as said – there was no DX12 support. According to the settings.ini file, the game was running on High settings. And while it did not look as crisp as its official screenshots, it was pleasing to the eye.

The preview build lasts around 10-15 minutes (obviously we did not include the boss fight in our video. We know that some gamers want to experience such things themselves). Surprisingly enough, it was stable and it left us with an urge to play more.

Warhammer Vermintide 2 releases in the first quarter of 2018, and below you can find our 10-minute playthrough!