Hi All.
Like lots of folks I downloaded the Games with Gold for December yesterday, which happens to be Warhammer:EndTimes Vermintide. When I fired it up to play with my brother this morning I was amazed at how EXACTLY it follows the Left 4 Dead gameplay formula. To the point where there are identical archetypes of monsters (in this case the ratmen who constitute the titular “Vermintide” ). There’s big hordes of normal one hit to kill guys. More powerful special guys who will shoot poison, grab your character by the throat, tackle you and stab you requiring rescue by your colleagues. I giant “ogre” rat who mirrors the boss tank zombie.
The flow of the game is identical too. Find your way to the end of the level as quickly as you can because the enemies just keep coming while sticking close to your party of 4 so no one gets pinched by one of the Assassin class enemies. Combat is somewhat less frustrating, in my opinion, but if they callled it “Left 4 Dead: Gothic Fantasy” it would fit the series perfectly.
This isn’t a criticism at all. And in fact I like Vermintide so far more than either of the Left4Dead games. But I’m surprised because it has flown under the radar completely and the Left4Dead games always got a lot of press. I haven’t heard anyone talk about the similarities (ie identical nature) of the game. I would think it would bring in fans of Left4Dead.
I noticed in the rating comments on the game page that many said Left for Dead. Ive never played Left for dead so I have no clue what that means. But I did DL this game so IM looking forward to giving it a go. Looks great for a free game!
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Like Left4Dead the game is great with a good group and absolutely tragic if even one member of your party is a clueless jackass. Play with friends if you can.
Never heard of it to be honest. My mind keeps visualizing that Zombie game… Dead Island…or Deadlight or…Dead something LOL
It is a zombie game but it’s older than that. It’s built on the Half Life engine and both games were on 360. It was pretty popular and well covered in gaming media at the time. I’m sort of surprised you don’t know it.
Well I was out of gaming from 2002 -2013. I missed the entire era of 360 and PS3. Last system I had before I seen the new KI and rushed to get an XB1 was the Wii and a regular XBox. So yeah Im clueless for nearly 12 years of gaming.
That’s because A) while Warhammer has had a lot of long term fandom it’s still a very niche audience, especially the non-40K stuff, and B) L4D was published by Valve, who even without a marketing department could probably make a hit just through reputation alone. 
On Topic: As someone who’s played a lot of Left 4 Dead, I can definitely see the similarities but I also need some important differences. For example, the different characters have different weapons and roles in Vermintide. I’m L4D the characters are entirely cosmetic (though apparently if you play Ellis the zombies are likely to attack you for some reason). And melee is much more important since ammo is scarcer for most of the classes.
Though it’s not necessarily a bad thing to do take an existing game design if you’re trying to make a fun game to fit with an existing IP.
Oooh, looks like I’m gonna take this game for a spin then. I used to be really good at Left for Dead, so I’ll try it out. I see they have an Archer character, so that’s mine right off the bat lol
Oddly enough, contrary to vidya standard, the bow is actually one of the faster range weapons on offer (though maybe that’s just because she’s an elf). The other options being the Flame Staff (Bright Witch), Pistols Akimbo (Witch Hunter), a Crossbow (Dwarf), and the Blunderbuss (Soldier).
So far it’s a pretty standard fast weapons for trash and slow weapons for big rats. Need to play more to see how it goes.
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I played it for a bit and realized its all online co op…ehhhh…just not my style
Well at least the price was right.
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Yeah! I just dont like having to play online with other and wait for a group ect…especially if I want to pause and look at my weapons or power ups.
Why do they make games that are online only? I dont understand the benefit of it?
You can set it to single player w/ bots if you like. They’ve got a whole story mode you can play this way. And I can say the AI team mates in this game are actually useful, unlike in L4D.
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I get what you’re saying but I kind of appreciate a game that knows what it is and does that (ie online multiplayer game) instead of jamming in a single player offline mode just to say it’s a single player game.
These are actually my favorite things to do - online co op. You get some people you actually know together and nothing else is that fun. I like to play with a team. That’s why Monster Hunter World is my most anticipated game since KI was announced in 2013.
I guess I can see it being fun every once and a while with friends…but on a nightly basis…like what I do with Shadows of war, woflenstien… its not something I want to play daily.
Completely off topic, but are you going to play the Demo coming out Friday?
I don’t have a PS4. Actually I’m not all that bent about it. The beta would just make me even more desperate for the release.
I’m going to have a team of 5 people on rotation - including one nephew who is a huge monster hunter fan on 3DS and I bought him an Xbox and the game just so he could play.
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Aww, that’s super nice of you! I currently play Monster Hunter Generations on my 3DS. Hopefully I can get the Xbox version too since most of my friends are on Xbox. Planning on getting it for both systems.
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