Vermintide, as you might expect from reading the above, supports four players in online co-op. When you’re prepping a premade party for action, you’ll all spawn in the Inn. Constructing a good group isn’t too difficult, though someone will probably want to make sure they equip the Soldier or the Ranger with a shield to help act as a wall between themselves and the squishier characters. The differences in the classes really shine in co-op play and leads to a lot of interesting strategies being devised on the fly. Having a tank and a dedicated spotter for the boss enemies seems to be a good base.
If you don’t start out with a full party, you can begin the game with bots taking up the extra slots. They’re good enough to play through Easy and Medium difficulties, but it’s best to roll with a full crew. Other players can drop in and out at will, and you’ll often get paired with players shortly after starting a match if you have bots along for the ride. I’ve had a few bad apples along the way, giving advice on how to try and exploit the level and refusing to play it as intended, but the system works fairly well. After a round, players can vote to return to the inn and manage their items, or which map they’d like to tackle next.
I’m pretty enamored with Vermintide at the moment. Since its release, it’s been in my regular rotation, and everyone I get to try it has been suitably impressed. It feels like this game is flying under a lot of people's’ radars, especially with all of this Fall’s heavy hitters dropping, but it definitely shouldn’t. If you want a really solid co-op game to drop in for a round here and there, Vermintide scratches that particular itch incredibly well.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: In Vermintide, the city of Ubersreik is under siege as players choose from of a band of five heroes with different play-styles and abilities, all equipped with unique gear and personalities. Working together cooperatively, players must use their individual attributes to survive an apocalyptic invasion from hordes of relentless, power hungry Skaven, across a range of environments stretching from the top of the Magnus Tower to the bowels of the Under Empire.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.