Four years later, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has emerged from Left 4 Dead’s shadow

polygon.com:

In the world of cooperative action games, Left 4 Dead and its sequel loom large. Numerous games have chased the success of Valve’s zombie horde shooter, but the majority have stumbled, either failing to capture the spirit, or worse, cleaving too close to the source material. Warhammer: Vermintide, which was released in 2015, as well as the 2018 sequel, Vermintide 2, are two of few genre examples that managed to thread the needle. They’re structurally reminiscent of the Left 4 Dead series, but nevertheless distinguish themselves in one key way…

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Warhammers. And axes, swords, maces, flails, and halberds; an entire melee suite at the player’s disposal. If Vermintide has one central, distinguishing feature, it’s the reorientation of first-person action away from Left 4 Dead’s long-ranged headshots and spray-and-pray tactics, and toward thunderous, concussive blows and frenzied, up-close-and-personal thwacking.

At nearly half a decade old, Vermintide 2 is itself a wizened co-op classic. With thousands of players still matchmaking on Steam, and developer Fatshark about to release its first-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (pending further delays), I thought it worth jumping back into Vermintide for one last fantasy romp to reevaluate the game’s successes.

One of Vermintide’s strongest features is its setting. The impact here can’t be undersold — as a world continually