Fatshark took the best parts of End Times – Vermintide and honed them further, while also adding or expanding upon other features. The end result is precisely what I hoped Vermintide 2 would be: demanding, thrilling and rewarding.

Combat in VT2 is among the best I’ve ever seen. It requires constant focus and precision while simultaneously evoking very visceral enjoyment. Dodging, blocking, movement and positioning, timing of attacks, chaining light and heavy hits together the right way, knowing your weapons and abilities, knowing the dangers of each enemy, coordinating well with teammates…There’s a deceptive amount of depth to the mechanics. This could easily have been a brainless hack 'n’ slash action game with a Warhammer skin slapped onto it, but instead it rewards skillful play and is thoroughly fun. The only other combat I’ve enjoyed this much in action titles was in Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, another relatively technique oriented combat system. The AI director acts with some amusing unpredictability at high difficulty, forcing you to stay on your toes the whole way through missions.

A transition was made away from the first VT: items no longer exclusively dictate your gameplay. In addition to item choice, you now switch between subclasses (three, representing different playstyles). Each subclass has different talents, passives and ultimate abilities to define your play. Typically these are slightly role focused: melee, ranged, DPS, tanking, support, high boss damage, etc. The design caters nicely to each character’s lore (e.g. Bardin the Ironbreaker, Slayer or Ranger).

Furthermore, itemization and progression are much improved. Still aided by a range of crafting functions, you can salvage, create, upgrade and reroll your weapons and accessories. Rerolling properties and legendary traits is less costly in VT2, providing a much needed means to boost item Power Level along the way. Crafting affords you any important items that RNG decided not to give you via mission rewards. The RPG element of VT2 is still light but better than nothing. There are useful synergies you can establish with the right stats on the right weapons and a wise choice of game changing legendary traits.

Progression in general is pretty well balanced once you get past the initially punishing difficulty curve; even on Recruit, right from the start it feels like Fatshark wanted to drop players into an endgame-like grind. The easy setting isn’t some story/tourism mode as in other games. You should be prepared to fail missions frequently, especially when your hero and item Power Levels are initially low, but also once you’ve advanced enough to take on Champion and Legend. Despite how hard it is to finish a mission, much of the difficulty comes from the unreliability of pugging (pick up groups). VT2 is neither too easy (boring) nor too difficult (frustrating) as long as you play well, work as a team and pick the difficulty that’s right for you. That decision factors your hero level, item Power Level and your actual experience with the game.

Design on familiar enemies is solid. Design on new special enemies and bosses has been very fun to learn. The welcome addition of another faction (Northmen) brings much needed aesthetic diversity and an opportunity to play with new mechanics. Imbalance and ongoing balance/redesign issues cannot be ignored. Some things were awful at launch, resulting in too much difficulty or just lack of fun. Thankfully, the devs have rapidly and consistently made changes which indicate they’re aware of community concerns and working to improve the game.

Class balance is difficult to assess because some subclasses have a higher learning curve and require a bit more effort to produce the same results and effectiveness as the universally acknowledged overpowered ones. During quickplay I’ve encountered skilled players who more than pulled their weight with supposedly underpowered specs, and then players running the supposed meta fail badly, too. I can only speak from my experience, which is Dwarf: Slayer is tons of fun but needs minor reworkings or a few buffs before he is equally viable at the highest difficulty. It’s a shame how similar the Zealot and Slayer appear to be; wasted opportunity, that.

The graphics are beautiful with settings maxed. I leave all effects enabled. The art evokes our beloved Warhammer setting so well! I enjoy the soundtrack, although it’s surprising how often it bugs out and begins to loop (endless war drums, please make it stop). The dialogue banter is hilarious and ingenious, as in the first game. Visual and audio effects are sublime in that they add so much to the intensity of combat. I relish every clang of axe or hammer on Stormvermin skulls, every splatter of gore, every thudding impact!

Technically the game shows considerable issues in regard to lobbies, matchmaking and hosting. Many minutes will be wasted and these minor frustrations add up over time. There are a wide variety of bugs to fix too, some of them troublesome (only half my party receiving loot for completion of a deed, for example). Let us hope it all improves with time.

Play Warhammer: Vermintide 2 if you want a co-op, fantasy version of Left 4 Dead in which every inch of progress is a battle through hordes of bloodthirsty monsters and savages, where a single untimely mistake can spell your doom and the combat actually gets your adrenaline going! Recommended to bring three friends for a strong premade.

7 Days to Die from The Fun Pimps is almost shockingly fun and compelling, definitely a surprise hit for my friends and I. I think this is due to the addition of a few features that round the game out nicely and set it apart from the otherwise formulaic and overcrowded genre of survival sim.

First of those additions is simply the presence of well thought out and executed RPG systems. Character leveling, attributes, skills, gear progression. It's enough to drive the endless hunt for more power and better stuff. In group play this is even more pronounced since different builds quickly and easily encourage players to specialize in certain activity. Role based gameplay (scavenging/looting, harvesting, crafting/building) is a lot of fun here.

Secondly the "red night" mechanic: every seventh night a super zombie horde comes after you. This offers a sort of player skill/progress check over the lifetime of your playthrough. I like the tension and urgency it lends, not to mention how this strongly encourages crafting and base building, in order to hold out all night against a tide of undead. Building works pretty well in 7 Days, and the red night presents an opportunity to remain engaged with that aspect of the game. This feature is a stroke of brilliance that punctuates routine play with a challenging diversion.

The settings are very well built out and allow tuning so many things to suit individual preferences for play. The editing mode is a great way to try more creative, ambitious bases or test out ideas for horde defense.

If you're going to play one of the many survival sims out there, 7 Days is in my opinion the strongest offering at present. It has also benefited from slow but steady dev support and significant updates/overhaul. Thumbs up review!