4 years after it was announced, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is finally making its versus mode a reality with a closed alpha: 'We put it on the shelf to marinate for a bit'

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is getting a versus mode, as announced four years ago at our very own PC Gaming show, no less. Except it's for real this time. A steam post by Fatshark outlines their mission statements for the mode's closed beta test on Steam. 

«This isn’t the first time we’ve announced Versus; and our first reveal happened way back in 2019. We had run some small external tests with a select group of players during that time and weren’t completely happy with how things were running, so we put it on the shelf to marinate for a bit.» I mean this in the kindest way possible: four years is not 'a bit', it's a university degree with change. But, hey—better late than never.

It looks like it'll work a lot like Left 4 Dead's versus mode: «The gameplay is based off of our adventure mode maps, but split into multiple sections. Heroes progress through a map section, completing objectives as they go. For each objective they get a certain amount of points. The Pactsworn goal is to stop the Heroes from getting points by killing or disabling them.» Once a section's done, everybody switches sides.

It'll be interesting to see how Fatshark handles the issue of balancing the damn thing. While Left 4 Dead has zero progression, Fatshark's take on the horde shooter involves a bunch of RPG mechanics. Talents, hero classes, and so on. It's part of the charm—when I played Vermintide, I turned Kerillian into a boss-slaying assassin who could shuck off huge chunks of HP with a couple of backstabs. For PvP, though? A design nightmare.

These tests were actually confirmed in a developer stream in December last year, where the game's product owner noted Fatshark had run a small playtest already—though considering the last playtests happened four years ago, you couldn't be blamed for taking that with a pinch of salt. An honest-to-Under-Father closed alpha test, though? It's finally happening, everybody stay calm.

«We’re aiming to take a co-creation approach with our players by opening up a