Xathrodox86 reviews: "Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide Drachenfels"

Holiday time is almost upon us, so why not give someone you like a cool present? "Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide" is currently on a discount on Steam, along with all of its DLC's. But are they really worth the price?

I must admit - I love "Vermintide" to death. This is THE Warhammer game, that I've been waiting for ages to get my hands on. The atmosphere is perfect, the gameplay rocks and I love the characters. Oh and the music - it's simply great. Sure there are a couple of things that can irk your average player (I'm looking at you, loot drop system), but in the end they aren't that significant, when it comes to the overall quality of this title. In my opinion "Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide" is the only, good thing that came out of all that End Times nonsense. Given the overall quality of the send-off that Warhammer Fantasy did recieved, that's really saying something.

However there's the question of "Vermnintide's" DLC content. Is it on the same level as the base game? Is it better or worse? Let's take a look, shall we?

"Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide Drachenfels" (released May 26th 2016)

Lookin' spooky!

The first full DLC released for the game takes place in the legendary Drachenfels castle, the home of the Great Enchanter himself. Drachenfels supposedly walked the Old World, even before the time of Sigmar. He's probably best known to fans of Warhammer Fantasy from the series of books about Genevieve the vampire, written by Jack Yeovil. There was also an incredibly hard adventure for the 1st edition of WFRP, which took place in the Drachenfels' castle. Infamously known for its obscene level of difficulty, it none the less remains a classic position in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay repertoire. Now the vile Skaven took interest in his crib and made themselves comfortable inside. Are you a bad enough dude or dudette, to wreck their shit?

With a big name like Drachenfels, you might think that the DLC will be something truly stunning and memorable. Well... on the most part it's good, altough there are, shall we say, downsides to it. The DLC consists of 3 maps. The first one takes place in the castle itself and it is easily the best one of all. You can feel the evil of Drachenfels in the air, in the rocks themselves, everywhere. The atmosphere of the map is simply astounding and I loved every, single minute of playing it. Your party's task is to retrieve a magical chalice and get out of the castle in one piece. Of course the vile Ratmen won't let you accomplish your task without a fight, and the place itself seem to be fighting you as well. There are traps here and there, sometimes you can hear the Great Enchanter's roar from beyond the grave (or is it?) and the escape is tense and full of obstacles, as if the castle wants to make sure that you'll not escape its haunted halls and corridors. Splendid stuff.

Oh and there are pools of blood, which are endlessly refilled. Like, I know the old Drachy was supposed to be evil, but come one!

The second map also takes place inside the castle. Your team is, again, tasked with retrieving a couple of trinkets and make a run for it. This time however there's a catch - you'll have to traverse the castle's enchanted catacombs, which are drown in magical darkness. The only way to navigate it, is for one of the heroes to grab a mystical torch and light the way through the labyrinthine tunnels, while the other protect him from the Skaven and try not to get lost.

Are you having fun yet?

This map I liked the least of all, honestly. I think the magical torch is a cheap gimmick to take out one of the players from any fight and artificially make the game harder. Sure, you can drop the torch and defend yourself at any given time, but this is really incovenient and tiresome. I mean, I get what the creators wanted to do, but couldn't they just allowed for the flame bearer to use his OTHER arm to wield a weapon, assuming he didn't packed a two-handed piece? Why don't the Bright Wizard's flames, which are, you know, magical, light the darkness? Yeah, in the end, this one was a miss for me. Sure, it was tense and hard, but the difficulty felt artifical and that's bad. I probably won't be replaying that map too often.

Finally there's the final mission atop the Summoner's Peak, overlooking the Castle Drachenfels. This is a straightforward one: go up there and blow stuff, the stuff in question being a trio of portals, which the Skaven use to deploy reinforcements. That's it. In the end, this one was ok, but nothing spectacular. I mean, there's nothing here, which connects it in any way to Drachenfels. At least the other two missions took place in the castle itself and there were dialogue lines, which referenced famous events, which took place in the dreaded bastion of evil. Here we only see the place from a distance, and that's it. Don't get me wrong, it's an ok mission, but it dosen't have the vibe of the other two, even the poorly made second mission.

Sadly "Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide Drachenfels" dosen't include any new enemies. There are new weapons tough, a Glaive for the Waywatcher and a Volley Crossbow for the Witch Hunter. They're both interesting, altough the Glaive was considered broken for a long time, right until the latest patch. Now it's less killy, altough still one of the best weapon options for Kerillian. The other new features are the torch, which sucks, and traps, which are ok, altough right now they're not that dangerous. Also the Skaven seem not to trigger them, which is weird. I hope the guys at Fatshark will fix that issue in the near future.

Kudos to the developers for making the game's weapons look so awesome!

So here are my opinions on "Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide Drachenfels". Is it worth your money? Honestly, I'm not so sure. While the first quest is excellent, the other two are not so hot. The second mission is gimmicky for a gimmick's sake and the third dosen't really feel, like it should belong in a DLC about the Great Enchanter. The new weapons are nice, especially the Glaive, but the other, advertised features are nothing truly unique, especially the bloody torches. Oh, and they're not used anywhere, besides this DLC, which makes advertising them rather strange.

If you have some cash to spare and really, really like Drachenfels, for some odd reason (guy was a real asshole, you know), then by all means grab this DLC. Waiting for a Steam sale might also help, however I would not recommend it to anyone, with only a slight interest in the "Vermintide". It's simply not worth it, and you'll probably end up regretting the purchase, after completing the 3,very uneven missions.

Next time I'll review the latest "Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide" DLC, which takes place in a frozen Karak, swarming with Rats! Stay tuned for more content, which will be released at the end of this year. In the meantime, I wanted to wish you all happy Holidays. Take care people and have a good one.

Until next time! Ho ho ho!

Xathrodox86