PC Gamer UK issue from January had a cover article on Vermintide II. Although It has been out for awhile, I never seen the reveals in it discussed here, so I decided to try to give a layout on the newish information it contains.
There is some info specific on the story of the upcoming game, but for the sake of Spoilers, I will set that info apart from the rest. Also, not all the information is new anymore.
Enemies stuff:
- More death animations and dismemberment.
- Both enemy factions have more variations in their factions, possibly meaning that the grunts variations that Chaos has(one handed, two one handed, shielded and two handed) is also present in the Skaven army.
- The AI director populates the levels in Chunks, meaning that once you reach specific areas in levels, you will mostly encounter enemies from the same factions.
- Certain levels will tend to have more enemies from a certain factions if, for example, if the levels takes place in a Skaven Lair, it will have mostly Skaven present.
- The AI director is free to remix each levels, resulting in different enemy compositions in the same level.
- Because of the big increase in specials enemies, it is possible that you won't encounter every special in one or two levels. "You can probably play eight or nine levels and something new pops up" (CEO Martin Wahlund)
Heroes stuff
- loot chest at the end of the level. A possible replacement of Ranald's bones.
- Overhaul to the loot system. weapons will have traits, but will also have new benefits.
- Weapons will change your stats: give you more health or make you better at blocking and dodging.
- Toughest challenges will yield more cosmetic items like skins for your heroes.
- Victor new career, the Zealot, will have the flail as main weapon and will have access to Mad Prayers.
- Witch hunter career is melee focused with the Rapier, but he will have use of his pistols.
- The Bounty Hunter career will be ranged focused with hammers and repeater pistols as weapons of choice.
- Careers are flexible, you are free to switch and reapply talents points in the skill trees.
- The career and talent systems won't be the end-all, skill is still the most important part of the game.
New contracts:
- Contracts as special loot drops.
- These are quirky one-off challenges that come with cool rewards. to keep the game fresh for regular players.
- This system gives the developers a lot of freedom in making unique experiences in the game, mainly because it is a one-off thing.
- Example given is a level you have to clear solo for a cool cosmetic reward.
- In theory this system allows them to make a Gone Home-type of experience, where the level has no enemies and you walk around picking up objects.
- "you do this and you are done, and you get a hat."
Mods:
- Fatshark plans to use Steam Workshop.
- Separating modded games from standard ones, for the sake of the loot system.
- Fatshark plans to choose the best community mods and incorporate them into the main game. examples are UI changes and game modes.
Story and SPOILERS:
- Main game will consist of 13 levels divided among three arcs.
- Each arc will have its own boss. I guess the final level of a arc is the boss fight level and the preceding levels focuses on the party following the trails of these bosses.
- The names bosses are: a Chaos sorcerer Halescourge (namedropped in the DotR DLC), Skarrik Spinemanglr, a Skaven Chieftain and Chaos Champion Bödvarr Ribspreader. (and Bödvarr seems to be a Swedish pun, but my Swedish is nonexistent.)
