+ Weapons feel good to use
+ Great voice acting and writing (especially in means of lore and character interaction)
+ Gritty atmosphere and fairly interesting story (a pyromancer, a witch hunter, an empire soldier, an elf and a dwarf walked into an inn... and got stuck in there)
+ Graphics still hold up even after all these years
+ Maps are designed well and parkour isn't very common when compared to V2 (usually to get books)
+ Much better weapons and perks than V2 (Trueflight weapons and many weapon perks that aren't in V2)
+ "Spawn behind you" mechanic is much less bullcrap compared to V2. Enemies actually walk towards you after spawning if they happen to spawn behind you (they don't spawn 10 cm behind you like in V2 and instantly stab you in the back for half your HP)
+ A reasonable amount of "point of no return"s when compared to V2's absurd amounts of "you can't go back because terrain/wood pieces/broken ladder/collapsing crap"s (in short: level design is much less lazy in V1)

+/- DLC-locked content is not as egregious as Vermintide 2. There are no DLC-locked difficulty options or careers. However, there are still a handful of weapons locked behind DLC
+/- Not a whole lot of people to play with in the recent times BUT the people you will see at higher difficulties will be veterans (or clueless newbies trying to see what Cataclysm means)
+/- Many types of mods out there to either fix things, change things or cheat things in (if you prefer)
+/- Ultrahard challenge achievements less than 1% of the playerbase will ever earn unless they work for it. Who needs Okri's Challenges when you have actual achievements you can boast with?
+/- Red weapons reroll for free BUT they can only roll specific perk setups. This means that not all red weapons are the best by default. Orange weapons will perform as well as Red ones (and oftentimes better) if you reroll them a few times to get the right perks/percentages
+/- Difficulties are not level-locked (though you will need proper weapons/perks and trinkets to do well in Nightmare and above)
+/- Lore book with collectible pages randomly scattered around in missions
+/- "Rush Prevention" is a good idea but may punish the whole party if the progress made is "too fast" for the game's standards (this causes artificial lengthening of any given mission's time, which in turn is practically wasted time because the game is simply designed that way)
+/- Enemies have more range than they should because players used to outsmart the AI and become unreachable so the devs upped their range slightly to balance things out. What this causes in first person view is that it makes you feel like you are getting hit from way too far when it comes to melee attacks

- Understandably low player count (game was released back in 2015 for crying out loud)
- Bots can't perform certain key actions (they can't attack chains, carry sacks or carry barrels). This makes some quests almost unplayable (*cough* River Reik *cough*) with bots on higher difficulties unless you are already a pro
- No classes/careers/talents or passive race/character abilities like in V2, so all characters play similarly EXCEPT the weapon they wield or the trinkets they use (not a huge deal but considering the general lack of variety...)
- Loot system could have been better but honestly, it's not the worst I have ever seen so far
- Some animations of enemies can't be interrupted (like climbing or dropping down a ledge)
- You can't directly craft a specific weapon (some RNG is involved)
- Lack of content and general variety (DLC somewhat mitigates this)
- Repetitive and grindy to the core, just like how V2 is
- Enemies may have shorter animations when hitting above or below
- Level up rewards are so crap they are practically non-existent (repeats itself every 91 levels and does not give anything above uncommons, worthless even as scrap)
- You can't lock traits while rerolling a weapon to keep them while rolling (unless you use a mod)
- You can get duplicate trinkets (unless you use a mod)
- Game director still messes up once in a while and spawns things too close to the party (how the hell did they not fix the issue of enemies/patrols/bosses spawning on top of you or very close to you in two whole installments?!)
- DLC skins are simple palette swaps (just skip those DLC without any worries)


The more I play End Times, the less I miss V2.

I picked the game up with the DLC when it was really cheap (90% off for the game, DLC was 50% off). It was well worth it and I regret paying full price for V2 (and buying 2 DLCs later on at their release) a bunch of time ago. I realized how crappy the overall experience and feeling was in V2 after playing End Times. I guess I'm never returning to V2. Not that I had any reasons to do so anyway.

I once had a section of the floor not render in Wizard's Tower and fell into the void (and died). I was a little salty but hey, we had a good laugh. Another similar thing is a bot character dying and dropping a tome through the floor so it's lost forever. Not game-breakingly bad but still pretty frustrating.

Screw V2's loot system, by the way. The two points that people keep parroting is that "system better because get more stuff" and that you can "get items for your specific character". In V1 where the average character has 4 different weapons, crafting a random one will yield you what you want quite early. Both games have crap loot systems.

I wish we could optionally choose a lesser reward after rolling the dice. It would still have randomness but give the player more control. That's one solid way to improve their hated system.

[h3]End Times, as a whole, is a much better experience than Vermintide 2 despite its many shortcomings and many odd design choices. Recommended with all non-cosmetic DLC. Even after all this time and many lacking aspects, I'd still give it a solid 7.5/10[/h3] [code] + is positives +/- is informational or neutral - is negatives [/code] + Weapons feel good to use + Great voice acting and writing (especially in means of lore and character interaction) + Gritty atmosphere and fairly interesting story (a pyromancer, a witch hunter, an empire soldier, an elf and a dwarf walked into an inn... and got stuck in there) + Graphics still hold up even after all these years + Maps are designed well and parkour isn't very common when compared to V2 (usually to get books) + Much better weapons and perks than V2 (Trueflight weapons and many weapon perks that aren't in V2) + "Spawn behind you" mechanic is much less bullcrap compared to V2. Enemies actually walk towards you after spawning if they happen to spawn behind you (they don't spawn 10 cm behind you like in V2 and instantly stab you in the back for half your HP) + A reasonable amount of "point of no return"s when compared to V2's absurd amounts of "you can't go back because terrain/wood pieces/broken ladder/collapsing crap"s (in short: level design is much less lazy in V1) +/- DLC-locked content is not as egregious as Vermintide 2. There are no DLC-locked difficulty options or careers. However, there are still a handful of weapons locked behind DLC +/- Not a whole lot of people to play with in the recent times BUT the people you will see at higher difficulties will be veterans (or clueless newbies trying to see what Cataclysm means) +/- Many types of mods out there to either fix things, change things or [i]cheat things in[/i] (if you prefer) +/- Ultrahard challenge achievements less than 1% of the playerbase will ever earn unless they work for it. Who needs Okri's Challenges when you have actual achievements you can boast with? +/- Red weapons reroll for free BUT they can only roll specific perk setups. This means that not all red weapons are the best by default. Orange weapons will perform as well as Red ones (and oftentimes better) if you reroll them a few times to get the right perks/percentages +/- Difficulties are not level-locked (though you will need proper weapons/perks and trinkets to do well in Nightmare and above) +/- Lore book with collectible pages randomly scattered around in missions +/- "Rush Prevention" is a good idea but may punish the whole party if the progress made is "too fast" for the game's standards (this causes artificial lengthening of any given mission's time, which in turn is practically wasted time because the game is simply designed that way) +/- Enemies have more range than they should because players used to outsmart the AI and become unreachable so the devs upped their range slightly to balance things out. What this causes in first person view is that it makes you feel like you are getting hit from way too far when it comes to melee attacks - Understandably low player count (game was released back in 2015 for crying out loud) - Bots can't perform certain key actions (they can't attack chains, carry sacks or carry barrels). This makes some quests almost unplayable ([i]*cough* River Reik *cough*[/i]) with bots on higher difficulties unless you are already a pro - No classes/careers/talents or passive race/character abilities like in V2, so all characters play similarly EXCEPT the weapon they wield or the trinkets they use (not a huge deal but considering the general lack of variety...) - Loot system could have been better but honestly, it's not the worst I have ever seen so far - Some animations of enemies can't be interrupted (like climbing or dropping down a ledge) - You can't directly craft a specific weapon (some RNG is involved) - Lack of content and general variety (DLC somewhat mitigates this) - Repetitive and grindy to the core, just like how V2 is - Enemies may have shorter animations when hitting above or below - Level up rewards are so crap they are practically non-existent (repeats itself every 91 levels and does not give anything above uncommons, worthless even as scrap) - You can't lock traits while rerolling a weapon to keep them while rolling (unless you use a mod) - You can get duplicate trinkets (unless you use a mod) - Game director still messes up once in a while and spawns things too close to the party (how the hell did they not fix the issue of enemies/patrols/bosses spawning on top of you or very close to you in two whole installments?!) - DLC skins are simple palette swaps (just skip those DLC without any worries) [h2]Other notes[/h2] The more I play End Times, the less I miss V2. I picked the game up with the DLC when it was really cheap (90% off for the game, DLC was 50% off). It was well worth it and I regret paying full price for V2 (and buying 2 DLCs later on at their release) a bunch of time ago. I realized how crappy the overall experience and feeling was in V2 after playing End Times. I guess I'm never returning to V2. Not that I had any reasons to do so anyway. I once had a section of the floor not render in Wizard's Tower and fell into the void (and died). I was a little salty but hey, we had a good laugh. Another similar thing is a bot character dying and dropping a tome [b]through[/b] the floor so it's lost forever. Not game-breakingly bad but still pretty frustrating. Screw V2's loot system, by the way. The two points that people keep parroting is that "system better because get more stuff" and that you can "get items for your specific character". In V1 where the average character has 4 different weapons, crafting a random one will yield you what you want quite early. Both games have crap loot systems. I wish we could optionally choose a [i]lesser[/i] reward after rolling the dice. It would still have randomness but give the player more control. That's one solid way to improve their hated system.