Warhammer: End Times Vermintide replaces zombies with rats of unusual size

In the world of Warhammer, the Skaven are a race of diseased rat-people that use swarming tactics to overrun their enemies. They boil up out of sewers and dungeons en masse digging into cereal boxes, eating garbage, and biting small pets. What better starting point for a first-person co-op horde game? Fatshark Games, developers of War of the Roses and Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West, are tackling the Left 4 Dead sub-genre and putting a dark fantasy spin on things. Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is based on the Games Workshop license and pits human players against a never-ending stream of ratty enemies.

The time of mortals is ending, and the reign of Chaos draws ever closer. The Dark Gods are at last united in a singular purpose, loosing their madness across the world as never before. In the Empire of Sigmar, Karl Franz’s gaze is focused on the incursion of the savage northmen, but it is not the only threat. As the Chaos moon Morrslieb waxes full, shrill voices echo through tunnels gnawed far beneath the Empire’s cities, and a Skaven host swarms towards the surface. It emerges first in the city of Ubersreik, a screeching mass that consumes all before it. Soon Ubersreik is a charnel-town, drowning beneath the malevolent shadow of the Horned Rat.

Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is coming for the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 later this year.