“Rats pour from the walls and floor”
Saying goodbye to VERMINTIDE
The Red Moon Inn has been a welcome stop throughout my time playing Vermintide. A charming, rustic hangout situated in the shipping town Ubersreik, it maintains a welcoming atmosphere thanks to the friendly demeanour of innkeeper Franz Lohner. It’s also one of the few safe havens in a town under siege by hordes of Skaven—a literal tide of vermin, if you will.
The inn is your hub between missions, giving you time to prepare; tinker with Vermintide’s awkward crafting system, or awkward upgrade system, or awkward bounty system. It’s a practice space, too. See those meats hanging from the bar? They’re physics objects, and, as elven archer Kerillian, I’d pierce every sausage and drumstick, watching them swing from their hooks.
My favorite touch is the design of each playable character’s room, which hints at the personality of its occupant. Kerillian’s room is sparse, the furniture upended and just a thin blanket on the floor. Sienna, the bright wizard’s room, is all parchment and scorch marks. Empire soldier Markus is crafting a diorama of his family’s farm. To each other, Vermitide’s characters are cold and adversarial. But these spaces give us an insight into their goals and desires.
Rats all, folks
Given all this, it’s a bit of a shock when a Skaven rat ogre digs its way from the basement and smashes the place. I’m playing Waylaid, a new mission added in a free update released a couple of weeks before the launch of Vermintide II. Set after the conclusion of the campaign—which ended with the hordes seemingly driven out of Ubersreik—the briefing begins with Franz claiming, “It’s all gone a bit quiet around here.”
But when the mission loads I’m not off in some new area of the city, but stood by the inn’s central table. I’m given a moment to register my confusion. Then the tide arrives. The rat ogre comes first, instantly subverting this haven into something claustrophobic and deadly. Then rats pour in.
This is truly the end times for the first Vermintide, and there could be no more appropriate a finale than the destruction of this haven. Wherever my character ends up in the sequel, I hope there’s more meat to pierce.