Warhammer - End Times: Vermintide Adding VR Level
By Cody Gravelle 25 November 2016
Fatshark, the developer of Warhammer – End Times: Vermintide, announces it’s working on a VR level for the game that it intends to give away to fans for free.
Warhammer – End Times: Vermintide is a first-person shooter title that takes place in the storied Warhammer universe, a setting that has spawned a number of games that have ranged from ostensibly bad to nuanced and enthralling. Oddly enough, crossover games have been where Warhammer has found the most success, with titles like Total War: Warhammer receiving high praise – but Warhammer – End Times: Vermintide managed to buck that trend, even inspiring comparisons to Left 4 Dead in the way it approaches fun multiplayer co-op.
It should be no surprise, then, that developer Fatshark has committed to supporting Vermintide beyond its initial release with a stream of DLC. In fact, as a thank you to the gamers who have supported Vermintide thus far, Fatshark announced during a livestream on Twitch that it would be developing and releasing a VR level of the game for free on PC later this year.
Fatshark described the upcoming VR level in detail during the stream, stating that the level starts off in a tavern, eventually leading the player towards Castle Drachenfels where all hell will break loose and the first-person action will truly get underway. Fatshark stated that a bow and a staff were used to combat the many enemies the player would encounter during this level, and it remains unclear if those will be the only options available to players once the VR level actually releases.
Although not much is known about Vermintide‘s VR level currently, there’s been a lot of discussion based around virtual reality technology itself lately after the successful release of the PlayStation VR. Interestingly enough, though Warhammer – End Times: Vermintide is available for PS4 as well, Fatshark has chosen to offer the VR level exclusively for the HTC Vive on PC, ignoring trends that suggest many PC gamers aren’t willing to adopt VR technology if it means upgrading their PC to do so.
That being said, however, Fatshark’s decision to release the Vermintide DLC for free on PC appears to be an informed one in the sense that the biggest complaint regarding VR technology is that it’s just too expensive. It might be painful at first, but developers offering free VR DLC for titles that gamers already own could be incentive to get players to purchase VR eventually – it’s easier to reconcile the initial investment in VR if gamers don’t need to purchase a library of games to begin using the technology as well.
Warhammer – End Times: Vermintide is available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and will be releasing a VR-supported DLC level exclusively for PC before the end of 2016.
Source: Twitch (via VG 24/7)
