Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is Fatshark's sequel to its 2015 sleeper hit, set during the End Times, the apocalyptic final act of the Warhammer Fantasy timeline in which the world is quite literally scheduled for destruction. The five reluctant heroes of the first game, popularly known as the Ubersreik Five, escape captivity to find the Empire city of Helmgart besieged by an unprecedented alliance: the ratmen of Skaven Clan Fester have joined forces with the Rotbloods, a Chaos warband sworn to Nurgle, and the only thing standing between them and the province's ruin is a witch hunter, a waywatcher, a dwarf ranger, a bright wizard, and a soldier who all cordially despise one another.

Careers, hordes, and the melee that defined a genre

The sequel's headline addition is its career system, which splits each of the five heroes into three distinct subclasses with their own talents, weapons, and roles, turning a fixed cast into fifteen different ways to play. The moment-to-moment game remains Fatshark's signature: four players pushing through linear missions against shrieking hordes, with first-person melee combat (blocking, dodging, stamina, and headshots) doing the work that gunfire does in most co-op shooters. Escalating difficulty tiers, loot-driven progression, and special elite enemies that force coordination gave the game the long replayability tail that its predecessor had only sketched.

An unusually long life

Vermintide 2 sold over a million copies within weeks of its PC launch and then simply refused to fade, sustained by years of expansions and free updates including the Winds of Magic expansion, the roguelike Chaos Wastes mode, additional careers for each hero, and eventually a player-versus-player Versus mode. It codified the first-person horde-brawler formula that Fatshark would later carry into Warhammer 40,000 with Darktide, and it remains one of the most beloved ways to experience the doomed final days of the Old World.