Vermintide 2 adds a new map and starts selling hats for money
They hope to fund more DLC through hats
Roll up, roll up, Vermintide 2 has a spooky castle and more hats. The castle is a free remade version of the Drachenfels level from the first game. This is just the opening salvo of Season 2, and two more levels will be coming for free later down the line. You can earn some of the new hats through playing, and buy separate ones with real-world money. Developers Fatshark are hoping to finance the free stuff through the paid cosmetic stuff, which is great. Yes. Do that.
There's also been a whopping balance update, and the game's 75% off at the mo, too.
Here's that castle, which first appeared in the Drachenfels DLC for the first game.
The hats cost between £2 and £4, and you can buy them as mini chunks of Steam DLC. They are mostly flaming skulls and the like. One of them is a pig that looks miffed.
Fatshark say they "want to try to release content that involves gameplay for free while charging for a few premium cosmetics instead. By adding a few select cosmetics that you can purchase for real money you can support the studio and we can create more free content updates, such as the Curse of Drachenfels levels."
I am very happy with games that fund actual game bits this way, while stepping around the sordid pit of loot boxes. It means I get stuff I care about for free, other people get stuff they care about for money, and I get to ogle their trilbies as a bonus. It amazes me how many videogame people are willing to pay to dress up for me but I'm not complaining.
There's also a new in-game cosmetics shop where you spend "shillings" earned through completing daily and weekly quests, and if you own Winds Of Magic expansion or either of the existing map packs, Fatshark have given you a a bag of shillings as a pressie.
If you own Winds Of Magic, you'll also see Weaves have been given a wee rework. They're a separate game mode that take chunks from existing levels and mix them up with new objectives, and you can now jump into a quick-play queue that puts you into a "reshuffled" weave at your choice of difficulty. You also get more essence as a reward, and can play with bots.
Head over to the update page to see the massive list of balance changes. One big tweak is that Battlemages get to spend less of the game on fire.
The base game is currently only £6/$7/€7 on Steam, while its expansion and two map packs are 33% off. Winds Of Magic is £10/$13/€11, while Shadows Over Bogenhafen and Back To Ubersreik are £5/$7/€5. The sale ends on the 27th of January.