Finally, I can be a gross little rat guy in Vermintide 2's 4v4 versus mode, which is out now

A gutter runner sneaks up on a pyromancer — (Image credit: Fatshark)

After years of development and beta-testing, Vermintide 2's long-awaited versus mode is finally here. In this mode two teams of up to four players take it in turns to play as the heroes or the villainous Pactsworn. When it's your turn to be the heroes you'll be completing objectives to rack up points, and when it's your turn to be the Pactsworn you'll want to slow down the heroes or kill them off, with your scores being compared once both teams have had a turn.

The five Pactsworn Specials you can choose between—the ratling gunner, gutter runner, warpfire thrower, packmaster, and poison wind globadier—play quite differently from the furless manthings you'll be used to controlling. They can't dodge for starters, though they can climb to get into ambush positions. You'll need to be careful when setting those up, because the Pactsworn Specials all make distinctive noises when moving, and are only silent when standing still.

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Versus mode plays out on reimagined versions of the base game's maps, familiar yet different. It also comes with a new progression system, with challenges you can complete in versus mode matches giving rewards you can show off in other modes as well.

For the next five weekends, Vermintide 2 will be host to a series of "versus spotlight" events to show off the new mode. The first one is devoted to highlighting Kerillian and the gutter runner, with a mini-season pass of rewards to unlock including in-game currency, portrait frames, skins, and weapon poses. You can earn those rewards even if you're not playing versus mode, though doing so will let you contribute to a kill counter by doing in those pesky heroes, unlocking a gutter runner skin for all players if it gets filled in time.

Vermintide developers Fatshark announced that another free addition is on the way as well, a three-map expansion called Verminous Dreams. The first map will be added on December 9, with the ones after that coming out early in 2025.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.