You can finally try your hand at L4D-style asymmetric PVP with rats.
Vermintide 2's Versus mode was first announced in 2019, after which developers Fatshark went dark on it. After four years of the usual suspects harvesting upvotes by whining about the absence of Versus mode and how they'd been lied to, it was finally confirmed as still being in the works last year, with the announcement of a closed alpha test. That closed alpha is now complete, and has been followed by an open alpha anyone can join directly from the Vermintide 2 main menu.
In a developer blog about the results of the closed alpha, design director Joakim Setterberg discussed some of the things Fatshark took away from the test. For starters, it went well. As Setterberg said, "we got a ton of good feedback, the servers were fairly stable and we did not see any overly alarming crashes or issues preventing play."
Just over 3,600 players got to try the mode, playing PvP across the Screaming Bell map, "with 7% ending in draws, and with matches concluding in general within 20-30 minutes". Apparently the Heroes outperformed the Pactsworn—not too surprising since players are already used to playing them—and so that's where a lot of rebalancing will come in. Players may already be seeing the results of that in the current alpha, where those dastardly hookrats are doing quite well for themselves.
The current map being tested is Righteous Stand, which players fight across over the course of several rounds. Up to four players can participate on each side, alternately playing as Heroes and Pactsworn specials in each round. A scoreboard at the end of the match lets you know which team is the overall winner.
This round of testing will run until March 18. If you're not interested in PVP, a six-year anniversary event is running at the same time, giving double XP and re-enabling the pub crawl map called A Quiet Drink. You'll find it under the Weekly Event tab in matchmaking. Complete the map during this event, and you'll earn a new anniversary portrait frame for your avatar.
