Warhammer: Vermintide 2 celebrates 5 years with a free weekend and special anniversary level

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (opens in new tab) is five years old, and that means it’s free to play over the weekend. The big birthday celebration also sees the return of A Quiet Drink, a special event level in which players brawl with a horde of Ratmen and Chaos Warriors while trying to find someplace to get a drink.

We liked Vermintide 2 an awful lot when it came out in 2018, declaring in our 80% review (opens in new tab) that its bad matchmaking and RPG progression were more than made up for by “feverishly fun” combat and level design. Since then it’s gotten a steady stream of updates, both free and paid, including the great roguelike-inspired Chaos Wastes mode (opens in new tab). Vermintide 2 was a major hit for Fatshark, and remains popular to this day: In fact, its peak concurrent player count (opens in new tab) over the past couple of months hasn’t been far off that of Fatshark’s most recent release, the troubled Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (opens in new tab), which just launched in November 2022. Work on that game continues, but Fatshark apparently also has plans to continue with Vermintide 2.