Warhammer: Vermintide 2 gets a big 'ol optimisation overhaul and squashes many bugs

I haven't slain nearly enough rats. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has been rotting away in my Steam library recently, but the weeks I spent rat-whacking with some chums a couple of months back were the most fun I've had in co-op in yonks. If you want some objective proof of that, look no further than our recently updated list of the best co-op games.

The update fun doesn't stop there: Vermintide 2 received its biggest patch yet yesterday, including "literally hundreds of changes to the game's levels" and "major optimizations to the game engine". Fatshark wrote that last quote in bold, so you know they mean business.

Let's get the awkward news out the way first: the download size is 20gb. There's more going on than just the optimisation overhaul, but the changes needed for "a noticeable increase in performance on all systems" make up the brunt of the download. Still, that should be good news for everyone except me, who got a new PC partly because the game did indeed turn into a bit of a slideshow whenever a horde showed up. I was looking forward to savouring the difference my new CPU would make, but I guess now I'll just have to savour the knowledge that everyone else gets to have a funner time for free. Hurray for you guys.

Fatshark expanded on the details about those level changes, which are more about dealing with bugs than level design. They've been made "in order to fix positions where players could get stuck, moving around patrol spawn points to make sure we reduce the chance of them spawning in your face, and improving points where enemies could target you through structures."

There are also plenty of changes to items, skills, friendly bot behaviour and not so friendly monster AI. Despite the number of tweaks, I was disappointed to find that none of the patch notes are that funny. Closest I've got is misreading a line as 'Increased the initial sulk time of Lifeleeches'. Turns out they now 'skulk' for longer, which isn't anywhere near as pleasing a mental image.

You can find the full patch notes here.