[Update]: Vermintide 2's A Parting of the Waves update is adding a brand new map and shield-bearing enemy.

Back in 2019, Fatshark announced that they're working on a PvP-focused Versus mode for Vermintide 2. Unfortunately, the new game mode ran into some sort of trouble during development as Fatshark quickly stopped talking about it, and eventually seemed to have given up on the idea entirely.

As such, you can imagine my surprise when I decided to fire up Vermintide 2 and was struck with the announcement that Versus is now back! More specifically, it's currently in alpha testing so it'll likely be a while before it's officially out, but the important thing is that it's now once again in active development!

The way it works is quite simple and should be instantly familiar to Left 4 Dead veterans. One team will play as the heroes and will attempt to beat a map section as efficiently and quickly as possible, while the other will control various Skaven specials in order to disrupt them. Then once the section is done or the heroes fully downed, the teams will switch sides and so it goes.

It's a very simple premise, but as Left 4 Dead has shown many years ago, it's one that can offer a great deal of entertainment - especially if you can get a full group of friends to play with! Just whatever you do, don't take it too seriously as these types of game modes are rarely going to be perfectly balanced given that the game was and still is centered around the good guys.

Once we get an actual release date for the Versus mode I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, you can read a little bit more about it, as well as potentially sign up for any of the alpha tests, over at Steam. Enjoy!