Playing a murderous ratman in this newly-announced Warhammer platformer is my penance for bisecting thousands of Skaven over the years

While I've carved through the ratman masses by the thousands in Vermintide, Total War, and other Warhammer-licensed games over the years, I've always been charmed by the Skaven. Maybe it's that their villainy—borne out of the cannibalistic pressures of the clanrat's innumerable gnawing peers and his proximity to radioactive hell-rocks—has a more material logic than that of Warhammer's other baddies. Maybe it's just because I like how they sometimes say words twice.

Whatever the reason, I've always welcomed the chance to walk a mile in whatever tattered material passes for footwear in the Under-Empire, and Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Deathmaster—an upcoming action platformer announced during today's Warhammer Skulls showcase—is offering a chance to lead a Skaven lifestyle in unprecedented fidelity, with all the skulking, stabbing, and general malevolence that entails.

In Deathmaster, we'll play as Vihneek, a would-be archkiller attempting to ascend the ranks of Clan Eshin—the most ninja-coded of the Skaven clans—through the requisite amount of assassination and treacherous brutality. Say what you will about Skaven society; it is, arguably, a profoundly meritocratic one.

"Set traps, exploit your surroundings and outwit enemies as you ruthlessly carve your fate through the darkest corners of the Skaven world," says publisher Dotemu in a press release. "Slink past threats undetected while devising cunning plans, savagely slaughtering any Skaven who foolishly stands in your way, from cowering dregs to towering rat ogors."

Developing Deathmaster is Old Skull Games, a studio that previously released the well-regarded 2D action roguelike Cryptical Path. And the last year has proven Dotemu's talent for throwing its weight behind promising action talent: Since July 2025, it's published Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, Absolum, and Marvel Cosmic Invasion—about all three of which we had fond things to say in our reviews.

Coincidentally, Old Skull Games also developed the 2020 iOS platformer SpongeBob Squarepants: Patty Pursuit. And what is SpongeBob—a chittering creature with prominent incisors who hails from a deep and unknowable realm below our own—if not a sort of Skaven?

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Deathmaster is set to release sometime in 2027. You can wishlist it on Steam now.

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