Once in a while there is a game that comes out of nowhere and is a huge hit. Vampire Survivors is one of those games. After releasing on PC earlier late last year to wide (but contained) praise, Vampire Survivors was released on Game Pass this week. Game Pass has brought a new much larger audience to the game, and now it has absolutely taken off. This is one way that Game Pass shines, it provides a massive player base for smaller games to be discovered.
Vampire Survivors is a simple pixel art game at first glance, but the deep set of unlockable weapons, characters and buffs make this rogue lite an incredibly detailed experience that the player can sink endless hours into.
The game is the perfect recipe needed for a viral hit. It can be played with one finger controlling the players movement, so it is easy to do while multitasking. It has a rewarding musical system that makes the game feel almost like a poker machine, including flashing lights and tunes when the player does well. Slot machine-like treasure chests that can be collected by beating elite enemies, and whacky powers and weapons that cover the screen in dancing colours. Addictive is an understatement. This game has absolutely taken over my life for the last week. It is playable on your mobile phone with touch controls through Game Pass game streaming, so I have been playing it in every second of spare time I have.
Vampire Survivors is far from a graphical wonderland, it’s extremely basic pixel art graphics may turn off players before they give it a chance, but if a player does so, they won’t regret it. The player starts out by choosing one of the survivors, each of whom have a different starting weapon and buff that stays with them and increases depending on player level. They are then dropped into one of the five main stages, Mad Forest, Inlaid Library, Dairy Plant, Gallo Tower, or Capello Manga. Monsters of various shapes and sizes begin to march towards the player at increasing speed and number until the player either lasts the 30-minute timer or dies, the latter of which will happen more often than not when the player is just starting out. The game is very difficult to start but becomes much easier the more time the player gives it.
With each achievement, the player will also unlock in game items, power ups, and weapons that can be used on subsequent runs. New survivors are also unlocked this way, while some can be unlocked by saving them in each level.
Weapons can be levelled up by collecting gems and evolved by pairing them with their matching power up. These matches are not known to the player but will be noted in the Grimoire once they player achieves them for the first time. Once the player grows to understand the game and the evolution matches, they can plan from the start of their run and end up with the maximum six evolved weapons, giving them the best chance of completing their run.
Vampire survivors is an awesome game for the whole family. It is extremely addictive however so parents may want to take note of this when deciding if they want to expose their children to the fun.
Sam Russell – View Profile – View more by this writer