Vampire Survivors (2022)

I was surprised how much I really enjoyed this game after skipping it during it's initial craze but it really is a fun, easy to play experience.

It does a miraculous job at walking the fine line between power fantasy and being challenging and it feels good to unlock new content.

And there is so much content, the developer clearly cares deeply about this game. In fact, sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming just how much there is.

Also, it's probably good that they keep adding achievements but as someone who likes having games in my Perfect Games list on Steam its annoying lol. Feels like I'm constantly having to check up on Vampire Survivors and make sure I'm on top of things. But that's a me problem

4 / 5 Stars

Oversimplified opinion: Great mindlessness, podcast game / play while wife watches The Bachelor

Sub-genre: Idle game, goth babe, bullet hell

Favorite part: Getting some game breaking builds and crush

Rating: 2/5

Review: A thriller at first but then I quickly realized this just felt like punching a clock, even on the hyper modes. Would for sure play more of while like on an airplane or in a space where I just need to kill time.

However, I try to be more intentional about the time I have with video games these days and try to be more present while enjoying - this game sort of took me out of that and made me feel a bit empty in my time.

That being said, love the style and the incredible depth there is to all the players / upgrades / discoverability. It's easy to see you could sink 100s of hours in, but for me the rewards are less so. It's the difference between Slay The Spire and Cookie Clicker.

It may not be my absolute favourite game to have come out this year, but it’s certainly the most surprising one. I went into Vampire Survivors very, very skeptically. I knew about the overwhelming praise (in fact it was the only reason I tried it), but I honestly thought it couldn’t be as good as people were saying - it just didn’t look it. Boy, was I wrong. I didn’t even want to stop playing, however briefly, to write down some quick notes for this review, which was a new feeling for me. That is how relentlessly addictive VS is.

This game is like a theme park neurochemical ride. It’s a dopamine shot to your brain and an adrenaline rush through your body, all at once. It is astounding how something so simple can make you feel so strongly engaged. It is also quite original amidst its incredibly basic structure: all your abilities are passive, and the only thing you control mechanically is your movement. There are so many characters, so many abilities, so many different ways to play and level up, but this is all done with such simplicity and streamlining that you effortlessly become a hostage of what VS gives you, trying in vain to stop playing only to fall prey to the alluring ‘just one more run’ mantra. It is perfectly balanced and superbly designed, it features impressively functional and aesthetically cool and varied maps, it allows for a ton of builds that are immensely fun to experiment with, and it comes with an awesome, very Symphony of the Night-inspired soundtrack. In fact, the whole game draws heavily from the 2D Castlevania era in environments, sound and abilities, further enhancing the experience for anyone familiar with - and nostalgic for - that period the franchise.

Vampire Survivors lacks clarity on how to progress through some levels or get some unlockables (I honestly wouldn’t have been able to figure some stuff out without looking it up), but this is a minor nitpick for what you're getting. Plays this game, seriously. Even if you think it's not your thing. Ignore the visuals if that's what’s putting you off. Give it about an hour before deciding. If you don't like it, all you need to do is walk away. If you like it though… well you might want to kiss your backlog goodbye for a little while. 8.5/10

Okay I'm gonna go straight ahead and say that this is one of my favourite games of all time. I am already checking out the other copy cats in the bulletheaven roguelite wave that this one has spawned but VS probably will stay my favourite.

Fisr time beating the grim reaper that comes to get you when your time is over felt like jail breaking an arcade machine and unlocking a hidden secret by bug abusing, something you would make up as a kid to tell your school friends about. Amazing!

One of the outstanding points is the beauty of simplicity in this game. I once said about Candy Crush that even indie developers should learn sth. from the fact of its succes. VS is a good example of how they (uncounsciously) did.

Creating a gameplay circle that releases dopamine and is that addictive might seem easy but to keep it a little difficult and thus engaging at the same time is not. If you want to create a good roguelike, it's necessary. I mean, compare VS to Nuclear Throne, Enter the Gungeon and others. Having the roguelike mechanic is only and exceptionally only justifiable if your core gameplay loop is so satisfying that erazing game progression after 15 min is no issue. VS is one of the very few examples where this is the case.

I was first irritated by the fact that I cannot actively use my skills and rather just passively move around. The fact that you evading the 'bullet hell' by merely moving with WASD and literally doing nothing else and letting your passive upgrades do all the work is resulting in a perfectly simple and beautiful gameplay loop.

VS seems almost too simple at first, as I mentioned, almost like Candy Crush. But it's not like that. The simplicity just makes up its beauty.

The feeling of progression within a run is amazing, it's way too often too slow in other roguelikes but here it's just enough to always keep you going.

The release of new content via rogue_lite_ mechanics is perfectly balanced as well. There are so many characters and upgrades to expore, VS offers good content for at least 20 hours!

I first did not like the pixel graphic, it seemed too standard to me at first glance. Actually, even here, the simplicity makes it stand out. VS visually straight up seems like a 90s game, and the midi music adds up to that.

The playable character Arca just looks like the 2D-Castlevania character and also plenty of other graphic assets like the roasted chicken or holy bible made me think that this might also cause a copyright issue with Konami.

The nostalgia kick by these graphics really caught me and eventually I felt like I am playing some sort of mash up of Symphony of the Night and Diablo 1. Holy fucking shit, how amazing that sounds if you actually spell it out.

The feeling of progression is perfectly smoothed out, the retro aesthetic hooked me right away, I immediately fell for this game. Five stars. Thank you.

I saw this game on a few people's streams and thought it looked bad. Looks do not matter in this case. This game is addictive. I started playing last night and thought I would put in an hour before bed. 4 hours later I had to force myself to turn it off.

The mechanics are simple, but there is some strategy to it. Knowing what weapons and armor to pick at each level, looking for holes in hordes to dip out of and escape, even just trying each character to figure out their strengths and weaknesses will have you firing up another round and the next thing you know the sun will be coming up.

Once I really got into it the graphics just felt nostalgic. I will be dumping a lot more time into this game for sure. It is a highly enjoyable game and that, in the end is what matters.

Vampire Survivors does absolutely everything it can to extract every last drop of dopamine from your system. Numbers constantly go up. There's a nonstop bloop-bloop-ka-ching of item pickups. Super-shiny looooooot boxes....

It's fun for awhile. But, minus a particularly addictive personality, after a few hours you realize you've seen everything the game has to offer.

Also, Duplicator Dagger Dude with fully evolved daggers & bibles: that guy totally breaks the game and makes it a cakewalk.

I caught myself dreaming of experience gems rapidly being pulled towards me as I bopped about in pleasing patterns.

Lately I've mostly been playing visual novels and RPGs, so it's been super fun playing this $2.99(!) bullet hell. Don't let bullet hell fool you though, just about anyone can pick this up. Super easy controls, fun vibes, and surprisingly good music round out a great experience. Plus, there's more to come! So exciting. Even if you only play a few rounds, you'll likely have a nice time Vampire Surviving. Vampire Survivoring?? Haha, w/e. Try it out!