VAMPIRE SURVIVORS REVIEW(Nov-2022)!

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VAMPIRE SURVIVORS REVIEW
VAMPIRE SURVIVORS REVIEW

Vampire Survivors could be dismissed purely on its looks. It’s reminiscent of something you might have played in your early 90s on your Mega Drive/Genesis, or SNES, but Poncle Games’ Gothic Roguelike may seem unremarkable from a visual perspective. They aren’t all that hidden but they have addictive depths. It will all make sense in a matter of minutes. You’ll soon lose hours and hours of life. You should be able to see some warning.

Vampire Survivors is all about throwing everything at you. You have to deal with the deluge monsters that are coming towards you. The mechanics of VS aren’t that difficult. You don’t need to press any buttons. Instead, you will carefully massage your left thumbstick to protect yourself from the nightmarish creatures that inexorably draw you to them like a magnet. Vampire Survivors is a beautiful game. Pure, primitive gameplay in its purest form.

Vampire Survivors will be familiar to anyone who has played Geometry Wars. Avoidance is the key to this game. As you gain more weaponry, magic, and other tools, you can defeat thousands upon thousands of pixelated creatures. Although the concept is simple, the gradual progression of each level makes it addictive. The game also offers endless replayability, as you unlock and experiment with new characters and weaponry.

You start with very few characters. Each character has their own stats and ability. Once you have enough gold you can unlock the characters you’ve created through gameplay or buy permanent buffs to make it easier to continue your journey. As you progress with different character builds, it becomes more enjoyable. That is the hook, that delightful gameplay loop. You can collect gems from enemies that are defeated to feed into a levelling gauge.

Each level you gain will give you a variety of abilities or upgrades. Your survival rate increases as enemies multiply rapidly. You’ll eventually find the best build for you. However, it is difficult to imagine a build that doesn’t include King Bibles and garlic. You can use magic wands to fire at your enemies, throwable phials with holy water, throwing knives, boomerang-like crosses, throwing knives, throwing knives, and throwing phials of magic water to create an unstoppable force. There’s also a lot of other weapons and abilities that make you a formidable force to be reckoned. It’s amazing to watch the destruction unfold around you.

Vampire Survivors only uses the left analogue stick to move your character. Your weapons and skills automatically activate on a cooldown, which can be increased to perform more attacks. This is where things go really crazy. The little crumply sound you hear as each bat, mummy and werewolf, merman or skeleton are killed is similar to popping bubble wrap. This is Pavlovian stuff that’s designed to stimulate the pleasure glands. You’ll be able to take down an enemy and earn a little treasure box that contains gold and a bonus upgradable – another sweet bit of loveliness that will make you feel like you have the jackpot at a fruit machine.

You might find some secrets by exploring the map. These elements are what fuel a desire for Vampire Survivors to return again and again. It’s hard not to wonder what weapons you might have, how you can combine certain items or what possible builds you could create. I was elated to have done one run on Vampire Survivors’ ‘Inlaid Library’ stage. My character stood in their impassible green garlic glow and King Bibles spun around the protective sphere. A little white ‘peachone bird’ floated around zapping enemies around the perimeter. It’s hard to find anything like it.

Vampire Survivors is not like a book whose cover you don’t read. It has much more to offer than the pixel art visuals that I have grown to love. This Roguelike RPG is designed for fun and provides instant gratification without any barriers to entry. You can fire it up and you will soon be enjoying the wanton slaughter of monsters, the chaos around you in a wonderfully joyful, but completely absurd fashion. Vampire Survivors can take over your life if you allow them to. At the moment, there isn’t anything I’d rather eat.

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