Vampire Survivors, often copied and never beaten, proves that excellent gameplay and affordable pricing will win out over poor gameplay and excellent visuals any day of the week if the developer is passionate enough to put in the work and humble enough to respond to user feedback in a timely and thoughtful manner.
Singleplayer.
Vampire Survivors is one of just a few popular games that uses almost exclusively store-bought asset packs instead of custom sprites. Despite asset flips often being frowned upon by gamers of all ages, Vampire Survivors’ excellent gameplay, rewarding progression system, and silly smooth controls make it one of the best, if not the very best, titles to use store-bought assets ever made.
Would custom assets be nice? Sure, but a game like Vampire Survivors doesn’t need them, as gameplay is what makes it so good, and the fact that the sprites are of such high quality anyway negates the need for the developer to spend time or money on custom sprites when asset pack sprites do the job, and for the most part look great.
Vampire Survivors is incredibly cheap at just $4.99 for the base game, costing around $2 -$3, a fantastic price considering the base game is massive, and each DLC offers multiple new characters, weapons and a new map to enjoy.
In addition, Vampire Survivors is on Xbox and PC game pass and is a favourite of Xbox legend and CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, with the world-famous gamer CEO logging over 220 hours on the game in the weeks following its release on Xbox Game Pass.
Vampire Survivors’ approach to progression is pretty much exactly what this type of game needs, with players being able to unlock new items, characters and weapons via a variety of methods and, most importantly, at a great pace, ensuring that players get a constant dose of dopamine while playing.
Due to the massive number of unlockable characters, maps, modes, weapons, items and playable builds, players will be able to experience Vampire Survivors’ rewarding and challenging content for well over 150 hours, making it one of the most affordable forms of entertainment other than staring at the sunset with a loved one or eating potato chips in your pyjamas.
While horror lore is fictional, some aspects of lore have remained constant since the start of the genre, and chiefly among them is the power of holy relics vs evil creatures; however, Vampire Survivors curiously has changed this up somewhat by placing unholy evolutions on otherwise neutral or holy items, which honestly not only feels like an attempt to be edgy for the same of attention but is likely to offend Christians and fans of the horror genre, by essentially trodding over established lore.
A prominent example of this is the evolution skill of the King (James?) Bible, which upon meeting certain criteria becomes an item called Unholy vespers, which not only makes little sense lore-wise but is potentially offensive to Christians worldwide, by taking one of the most important aspects of their faith (the bible) and turning it into a weapon of evil.
I am a Christian, and while I find it tasteless, I also find it rather bizarre, as an item of evil would be little use in fighting evil based on established horror lore (and, to an extent, the real world) with Jesus saying this in Saint Matthews account of the gospel.
In short, it is edgy and potentially offensive but unlikely to cause anyone to fall into sin; that being said, if you feel that you have a weakness towards the occult and dark fantasy, It may be worth creating a build that leaves the bible in its original (holy) form, something while I personally often do.
Despite PlayStation 5 being one of the most popular 9th generation consoles, Vampire Survivors has yet to make an appearance on either the PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5, despite launching onto Xbox (2022) and Nintendo Switch (2023), with the developer stating they could only work on one port at a time, indicating that we may see Vampire Survivors arrive on PlayStation in 2024/2025, something which is sure to delight fans of the title who wish to play it on their favourite platform.
Vampire Survivors offers a local co-op mode on PC and console, meaning players must physically be in the same location. However, those playing VIa PC can take advantage of Steam’s “Remote Play” feature to play cooperatively with friends anywhere in the world.
Despite the title of the game and cover art featuring a vampire, there are no vampires in the game despite many other horror tropes being present.
Finding and opening a Dracula-like coffin will only reward players with a message saying the vampire is in another coffin, a clever easter egg that pays homage to the iconic line from the original Super Mario Bros: “Thank you, Mario! But our princess is in another castle!”
Whether vampires will ever show up in future is unknown; however, the developers have confirmed that at least, for now, Vampire Survivor includes no vampires of any kind and that perhaps in future, they may show up in some fashion, indicating that a future or DLC may feature the blood-sucking villains in what I suspect will be the final DLC of Vampire Survivors, before all development resources are reallocated to an inevitable sequel, as while Vampire Susirvors is doing very well, there is no reason to leave money on the table, and in say five years, I am sure most of the fanbase would have no issue spending a few bucks on Vampire Survivors II if it combined the excellent gameplay of the original with visuals enhancements and multiplatform support.
Vampire Survivors is a action rogue-like video game developed and published by Poncle, it was released on 20 October 2022 and retails for $4.99.
Vampire Survivors is available on the following platforms: Android, IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Vampire Survivors is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:
Vampire Survivors may not be the first action roguelike, but it is certainly the game that turned a game into a genre. While there have been many attempts by developers, large and small, to overthrow it and become the king of the genre, as of yet, no developer has come close to taking the top spot despite some truly exceptional titles having been released in the past two years.
As of April 2024, Vampire Survivors is the king of the genre and is unlikely to be dethroned any time soon, while the fight for second place has never been more competitive.
Overall, it is an excellent and addictive game that can easily be played in short bursts or for hours at a time, making it perfect for gamers with limited playtime or time to kill.
