Was Vampire Survivors Worth It?

We’ll probably never get another Castlevania game again. Fortunately, that hasn’t stopped indie developer Poncle from creating a cheeky homage. Vampire Survivors is a roguelite in the same vein as Archero, and is in early access on Steam. Was Vampire Survivors Worth It?

Table of Contents

Background

There’s one word that describes this game: minimal. Vampire Survivors looks like the kind of retro sprite game that you would have seen on Newgrounds 15 years ago or on the SNES/Genesis. The premise is simple. All you have to do is survive for 30 minutes against an ever-growing horde.

Figuring out your playstyle will help you pick good builds

What does Vampire Survivors do well?

The game is frantic without being frustrating. It rewards good decision-making and system mastery. The game straddles the line of making you feel powerful at points while also putting you in an ever-changing, more desperate situation.

The selection of weapons allows for a variety of builds. While a respec option would be nice, the games are short enough to where it’s not necessary. The aforementioned system mastery comes into play here, as not knowing the weapon upgrade combos or buying less useful options can delay your build. You can only carry so many items, so keep that in mind when you’re deciding which new weapons to pick in the early stages of each run.

You can refund all the gold you’ve spent on permanent upgrades, which makes experimentation a lot easier.

The game shows your DPS at the end of a run, so you can see how you did with certain weapons. Certain weapons punch above (or below) their weight class, so it’s great to see which ones are really carrying you.

Remember to use the Konami code for a one time bonus of 2800 gold! At the title screen, press up up down down left right left right esc enter.

What could Vampire Survivors do better?

There’s a slight bug sometimes when opening a chest, in which your character will stop moving. This has made me eat damage a few times. To be fair, I only noticed this when playing on a keyboard, but it happened to me in both the demo and full game.

Weapon upgrades aren’t quite created equal. It’s not that every weapon needs an evolved version per se, it’s that certain options just don’t measure up. To be fair, this will probably be addressed with balance changes.

Is Vampire Survivors fun?

The gameplay loop is enjoyable, and you earn gold quickly enough to where it doesn’t feel grindy. I think playtime is a bit misleading for this game. There’s no way you could unlock everything in 11 hours, and the game is still getting new content and updates.