Vampire Survivors (PC, 2022)

An immensely satisfying stimulus overload that's just a bit over-repetitive.

Nostalgia Factor: None.
Difficulty: Medium. More of a test of patience and luck than skill.

After almost 50 hours of Balatro goodness, I wanted to dip my toes into another roguelike. I’d heard great things about Vampire Survivors (VS), so I plunked down the meager $5 cost for entry and gave it a go.

In VS, you control the movement of an automatically attacking character that faces increasingly difficult waves of monsters. Defeating enemies grants XP (gems which must be collected), gold, and treasure chests. Within a run, each new level grants an upgrade to your character’s weapon build. Busting up static objects in the level may also drop some “floor chicken,” a healing item for your character.

From the start, VS is a bit of a grind. You’ll need to put in several failed runs until you begin to earn enough gold to purchase permanent stat upgrades. It takes time to increase your stat boosts to the point where it feels like it’s actually making a difference. As you learn the game’s mechanics and discover various powerup combos (evolutions), you eventually reach a “critical mass” where you start seeing more winning runs. More gold means more permanent stat boosts and thus even more winning runs. Most levels are considered completed once the in-game timer reaches 30 minutes. Then, Death himself shows up and quickly puts you out of your misery (unless you have the right build to defeat him).

The real joy of the game is exploring the variety of weapons available to you. There are over 150 unlockable weapons, characters, upgrades, and more. The pixel graphics are plenty charming, and the sound effects are just pure ear candy, especially late in a run when dozens of monsters are just melting at your feet. It’s immensely satisfying. The soundtrack is solid as well. Poe Ratcho is my favorite character, since he starts with garlic (hands down my favorite base weapon). I also look for king Bible, magic wand, santa water, and runetracer upgrades whenever possible. A fully upgraded garlic and king Bible combo is usually enough just to get you late into a run. AOE synergy is very strong, but securing weapon evolutions is the key to consistently getting those winning runs.

After pushing through the first few hours, this game really sucked me in. I enjoyed grinding out some gold for the permanent stat boosts. However, due to the repetitive nature of the gameplay, I eventually reached a point where I could only knock out one or two runs at a time before needing a long break from the game. VS is a great game to boot up for a quick run or two as a palette cleanser between other games. Balatro, on the other hand, would consistently suck me into 4+ hour binges. I’ve only put about 9 hours into VS, and I’ve enjoyed that time, but I haven’t been quite as enraptured as the core VS fanbase.

Overall, I still recommend Vampire Survivors for any fans of the roguelike genre. For only $5 (or even less if you catch it on sale), you can get ample enjoyment from this well crafted shoot ‘em up. Give it a go.