Developer: poncle
Steam Deck Compatibility?: Verified
Rrp: £3.99 (Steam)
On it’s surface Vampire Survivors is a very simple game, just keep your character alive by avoiding the monsters and kill them with your weapons. Simple right? Here’s the thing, all you can do is move, there’s no run or jump or dodge roll. Other than using the left analogue stick for movement there are only really three other buttons, the [A] button to select your upgrade, the [B] button for backing out in the menu’s and the [Start] button to enter into the menu. That’s it, there’s no attack button (for your character attacks automatically) or mechanics that are deeper than that… at least as far as the control scheme is concerned.
The complexity in this game comes from the weapons and passives you choose when you level up, which is done by collecting the experience dropped by monsters you kill. Each time you level up you get three (sometimes four) choices of upgrade, picking a weapon you already have will level up that weapon and make it more potent. Some weapons and passives can combine with each other to become much more powerful. In fact, almost every weapon in the game has one of these ‘evolutions’ (there are a couple of exceptions).
I really love this game, there’s just something very pure about it. You get all the feel good factor of opening a loot box except they’re dropped by enemies. It’s just a lot of fun and a total clusterf*ck on screen at times but in the best of ways. Trust me for £3.99 you can do a lot worse.
Edit:Since I wrote this review there have been a lot of changes to the game, such as the introduction of a multiplayer mode, DLC’s and a beastiary (written by Steph Sterling). This game continues to show improve over and over again. Oh, and there is a free to play version available for phones now, and when I say free to play I mean there are no microtransactions at all (or adverts that take up the whole screen), only the DLC’s that you can buy.
—-
If you’d like to support me I have a Ko-fi, the reviews will continue to be posted donation or not.
