Vampire Survivors review: a bullet-hell roguelike poised for greatness

The thrill of a bullet hell-type shooter is the last-minute escape — the act of careening through enemy hordes, a hair’s breadth away from disaster. Vampire SurvivorsTakes that joy and blends it with intoxicating power creep from roguelikes, such as Hades, RefundYou can also call it: Dead Cells.

The result is chocolate and peanut butter: A deliciously perfect pairing that seems all but self-evident once you’ve tried it, but also the sort of treat that’s possible to fill up on fast.

This is the story of Vampire SurvivorsIt is not possible to tell a story. You’re … well, you’re not a vampire. Actually, I don’t know that there are any vampires here at all. Many bats are found in the area. There’s also a generous number of mummies. It doesn’t matter.

The point is that beasts, with increasing number and ferocity, are coming to devour your 8-bit weakling who, if they’re smart, will immediately run away. The undead quickly take over what began as some shambling skeletons. Hard Day’s NightThere are hundreds upon thousands of creatures that will follow your every move across this infinitely growing map.

Photo by poncle

You’ll fend off the legions of foes with an impressive assortment of weaponry, and it’s this variety that forms Vampire Survivors’ Its core appeal. The whip is the first unlockable character. It lashes to one side at a set time. As you kill more enemies and gain more experience, you’ll layer on new powers: holy water that creates monster-killing puddles, deadly bibles that spin around your character, and — my personal favorite — garlic that hurts any enemies that get too close. You’ll also pick up augments that increase the frequency, range, and damage of your powers, as well as your gold intake and overall resiliency.

The catch is that you’re not actually Active any of these powers — they’re on a timer and they’re always firing passively. Even though you start out as a whip-swinging, squishy idiot, your run can be transformed into a fireball-barfing demon within ten minutes. And you’re inflicting all this mayhem without a single button press.

If you’re having trouble imagining how this all plays out, it could best be compared to a tower defense game — complete with the satisfying layering and power iteration that genre implies — except, in this case, you’re all of the towers. And you’re far more mobile than any towers I’ve personally encountered.

Like many other roguelikes the meta challenge for Vampire SurvivorsThe key is to discover combinations of weapons that suit you, so you can survive the last battle. To me, close-range attack is my preferred weapon so I can go directly in the melee of zombies and take the pleasure of all their corpses.

Photo: Poncle

When you finally are brought down (or you manage to survive for 30 minutes, marking one complete run) the gold you’ve collected can be used for permanent enhancements that’ll make the next run that much easier.

After my first, second … seventh run in Vampire SurvivorsAfter finishing my last attempt, I began compulsively my next one, even though there was not enough time left to spend the precious gold. I wasn’t even frustrated to die, because I was so excited to see what the next run would bring.

But after eight or so hours, I found that “gotta play again” urge had begun to ebb.

Pacing is one issue that’s apparent pretty quickly. Once you’ve battled nightmarish, screen-filling swarms in the endgame, the opening minutes of each run, with just a handful of enemies on-screen at a time, can feel pretty sluggish. The difficulty ramps up quickly enough that this wasn’t much of a deterrent though.

There’s a sweet spot in the middle of each run where you’re PowerfulHowever, they are only strong enough to survive the next wave. Things start to get perplexingly stale in the last third of every run.

There’s a cap for upgrading all your weapons and abilities and once you’ve gotten them all, each new experience level yields only a spare few coins or a bit of healing. The rogue-like pleasure of increasing your power disappears. Enemies at that stage have also become so numerous that it’s impossible to do those bullet-hell style last minute escapes. You basically have to strap in and hope that the combination of powers and abilities you’ve curated is enough to get you through to the end.

Photo: Poncle

There’s still some novelty once you are consistently completing your runs. There’s a “Hyper” mode that offers additional coins if you’re willing to take on faster enemies (another way to accelerate through the early slump). If you’re able to survive, there are ways that each weapon can be upgraded. But while these evolutions are cool, they’re not enough to alleviate the tension deficit in the late game.

Since you don’t control attacks, the real meat of Vampire SurvivorsThe meta is where it’s at. It’s in picking just the right combination of powers and augmentations to forge a one-person monsterpocalypse. When you are unable to make any more decisions, it can be a frustrating experience.

Vampire SurvivorsIt is currently in an early stage of development, but we hope that there will be more variety and depth. The important stuff, though — that core blend of roguelike and bullet hell shoot-em-up — is already beyond solid. You could add a little more meat to the bones. Vampire SurvivorsIt could even be ready for its replacement among the others Dead Cells, HadesIt was accompanied by other greats.