Vampire Survivors is already, without being finished, one of the candidates for the game of the year. An idea that borders on perfection in its execution.
In recent weeks, the lack of AAA releases in this year has been commented on, and more specifically at the studio level First party from Microsoft and, in turn, on Xbox Game Pass. While undoubtedly these blockbusters tend to sneak into the list of most anticipated games, the catalog of independent games that we have been receiving lately is spectacular. I couldn’t be happier to continue subscribing to this service, because without it I would surely have missed one of the jewels of this 2022: Vampire Survivors.
For those who don’t know it, Vampire Survivors is one of those projects from the mind and hands of one person: Luca “Puncle” Galante. An MMO lover who decided to create his own community through this project. The result couldn’t have been better, as Vampire Survivors snuck its way into best game of the year lists for everyone who tried it. And best of all, the game is currently in early access, although version 1.0 is expected to arrive later this year. So this analysis is conducted on a version of the game that is not yet final.
For now yes, you can only find vampire survivors in PC, either through Steam or through the Microsoft Store, being included in the Xbox Game Pass for PC.
Survival is our only mission
We could define Vampire Survivors as a title that mix shooting and survival genres with roguelike mechanics. The main mechanic is to move around the stage while we complete the endless waves of enemies They will try to end our existence. Our character will have an automatic attack in order to get rid of the hordes of monsters that surround us. When falling, some enemies will drop experience gems that we must collect to level up.
Each time we level up, we can choose a random reward in the form of a weapon or an improvement in our attributes. As usual in the genre roguelike, these rewards can be improved throughout the game in the same way: by gaining levels. In this way we can generate built totally different in each game depending on the rewards we receive at each level.
Vampire Survivors takes place in infinite scenarios that repeat the same map section over and over again. As I said before, our only mission is to survive. And for that we need to advance as many enemies as possible. Scenarios also have special items scattered around the map and different power up temporary that will appear when we destroy different objects on the map.
Finally, some higher level enemies (and difficult to crack) will give us a chest that will offer us two types of rewards: an upgrade of the weapon and/or attributes that we already have and gold coins. The gold coins will be the only thing we will take at the end of each game, they will accumulate in our account and we can exchange them for new characters and permanent attribute upgrades.
The art of War
With an extremely simple and solid gameplay base, Vampire Survivors manages to catch up with you on your first playthrough. Without a doubt, the part that I like the most in this title is its rhythmsomething “paused” in its first bars and extremely frenetic as we go through each part.
Progression is another of his great achievements, because in addition to the improvements that we will unlock with the gold earned between games, we will also have a large number of challenges with which to unlock new weapons and characters. The variety of weapons that we will have at our disposal from the start is quite considerable and as soon as we complete various challenges the game only gets better at times.
Playable characters differ in their starting weapon and some upgraded base attributesoffering in turn different ways of treating Course. Combined with the different weapons that we can select and improve at each level, some achieving truly devastating effects, Vampire Survivors has become one of the best playable experiences this year.
Conclusions of vampire survivors
Ultimately, Vampire Survivors is one of those titles that every gamer should try at least once.. The work of Luca “poncle” Galante is simply spectacular. Its pixel art graphics, screen animations, sound effects and soundtrack cause a catharsis that is hard to shake off. Besides being a title with extremely low hardware requirements.
Honestly, I find it impossible to find fault with this title that close to perfection in everything offered. Even if I still have one last positive point to finish convincing you to try this title. If for some reason you’re not an Xbox Game Pass subscriber on PC, you’ll find Vampire Survivors in the Xbox Store a a price of $3.99. The four best dollars spent this year.
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