You know those games where you boot up, spend about 20 minutes, and realize ‘ah crap. does it have meThat is vampire survivor. I came to this fascinating little sprite-based game that sunk over 1,000 hours as a creature in The Binding of Isaac on the multiple platforms I own it – the kind that is used in these endless, power-up games and uses The compulsive gimp of the zone does it as a form of meditation. So when I leveled up my first garlic ball and started throwing knives at quivering undead, I knew it had me.
But I’m also 30, live with my partner, and have responsibilities. So I can’t sit in my pants, dip bread in something more liquid than bread, drink beer, and play games all night.I have damn thing: Socialize with my partner, walk the dog, meet friends.But how the hell am I supposed to get all my damn thing Finished and ticked all 1200G vampire survivors in a week? How can I make sure I blast through the game and unlock all the characters while seeing who wins this series of Bake Off? I didn’t think there was a clean solution…until the Xbox itself sent a push notification to my phone.
“Don’t forget, Dom,” it says (I’m explaining), “you can play anytime, anywhere! Sitting on a swamp? Queuing at Asda? Enduring another anecdote from your best friend? Download Now Xbox Game Pass app, play anywhere.” You know what I did next? I downloaded the Xbox Game Pass app, and since then I’ve been able to play as much as I want.
I don’t think I’m really paying attention to who wins Bake Off; I’m too focused on making sure Poppea can evolve her weapon when I kill the next boss. I don’t think I really understood the impact of Diana setting fire to the royal system in The Crown; I was too focused on making sure my clock lancet was upgraded enough to survive a minute in the Bone Zone against the Reaper.
Do you know the best things? When I come back to my office and play the game when I’m supposed to be working (sorry boss), everything is there: all my upgrades, all my characters, all my progress…it’s just magical Easily transferred myself to my Xbox Series X. no problem. Then, when I wanted to play the game on the train ride to my other buddy’s house, I downloaded the game to my laptop. There is no additional cost. Here I am, using Vampire Survivors for PC, Cloud, and Xbox – and I haven’t paid a penny for it yet. Compare that to the PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5 pipeline (where I lost half my saved games and nearly destroyed my hardware), and the difference is night and day.
Vampire Survivor is all around me. It’s part of the Game Pass feature on everything I own. If I want a more engaging meeting, I turn on the Xbox and play on the big screen. If I want to keep an eye on Kevin McCloud in Grand Designs while playing, I can fire it up on my phone and play it with one of my spare Xbox pads. It’s ready to run on my PC if I want to have a quick session in between other activities like writing a news story….
This speaks to Microsoft’s recent positioning of ease of use at the core of its philosophy. For all the company’s PR-filtered talk about “removing barriers to gaming,” it was this curious little survival curio that really showed me, not any of its high-priced, high-budget powerhouses.
I played Destiny 2 on this cutting-edge cloud-based streaming technology when it was demoed in the UK: I’m working in Canary Wharf (the only place in London that supports 5G at the time) and will be starting at 5pm on Friday , I used my phone to steal Xur’s goodies. The technology at the time was not good enough to support this. Now – about 3 years later – I can’t put my damn Pixel down, and it’s all because of Vampire Survivor.
It’s safe to say that the indie gem made me realize the value of Xbox Game Pass Cloud Gaming, and now I can incorporate it into my life, and I won’t be going back.