Vampire Survivors, an outstanding rogue action review

There are some games that just give you an instant sense of fun, where you get involved with no escape. Who knows what claims they’re making, but at the end of the day, it’s all too easy for a game to be stolen from us and for you to think about it more than big productions. Poncle’s title is one of them, as we will see below. Vampire Survivors review.

Basic formula

Vampire Survivors never takes themselves too seriously. Tasting like a good all’amatriciana pasta with pecorino and bacon, it proudly remains itself, never surpassing high cuisine. conceptually We like to imagine this as the fun of developer Luca Galante, who, after returning home from his old job in the evening, starts to implement whatever comes to mind in a small job. . So some objects here get ridiculous names that remind him of Italy and probably make him smile under his mustache as he writes them, such as Mannajja, Phiera Der Tuphello, Laborra or Gatti Amari, and the same goes for some selectable characters: Gennaro, Pasqualina, Dommario, Pugnala, Poppea. Pecorina, Zi ‘Assunta and others. It has a lot of Castlevania on its head, at least in terms of flavor, but without any pretense of cloning the Konami lineup mixed with the tripe cooked by Da Enzo in Trastevere and just left in the background. It’s all tribute and fun, perhaps a kind of celebration of personal imagination by imagining a beautiful gricia (neutral advice: never write an essay before lunch Ed). The game formula itself is simple and straightforward, very light but still interesting. After all, it was his fun and he didn’t want too many complications, besides, he had to do something else and had little time to devote to the implementation of complex mechanics.

fairy tale with happy ending

So huge waves of enemies of various types (mummy, skeletons, zombies, golems, witches, ghosts, etc.) roaming through seemingly endless 2D levels whose sole purpose is to kill him. this system It is based on the gradual increase in the intensity and strength of the waves, which is balanced by the progress of the character. The goal is to unlock and upgrade new weapons that are used automatically, survive 30 minutes in each level. The pleasure comes from the rapid buildup of power that makes weapons and bonus items increasingly effective and allows them to be combined to create even more devastating and spectacular means of death. The number of monsters killed increases significantly. How not to marvel at certain video game omnipotent images where the screen slowly fills with demons, nearly overflowing, and destroyed by our attacks? Whatever it may be, it’s a kaleidoscope of pure chaos, visually overwhelming and satisfying that one cannot leave to the end.

Not every fairy tale has a happy ending, but this one definitely does. Galante publishes the game Steam In Early Access, it’s at a very low price, practically less than a cappuccino with a croissant (it’s slightly increased with the 1.0 release approach, it will be due to the galloping inflation that increases the cost of coffee and jam, but it was always very accessible). Despite everything, Vampire Survivors begins to sell heavily, attracting millions of players. It turns from an entertainment project into a full-time job. Initial planning is skipped, update after update, more content is added than originally budgeted, the community grows exponentially. But the gameplay remains simple and direct and does not spoil in any way. There are more items, more characters and more secrets, of course a card system has been added and some bonus stages have been added. The roguelike system with permanently unlockable upgrades, which can be purchased with tokens obtained by playing (without microtransactions), is expanded, but the substance remains the same, plus instant fun and light-hearted tone.

pure fun

After spending more than fifty hours with the game, which clearly includes the Early Access version, it’s hard to make a genuine critique of Vampire Surivors, at least not bogus. As you can imagine, after unlocking all the objects and trying the many combinations available, the feeling of bewilderment is somewhat lacking, but considering that it costs so little, we’re still talking about dozens of hours of gameplay and this poncle update policy, you can’t really complain and in that case you can’t get it to rest. You can leave it in. As you may have noticed from the screenshots, it’s not great graphically, but it’s nice, especially when there’s a lot of confusion on the screen. It doesn’t bend GPUs, does what it’s supposed to do on time and creatively, waiting for the transition to the already promised new one. graphics engine.

In short, we are faced with a title that expects nothing and therefore works very well: it’s just fun, without too many frills and without looking more complicated than it should be. It is not superior except for its existential lightness that makes it irresistible. is someone’s fruit watching video games Closer to the players than the titles traditionally suggested by the industry, the invitation to share the absurd and fanciful that characterizes it paradoxically creates a narrative universe more powerful than many projects of creative professionals. And then there’s a dog that throws flowers from his hip, what more could you ask for?