Vampire Survivors in a nutshell

Usually I, a faithful “PC boyar” (which word I pulled out of the bins of history!), I’m not very interested in mobile phones, but a trip to another city, lasting several days, pushed me to get acquainted with such projects. Vampire Survivors bagel brightened up my boring days.

The project, released in 2021, is, on the one hand, extremely simple: you don’t need to aim, shoot or solve puzzles; you just need to walk around the location, dodge crowds of enemies and pick up upgrades. On the other hand, compiling the necessary builds forces you to strain your brain.

I don’t want to look at the project from all sides. My goal is to share my impressions of the old man who made a splash several years ago.

Appearance and audio. Bright pixel graphics do not hurt the eyes, although the characters and landscape are quite expressive: here you have winter open spaces, a dairy factory, and church halls. True, the locations are very empty. On the one hand, this is not bad: nothing interferes with your battle – but over time, the “clean” picture gets boring.

The mobile game does not seem to be configured for a horizontal picture, which is why the interface is collected in the middle.

due to the abundance of mobs, sometimes it’s not clear what’s going on

The dynamic music that supports morale smooths things out a bit. Although it gradually becomes boring, and you don’t even notice it.

Heroes, locations and weapons. The game www.partyspins.uk initially offers you a short list of heroes and locations: the first are purchased, and the second are opened if you survive on the map for 30 minutes. Gradually the list is replenished: you find some character in the arena, something opens up after receiving an achievement, etc.d. So the game is constantly pushing new content.

The heroes themselves differ in characteristics, starting weapons, and unique abilities. For example, Croci starts with 1 extra revive, and Pugnala gains +1% strength with each level. The locations are also varied: the library is an endless wide corridor, and on the “Whiteout” a labyrinth of snowmen appears over time.

Separately, I highlighted weapons and “equipment”. Chew on them too. Moreover, some are lying around on the map, some you get right away, some drop randomly when you level up. If you put together the right combination of items, the weapon will also improve.

As a result, such variety helps you not to get bored and encourages you to experiment.

Gameplay. Essentially, you run around a map on which mobs of varying strengths are constantly spawning. They drop experience, thanks to which you level up and get new items. Even weapons deal damage automatically.

The enemies themselves vary in appearance and characteristics, but rarely differ in mechanics: they fit in and simply deal damage.

This sticky stick helps to relax the gyrus or pass the time. But gradually the game begins to get boring with its rehearsal. I will note that I generally don’t like bagels when you make the same thing. But, given the popularity of the project, I understand that for some people constant repetitions may not be annoying.

Progress. The game practically does not explain what you need to do to develop. Therefore, it seems that the goal of the game is to live for some time in the location. Only later did they explain to me that you get most of the content by completing achievements. They are the engine of game progress.

Vampire Survivors asks you to put together some kind of combo, develop your character, survive for a certain amount of time, etc. In addition, at the location you collect gold, which you spend on developing your character. True, soon there is a lot of currency, and the list of skills is not replenished(

Everything has been bought, but the money is already 100 thousand. True, sometimes there is a store at locations where you can buy weapons.

How interesting such progress is is an open question. Personally, I was gradually starting to get tired of it: I wanted a more important, comprehensive, global motivation that ran through the entire game and held it together. Otherwise the game just throws cards, characters and achievements at you: do whatever you want with them.

The game is popular, so for many this minus is insignificant. I personally just didn’t have enough fastening mechanics.

rustling convolutions. Vampire Survivors is a sandbox, and only you decide how to frolic in it. I didn’t want to strain myself to come up with builds, so I played without thinking. And the game allowed me to do this.

On the other hand, it allows you to fine-tune your character, play with combinations and look for the most successful build. Especially when performing some difficult tasks.

Such diversity is beneficial, and the project manages to sit on two chairs, balancing between casual and hardcore.

Bottom line. I love to immerse myself in games for many hours, literally losing myself in them. That’s why Vampire Survivors didn’t go very well: the longer the game session went on, the more boring I became. But this game is great to pass the time. It is not annoying, does not require high skill from you, and therefore allows the player to relax.