Vampire Survivors

[RedShell]

No thread for this!?

I'll assume most people have already played it elsewhere, but for anyone that perhaps hasn't, do not miss out on this game!!

I've played through it on GamePass, mobile and most recently/extensively on Steam (with the DLC), so 3 times now and yet I'm still here contemplating "quadruple-dipping" on Switch!

A word of warning though, Vampire Survivors is one hell of an addictive game! It doesn't appear to be up to all that much at first glance, or even when you initially start playing it, but eventually it will get its hooks into you and it becomes practically impossible to stop!

If you ever wondered what a NES game with no sprite restrictions whatsoever would be like, here's your answer. When you get a good run going the screen is literally crammed with enemies, items and projectiles, it becomes complete and utter psychedelic madness!

[Glen-i]

I was planning on making the thread after my Mon Hun session with Mokong, but this works.

I've played it on Gamepass, was hoping it'd come to Switch, but I have to wonder if the poor thing can run it.
For reference, Steam deck struggles with it at times.

52 minutes ago, RedShell said:

A word of warning though, Vampire Survivors is one hell of an addictive game! It doesn't appear to be up to all that much at first glance, or even when you initially start playing it, but eventually it will get its hooks into you and it becomes practically impossible to stop!

He's not exaggerating, it's the video game equivalent of crack! The game has a stupid amount of secrets and unlockables, and I hadn't even touched the DLC yet!
It would've been my GOTY, if I actually played it last year.

Also, the song, "Vempair Survaivors" is in my head forever.

Anyway, here's a better trailer

Edited June 22, 2023 by Glen-i

[Dcubed]

OH GOD WHAT TIME IS IT!?!?

[RedShell]

11 hours ago, Glen-i said:

I've played it on Gamepass, was hoping it'd come to Switch, but I have to wonder if the poor thing can run it.
For reference, Steam deck struggles with it at times.

Yeah, that is a valid concern. When it's running at full craziness (past 30 mins) even my gaming desktop can struggle to keep up! The fact they're adding a 4-player mode probably wont be helping matters either.

Or perhaps they've come up with some clever optimisations, time will tell.

[Dcubed]

25 minutes ago, RedShell said:

Yeah, that is a valid concern. When it's running at full craziness (past 30 mins) even my gaming desktop can struggle to keep up! The fact they're adding a 4-player mode probably wont be helping matters either.

Or perhaps they've come up with some clever optimisations, time will tell.

Supposedly the Switch version runs on the newer engine that powers the Xbox release and the mobile ports… so hopefully it should run better than the PC version on Steam Deck (because man! It can chug!).

Game is mad fun though, even at 15FPS when crap gets real

[RedShell]

46 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Supposedly the Switch version runs on the newer engine that powers the Xbox release and the mobile ports… so hopefully it should run better than the PC version on Steam Deck (because man! It can chug!).

Game is mad fun though, even at 15FPS when crap gets real

Oh yeah, I remember hearing about how the game runs on a newer engine on other platforms. I believe the PC version will also migrate to that engine in the near future though, so 15FPS (reckon I've seen it go even lower! ) might become a thing of the past.

I'm quite interested to see how the game will be priced on Switch. It is incredibly fairly priced everywhere else, and even completely free on mobile due to the fact the developer couldn't find a publisher that was willing to cooperate with their low price business strategy, so in the end just gave it away.
I wonder if the infamous "Switch tax" will cause problems for them as well. I suppose they could take a similar route to the mobile versions and go F2P with paid DLC.

On the subject of DLC, how good is this!?:

Bloody good, that's how good.

 

[Sheikah]

No thread for this!? [emoji33]

I'll assume most people have already played it elsewhere, but for anyone that perhaps hasn't, do not miss out on this game!!

I've played through it on GamePass, mobile and most recently/extensively on Steam (with the DLC), so 3 times now and yet I'm still here contemplating "quadruple-dipping" on Switch!

A word of warning though, Vampire Survivors is one hell of an addictive game! It doesn't appear to be up to all that much at first glance, or even when you initially start playing it, but eventually it will get its hooks into you and it becomes practically impossible to stop!

If you ever wondered what a NES game with no sprite restrictions whatsoever would be like, here's your answer. When you get a good run going the screen is literally crammed with enemies, items and projectiles, it becomes complete and utter psychedelic madness!

 

It's an enjoyable game but one you play through a lot, unlock everything, then almost as quickly forget about it.

 

The problem for me that the game is practically broken, it becomes almost impossible to lose. Don't get me wrong, it was fun at first while still levelling stuff up but it's ultimately a bit of a throwaway title. The gameplay is too basic, but I think that's also part of its popularity.

[RedShell]

2 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

 

It's an enjoyable game but one you play through a lot, unlock everything, then almost as quickly forget about it.

True, but I do find myself coming back to it every single time there's an update or new DLC, just to see what's been added and grab the extra achievements.

5 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

The problem for me that the game is practically broken, it becomes almost impossible to lose. Don't get me wrong, it was fun at first while still levelling stuff up but it's ultimately a bit of a throwaway title. The gameplay is too basic, but I think that's also part of its popularity.

The DLC characters make it even more impossible to lose, some of them are literally invincible.

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Sheikah said:

 

It's an enjoyable game but one you play through a lot, unlock everything, then almost as quickly forget about it.

 

The problem for me that the game is practically broken, it becomes almost impossible to lose. Don't get me wrong, it was fun at first while still levelling stuff up but it's ultimately a bit of a throwaway title. The gameplay is too basic, but I think that's also part of its popularity.

I guess it depends on how much you look up the secrets online.

Because there are some proper doozys.

[Sheikah]

I guess it depends on how much you look up the secrets online.
Because there are some proper doozys.

Even then the secrets aren't really anything meaty in terms of gameplay, they're more or less curiosities. The core loop of the gameplay gets stale pretty quickly.

[EEVILMURRAY]

When that Dracula face appeared I went "Oooh, a new Castlevania?", Then this appeared. It reminded me of a mix between Robotron and Gauntlet. However I couldn't see much in the replay value, get the big weapon and orbiting thing and anything that comes near you dies. It doesn't seem all that fun. Am I missing something?

[Glen-i]

5 minutes ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

When that Dracula face appeared I went "Oooh, a new Castlevania?", Then this appeared. It reminded me of a mix between Robotron and Gauntlet. However I couldn't see much in the replay value, get the big weapon and orbiting thing and anything that comes near you dies. It doesn't seem all that fun. Am I missing something?

The game is heavily inspired by Castlevania, so that's not surprising.

As for the actual gameplay? It's... difficult to explain. The ResetEra thread takes a decent crack at it, though.

Quote

What you actually do gameplay-wise sounds incredibly stupid when described, and probably even looks dumb to you in screenshots or video. Your only input is to move around (controller or keyboard), defeating enemies with auto-firing weapons. These weapons attack using different patterns and timing, and you collect gems of XP from fallen enemies to level up, acquire new weapons and items, and upgrade existing ones. It is truly, almost hilariously simple in concept. I probably even overexplained it in this paragraph. But... it's awesome, just trust me. You will "get it" in 5 seconds of play.

How can that be remotely compelling?

Okay look:

I promise they aren't messing with you.

The initial strategy comes from learning how the different weapons work and where to position yourself to kill the hordes of monsters you need to claim XP from while keeping yourself alive long enough to complete a run. More sophisticated decision-making comes into play when deciding what weapons to prioritize and upgrade, what support items will synergize well, and how to push past certain points in a run that are killing you. There's strong meta-progression with gold that you keep after a run and can spend to unlock new characters and permanent upgrades, while continuously unlocking new weapons and items via achievement. From there, it deepens in all the ways you wouldn't expect from such a simple concept. I won't spoil any of the most meaningful unlocks, but you'll eventually be full-on buildcrafting, where your character, weapons, items, stage knowledge, and other choices combine into forms both novel and gamebreaking as you unleash absolute chaos for just one more run.

It's also dirt cheap and stupid in how much content there is for it's price. Although this Switch version includes all the DLC, so will likely be a little more expensive.

[RedShell]

4 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Switch version includes all the DLC

Where did you hear that?

[Glen-i]

1 minute ago, RedShell said:

Where did you hear that?

Looking around, I might have imagined that.
Sorry, might have assumed it because of the 4 player mode. Which obviously wasn't in the base game.

[Dcubed]

On 24/06/2023 at 2:52 PM, Glen-i said:

The game is heavily inspired by Castlevania, so that's not surprising.

As for the actual gameplay? It's... difficult to explain. The ResetEra thread takes a decent crack at it, though.

It's also dirt cheap and stupid in how much content there is for it's price. Although this Switch version includes all the DLC, so will likely be a little more expensive.

The additional hilarious Bestiary descriptions alone are worth the price of the DLC.

[Dcubed]

So... uhh... Vampire Survivors Directer's Cut is a thing!

I hope this is the version that we're getting on Switch! I want a level with 300 playable chickens!

[Glen-i]

I find it amusing that it's "Directer's Cut".

Given how silly the whole thing is, I can't be certain that typo wasn't intentional...

[Glen-i]

Game costs £3.99, which I think is the same as the Steam version.

But there's a 10% discount at launch. Which means you can save 40 pence!!!!

The two DLC packs are separate. £1.59 each. Also has a 10% launch discount.

Excuse me while I go invest this 72p.

Actually, I bought it with gold points.

[FalcoLombardi]

I know almost nothing about this game but have it pre-ordered.

[Dcubed]

Reviews are coming out now, and it sounds like performance is pretty good on Switch; with FPS drops only really occuring in co-op.

https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/vampire-survivors

Good to hear

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

Reviews are coming out now, and it sounds like performance is pretty good on Switch; with FPS drops only really occuring in co-op.

Sounds to me like an Age of Calamity style "How low can we get it?" challenge if I ever heard one.

[Dcubed]

It's out... oh no... the addiction begins all over again! 

[RedShell]

New engine update is also out on PC. My best attempt at breaking it:

Seems pretty solid.

 

[FalcoLombardi]

I "quickly" spent an hour playing this for the first time last night. And I only played one round today but I am very much enjoying it. Right now I'm watching a video about tips and secrets.

[Glen-i]

6 minutes ago, FalcoLombardi said:

Right now I'm watching a video about tips and secrets.

Try not to ruin the secrets, because discovering them is half the fun. Just look at the unlocks menu, tackle ones that seem reasonable, and you'll naturally discover them as you go.