“Every attack is automatic. But that doesn’t mean you’re not involved”
Ugly roguelite VAMPIRE SURVIVORS has taken over my Steam Deck
EVERY ATTACK IS AUTOMATIC, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE NOT INVOLVED
Thank Gabe for my Steam Deck. If it wasn’t for Valve’s handheld miracle, I’d know nothing of the joys of Vampire Survivors, thus allowing the vampires to win. Before the Deck arrived, I’d heard of Vampire Survivors, of course, but it was hard to see the appeal, even amid its growing popularity. There are few places as saturated as the indie roguelike space, and it just looked like another ugly, pixely time sink designed to kill me over and over again.
My Steam Deck’s arrival heralded a new obsession: trying to play every game I can think of on the device. I’ve tried everything from Cyberpunk 2077 to World of Warcraft, and I’ve been surprised by how many unverified games work. Vampire
Survivors is verified, though, and one of the most played games on the Deck, which is what inspired me to slap down £4 and try it for myself.
I underestimated how much delight this ugly duckling would bring me. Most roguelikes, roguelites, and bullet hell romps leave you feeling vulnerable until you’ve really got to grips with them, but Vampire Survivors lets you feel like a god of death within 15 minutes. Runs are short, there’s nowhere to hide, but also no labyrinths to explore, so you’re perpetually running around murdering stuff and taking their gems to bolster your power through new unlocks and upgrades. It’s constant, unrelenting progression, and if you can just survive for a few more seconds you know you’re going to unlock another big boost to your destructive capabilities.
It’s probably worth noting at this point that you don’t actually need to do anything to start the slaughter. Every attack is automatic, but that doesn’t mean you’re not involved. Some abilities need you to face the direction of your quarry, while others benefit from huge crowds of monsters, inspiring you to risk
staying still and letting a horde of them accumulate and come to you.
BAD BREATH
This is why I love garlic. In Vampire Survivors it’s especially handy, giving you an aura that damages enemies who get too close, which can be upgraded to do more damage and harm enemies that are further away. So if I get garlic and some random AoE abilities early on, I put down roots and just wait. The low-level monsters who get too close get murdered by garlic, while the ones in the back get struck by lightning.
Since you’re able to experiment with screen-clearing strategies right from the get-go, you can probably imagine how powerful you’ll be just 15 minutes down the line. And by the end, you’ll hardly be able to see the monsters under the constant string of damage numbers and ability effects.
The only downside of all this is that it’s so compelling that I don’t have much time to check out the 30 other games I’ve installed on my Deck. I’ll flit about in my space locomotive in Sunless Skies for an hour or knock out a few quests in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, but the allure of Vampire Survivors always pulls me back in.