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0 Vampire Hunters is a roguelite, 3D survivors fps by Gamecraft Studios (For Sparta, Rogue Summoner). It rolled out of early access and into a full 1.0 release on October 30th. The game is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, and Xbox One/X|S.
Like Some Version of DOOM and Vampire Survivors’ Lovechild.
I’m no stranger to the FPS or Survivors genres. The latter has more recently become a popular form of entertainment for me on the go. With titles like Vampire Survivors, Halls of Torment, and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor being easy to pick up and play. It looks like Vampire Hunters is trying to give that survivors aspect a different perspective.
Any crossover games that come to mind of similar type? Let me know what I should be checking out after my thoughts on the game below.
Gameplay
Imagine you were playing the OG DOOM but with a Vampire Survivors twist. That basically sums up the core idea behind Vampire Hunters. Not only do you get to have constant waves of enemy hordes attacking you, but you also get to wield all the guns. All at once!
In addition to a wide variety of weaponry, there are several other factors that play into each run in Vampire Hunters. A handful of different characters, character skill trees and account-wide permanent upgrades are available too. Players will also use constellation cards and artifacts from the skill tree to best suit their playstyle.
One of my favourite aspects of roguelites is randomness of pick-ups and upgrades. In Vampire Hunters you pick up souls that have a chance to be dropped by the vast number of ghouls, demons, and assortment of baddies. Souls level you up during the run and a random set of upgrades and/or new weaponry become available with each advancement of level. The constellation cards may modify the drops available to you, such as by making them all the same or randomizing all of your weapons entirely.
I did manage to reach the 30 minute mark on one of the levels in Vampire Hunters. What I found was instead of a grim reaper coming to instantly mow me down, I was given a task to complete. Completion of the task led to the eventual end of the level. I found it interesting that there was this little bump of gameplay right at the end.
Graphics & Audio
Vampire Hunters has released across consoles as well as PC but for this review I spent time with the game on PC and also on my Steam Deck. The simple pixel style, even in a 3D environment, plays well to this genre. When the screen is just completely full of pixelated particle effects, it’s nice having very minimal impact, if any, on performance.
Thankfully a part of the preparation screen before each run specifically allows you to scale up or down the weapons on your screen. I personally don’t like having a lot of my screen taken up by non-essential UI – even if the look of holding 14 weapons at once is awesome. Good on Gamecraft Studios to have it be a very clear option in Vampire Hunters.
One item I did notice, which I am hoping will be changed with the 1.0 release, is the player model. I noted that despite my choice of character for each run in Vampire Hunters, the brief intro of the player’s two arms waving about was the same each time. Other than that, I certainly am a fan of the art style as well as the driving audio tracks that keep the tempo up during runs.
Longevity
Vampire Hunters is another of those games that really boils down to how much you want to get out of the game. If you want to just run around and kill some demons and such for a brief time, go for it. Want to spend as much time as you can min/maxing builds and unlocking everything possible? You could definitely do that too and spend a quality amount of time doing so. With the possible addition of levels and characters, I would have to bargain that it will be a solid time sink. Not to mention that there is also a leader board for each level to complete against other players for the highest score.
Final Thoughts
Survivors like games are a genre that is worth taking a look into if you haven’t already. Vampire Hunters breaks the mould a bit, but keeps that driving force behind what has made games of the genre so popular. It also gives a definitive throwback to old school FPS classics.
I have to say Vampire Hunters is definitely deserving of the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
If you enjoy this review, please check out my other reviews here.
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