Vampire Survivors is a very simple Rogue-Lite monster slaying game made by lone developer poncle. It is a game that thrives off its simplicity. Dead simple is the key to this games success. Much like the idle craze of years past, this game relies on minimal investment on the players part for them to feel like they are having a fun and rewarding experience.
A simple graphic interface leads to several simple menus. One being a place to spend you coins that you earn in game. There are NO Microtransactions in this game, so you may want to consider the stats and boosts that certain characters have in order to maximize your gold gains. My personal favorite at the moment is Porta Ladonna and her extremely fast-zapping first level Lightning attack. The power ups are helpful at getting your characters further and further into a level, with each level resetting upon your death.
Simplicity does not end after the character select screen. Once you enter one of the levels you will find yourself within a simple world. Pressing your keyboard will reveal simple controls, you need nothing more than WASD and space bar to play this game. Soon after, some enemies come onto the screen following their simple instructions; Walk to the player and touch them to kill them.
You, the player, have somewhat vague, yet equally simple goals. Such as "survive 'x' amount of minutes before moving on" or "find the coffin in this level to unlock the next level." And while you walk towards your task and defeat your enemies with simple attacks you earn gemstones that grant you experience points and levels. These player levels grant you a choice of a new powerup to add to your arsenal or to upgrade attacks that you already own. You can earn a throwing knife attack that throws knives in front of you, or you can earn a special upgrade that makes your throwing knives shoot faster. Or maybe they shoot knives behind you as well. Further on into your adventure you will discover that different combinations of Power Ups earned in a match can be further combined to make super powerful special attacks.
Remember, Vampire Survivors is a Rogue-lite game and therefore death is part of the adventure. With each revival comes the gold that is used to upgrade your character's base stats. As well, the gold can be used to unlock new characters that start with different modifiers and base attacks to help maximize your runs through the levels. I highly recommend getting the "projectiles" upgrade to increase the amount of shots your characters fire at the beginning of each round. It can be a huge help when you're surrounded and an attack that normally only circles you with one book is starting off circling you with two!
All in all Vampire Survivors is an EXCELLENT and CHEAP game that anyone can dive into on even the most basic of laptops. If you are looking for that 'perfect game' to fill idle moments you cannot go wrong with Vampire Survivor. Hats off to the developer with this gem. The success of this simple concept is going to lead to many-a copy-cat and I, for one, look forward to it. (As long as they aren't pay to win!)
