Not so much a power curve as a power cliff – the addictive Vampire Survivors is named our best Roguelike of the year. For more rewards, visit our Game of the Year 2022 (opens in a new tab) page.
Evan Lahti, Global Editor: Vampire Survivors boldly answers the question: What if Castlevania was a slot machine that kept spitting out jackpots? In my first hours of play, I completed 42 achievements and killed 100,000 enemies. Sometimes a good video game is just a series of flashing colors and numbers, you dig?
I don’t know if we’re ready for the endless horde of clones this game will inspire in 2023 (there are a few already, like Soul Stone Survivors). We’re looking at a real-time genre form, much like Slay the Spire did for deckbuilders after 2018.
Robin Valentine, editor-in-chief: The funny thing about Vampire Survivors is that, despite the trappings of Castlevania, what it’s really about is a stripped down action RPG. It’s like taking a Diablo 3 character from level 1 to the farthest edge of the endgame in 20 minutes. All the progression, the choices, the screen-filling spell effects, the satisfaction of a build finally coming together, it’s all there in the most modest package of the year. And I say bring the clones – Soulstone Survivors is a blast too.
Fraser Brown, online editor: The speed at which you gain power in Vampire Survivors gave me a boost. But good kick! Like the kind you might get if you crash your car into a huge pile of cotton candy. Sure, you’re amazed, but you’re also surrounded by delight. That’s what it feels like to go from throwing knives at a few zombies to wiping out hordes of monsters with god-like powers that engulf the screen in just 15 minutes. It’s a hell of a buzz.
It makes perfect sense on Steam Deck, though. It’s crazy that I spent over £500 on this thing, just to play a hideous game I bought for a few pounds, but here we are. I have no regrets. If you have a Steam Deck, you need to get this game.
Mollie Taylor, News Writer: Vampire Survivors is a game I should have hated. None of this is my usual cup of tea, and yet I can’t stop drinking. Throwing different combinations at the wall and seeing what sticks is super satisfying, and the game has plenty of upgrades and upgrades to keep you coming back to the stages. I went from repeatedly failing the first stage in 10 minutes to wiping out entire armies in just a few hours and felt like so good. Small races make it incredibly greedy, costing me an entire weekend thinking “just one more race”.
Richard Stanton, editor: It’s a game that asks very little of the player, but gives in abundance. Each playthrough is like a whirlwind ride through dozens of things the games do well, all balanced around the risk and reward of rounding up the monsters, which never fail to degenerate into universe-shattering slowdown balls. The Diablo comparison is fantastic because that’s exactly the feeling here, a long leveling curve crammed into minutes, the constant little surprises it serves up as you start to explore how abilities interact and, frankly, pure joy to kill thousands of things without really doing much more than a puff of garlic.
Phil Savage, UK editor: It should be trivially simple. He is, in fact, trivially simple. But this simplicity solves a lot of the problems I usually have with roguelikes. I’m less invested in each individual run than I am in something like Dead Cells or Spelunky, and so the inevitable failure hurts less, and the barrier to re-entry is next to nothing. So I head back in and this time try a different combination of upgrades depending on what the game throws at me on each higher level. Maybe I’ll take a chance on a few that I previously dismissed as trash, because I’m not pinning my hopes on this race finally being the right one. No, I’m just here to have a good time, to watch the numbers grow. And while I’m enjoying this insane fun, I can’t help but learn in the process. This upgrade is actually pretty good when leveled up, and especially when paired with that other add-on skill.
I don’t think it’s a better game than Dead Cells or Spelunky, roguelikes that I love despite the pain they inflicted on me. But it’s a different take on the genre, and I’m glad it exists as a lower-stakes alternative. Unlike Robin, however, I’m less excited that it’s inevitably becoming a new subgenre. Vampire Survivors fills a niche, but I don’t need to see it repeated ad nauseam.