So I Tried… Vampire Survivors

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never played before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time I went for the PC version of Vampire Survivors.

What I thought it was

A bullet hell game that people I know have sunk hundreds of hours into. Also, it basically kicked the genre into overdrive with clone after clone releasing weekly. Honestly, I just want to finally find out what all of the fuss is about, because these types of games just look like they’d bore me with a lack of story and difficult, repetitive gameplay. But, that’s what this article series is for!

What it actually is

The enemies don’t shoot at you, that was my first mistake. They swarm you endlessly in ever-increasing numbers, however, from all sides spawning in from who knows where, because I don’t think the map has edges. I was right about it having no story, but that’s not to say it doesn’t somehow manage to still be compelling. You start with a “whip” attack which swipes every couple of seconds, and try to get it to hit enemies whilst remaining out of their reach. Some enemies will drop crystals, and if you collect enough of them you get to level up and choose one of a random selection of upgrades, whether it’s a new weapon or improving your current ones, or your stats.

Will I keep playing

Honestly, I get how people have been sucked in for hundreds of hours — literally, two people on my Steam friends list have over 200 hours. The more you play, the more stuff you unlock and can obtain in future runs. I went from having the whip and a dagger to having a garlic aura and fireballs in a surprisingly short amount of time. I’d actually been wanting a new game to play while I watch something on my other screen, and I think that might well be Vampire Survivors. It’s a little frustrating to control, but I imagine if I unlock more of the permanent upgrades (by collecting gold from powerful enemies) it will get more and more enjoyable.