So @kaelci told me at some point to check this game out, I mean I've already bought it, but before writing this, I've spent hours playing it to figure out what makes a simple game like this so addictive. There's really nothing that interesting around aesthetics, themes, story, it looks like a generic Castlevania clone.
Past that, I've died in this game so many times to come here to write and tell you, that I've transcended as a battle caster. That I've dispatched so many foes in rapid succession, I couldn't tell any longer what was dead or alive on the screen. I played games where dodging and escaping bullet hells was a thing, becoming one was the flip-side of it instead.
The best way to describe Vampire Survivors, is that it's about wave clearing, take out as many enemies as I can while surviving long as I can just so I could continue my onslaught. While levelling up and choosing loot and upgrades.
So what am I fighting against? Well, hordes of vampire minions. That's kind of it, they come in droves of all time. Based on how long you survive, the difficulty ramps up. Then mini-bosses show up, so if you did not stack up on damage, bonuses, and defenses well enough, you'll have a hard time staying alive.
Few of the matches that I've played, mostly lasted from 8 to 25 minutes. There are levels that changes the gameplay by having different enemy placement design and will need you to reach a point on the map to finish the level. These are usually some kind of exception because they can be notoriously difficult to complete. Other levels are plain loops made for time-based survival challenges.
If I am being honest, this is a pretty grindy game. You have to put hours of playtime. A few levels are locked away till you've bested the ones before them, and earn enough gold to buy Powerups. Now what are Powerups? They're stat bonuses. Like increased mobility, health, damage ranks, HP recovery, etc. You earn gold by surviving longer each game, but most of them come from killing mini-bosses.
That's the short gist of it, how I'd play it well? Well, at first I kept dying and dying, before learning to avoid enemies and just creep slay them from a distance. Pick my abilities/casts properly, and their upgrades each time I level up. Abilities being like the stuff I keep casting to fight the hordes, some of them also being shields protecting me from taking damage.
And the enemy types are not all the same, some are slow, but others have different behaviors like spewing projectiles or sending minions to moving at crazy speeds. This also include group types that huddle up together to dish out substantial damage against you.
And man, there are some wacky abilities to pick. I had one where enemies freeze in time from a straight projectile, acidic flasks being thrown killing enemies who walk around them for a few seconds, and the best and my personal favorite, garlic AoE weapon. Yes, the garlic cast gives radius damage for minions coming close to my circle. Best way to clear out large waves.
Of course, my personal picks are not something that would be the best picks to beat the game. Someone else could have mastered this and would suggest me killer combinations if they backseated my streaming. But I digress, in recent games, I've managed to last longer than 20 minutes after having a few sets of Powerups, and learning the strengths and weakness of each character I played.
I've managed to unlock 2 more characters so far, Pasqualina is kind of my favorite at the moment. Firing javelins that ricochet, hitting multiple enemies. As you can see from the left, some characters have different bonus stats.
I've played this character a lot on the second map, Inlaid Library. Dairy Plant is the map I referred about regarding being pretty difficult, so avoided that one for the time being. I needed to earn more gold for that one.
It might sound tedious, but I had no problem farming on some of these maps, because the experience changes depending on how your playstyle shifts. There were games that got ridiculously crazy, I once picked a red gem, and then levelled up 3 times in a row. That's actually a first in my experience. Caveats of the reward system, however, is that it isn't always balanced, as killing tougher mini-bosses didn't exactly net me more gold than the prior ones often times.
From here on out, I've realized there's no sheer bounds as to what this game could throw at you. Each match gets interesting because of the RNG system of giving loots, and finding ways to utilize them. It'll have more in spades once I've start to unlock more.
I am going to come back again, and try to finish Dairy Plant. Unlock more characters, like I am really curious to see if this game can kick things up a couple of notches, because my first few hours of playing it were already pretty crazy.
Thanks to @kaelci for telling me to check this out.