The massively popular trend of “Vampire Survivor-likes” that somehow has gotten dozens of games jumping on the bandwagon despite not really having an official moniker has taken the gaming world by storm over the past year.
For the most part, they all play similarly with their top-down perspectives with players running around in arenas trying to stay alive. Which is where Vampire Hunters tries to break from the mold by taking a first-person perspective.
The same way Smite changed up the MOBA formula by being a third-person action game compared to its popular predecessors, Vampire Hunters plays out in a way that tries to take the newfound genre in a fresh direction.
The end result is something that does stand out away from the others it’s inspired by, but limited content and obvious borrowed assets hold this game back a little when it comes to being a good game in general.
When it comes to the basics expected from a FPS title, Vampire Hunters has a good foundation. Aiming is smooth, feeling like titles such as Quake, further lent by the game’s low poly graphics that harken to that ear of gaming.
Movement is okay for the most part, likely stemming from having to balance the gameplay perspective with the growing standards for “Vampire Survivor-likes” where speed is treated as a stat to aid in survivability.
Unlike some of the more popular titles in this genre, there aren’t level-up perks that boost up the players stats during the course of a run. Everything is either a weapon or a boost to one of the stats to one of the weapons a player has picked up.
There isn’t any different builds one can create or work around that changed up the style run-to-run. Instead, it’s more about collecting every weapon to create a comical smorgasbord of weapons to shoot up your foes.
However this does make things more repetitive beyond what one would expect from this genre where players spend more of their time in a simple arena running in circles kiting enemies in a desperate bid for survival. Made worse in Vampire Hunters when stages boil down to running down a hallways tighter than Final Fantasy XIII’s.
The game is also grindy when it comes to building up the permanent upgrades through coins gained by either picking it up during stages or by completing certain achievements. During my Early Access preview, the developer has already patched the game to address this, but things still take a long while to build up.
It is nice that the developers did add in accessibility settings that help out the grind, mainly in making the gameplay less straining such as auto-fire. While it might be looked down upon for removing challenge, I’d recommend using it to avoid health problems when grinding and turning it off when you actually want to have fun.
There’s a good foundation set here, but there’s a lack of polish and content to justify it having a price tag higher than that of its predecessors, even if only at $9.99. Aspects such as obvious royalty-free sound effects or using publicly available music, fortunately with permission, will make others see this as a cash grab jumping on a trend.
That said, it’s still relatively solid in its current state. So for those who are greatly into the genre can enjoy this for providing them with something slightly different than what the mainstream offerings can give. But it’s still lacking that I have a difficult time recommending it currently while it’s in its Early Access state.
Vampire Hunters is available now in Early Access for PC (via Steam).
