I am very picky about the games I choose to play unless it’s related to my favorite series. Personally, I am a huge fan of Castlevania. If anything even relates to the Castlevania series, I’m practically shoving money out the door to get a copy. Enter Vampire Survivors in 2021. While this game didn’t officially connect to Castlevania initially, it lovingly mentioned and jested towards the series just enough, and I quickly fell in love with the aesthetics, gameplay, and overall gothic vibe.
Now, five years later, the new Vampire Crawlers has been out for a month, and to say that I was a little apprehensive about the game initially is an understatement. I’ve seen developers try new things before, and this game isn’t the first to go from a unique game style to one with card mechanics. With that said, I gave it a shot, and wow, did Poncle do something amazing, and I am glad I gave this game a shot.
The Switch
Vampire Survivors is what’s known as a reverse bullet hell. The simple explanation is that there are a lot of enemies that come at you, and you have a lot more bullets going at them. While Vampire Survivors wasn’t the first of its kind, it is the one most noted for the genre’s popularity, and is considered the base that most other games like this take after in some way or another. From its announcement, Vampire Crawlers was very different. Gone were the open fields with enemies crowding the screen, the frantic running for your life from hordes, and instead, we’d be receiving a handful of cards, well, at least that’s what I thought.
In reality, the game almost feels like an extension of the first. While yes, you were now guided through corridors on a map, and enemies seemed far fewer, each battle you fought found more and more enemies filling the screen, with maps growing more expansive. Not only that, but the knowledge you brought with you from the first game was helpful. If you expected certain items to react together and work towards evolution, you’d be right. If you felt characters should play a certain way, they did. That old man who moved slowly in the first game was now an incredibly slow-to-start character. Poncle had found a way to turn those memorable mechanics from the first game into a strategic masterpiece using cards, and that wasn’t all they did.
The Itch
One of the most interesting things about Vampire Survivors was that it was so addictive to play, and Vampire Crawlers follows in its footsteps perfectly. Part of the reason the games are so addictive is the roguelite mechanics, because I go in, play with random items, then I die, and I start over with more knowledge and some upgrades. It’s this cycle that keeps drawing me in. Eventually, I start evolving my weapons into stronger, more powerful versions, and instead of running from the hordes, I now chase after them for more experience. Vampire Crawlers kept its roguelite roots with random choices for new cards and gems at every level.
Vampire Crawlers new system turns the Vampire Survivor weapons into cards that can be upgraded and can combo from one to the next. It’s beyond satisfying to get to the point in the game where you can draw cards semi-endlessly, until you have a 50+ card combo and the newly drawn cards start to shatter, the game’s way of telling you to stop because you’re going too far. When you get to this point, you no longer have a few weapons flying around, hitting enemies on the screen. Instead, depending on the weapon, the enemies don’t exist on the screen anymore; you have so many weapons flying about, dealing an unfathomable amount of damage that you can’t see or hear anything but them. Then, after a while, you find a way to make this happen repeatedly in different ways with different teams.
Conclusion
Vampire Crawlers does not replace Vampire Survivors, but is another perspective that adds to the already immersive world. It changes the overall perspective and lets us take our time with our decisions, allowing us to decide when, and exactly how to strike and deal with our foes, creating an all new depth to the gameplay that couldn’t have existed in its predecessor. The game is so addicting and enjoyable that I forget I had any apprehension towards it at all. I believe that Vampire Crawlers not only lived up to its predecessor, but has added to the incredible experience that Poncle’s roguelite series has to offer, and I for one can’t wait for more!
