Rather than being an overhead game that sees you attaining multiple weapons and surviving as long as you can, Vampire Hunters merges the Vampire Hunters experience with that of a First Person Shooter, and sends you out to hunt down the hordes of the undead Doom style. Like in Vampire Survivors, you will gain more weapons and unlock more abilities, but the change of perspective completely alters the experience with the result being a truly different take on an arcade-style FPS game. Of course, we still get to experience RPG elements and horde-mode-style enemies with rogue-lite features, and the result can be a bit overwhelming at first, especially when swarmed by enemies.
I first played Vampire Hunters when it was still in Early Access, so the content was not complete yet, but the full release is now here. Now we have new maps , characters and weapons along with some changes to how things worked before, resulting in an experience which feels very satisfying. The game now feels far more realized and over the course of the last year, so much has been added that this now feels like a completely different experience.
The game still sees you collect items to get more power and level up RPG-style by collecting orbs to power up your arsenal, with the end result being you become a one-man army. But now everything feels tighter, there are more enemy types and the stages are far better thought out. You will die several times though. and when you do, you’ll have a chance to spend the gold you have earned to upgrade base stats like firepower, reload speed, health and improve chances of getting different starting weapons. This helps Vampire Hunters have the same addictive nature that Bullet Heaven rogue-lite games need and stand out from the rest at the same time.
Graphically, Vampire Hunters has been vastly improved since the last time I played and the improvements have helped the game with its unique look. It resembles a strange mix of Boomer Shooter and horror game but works surprisingly well for what ti is. In turms of music, Vampire Hunters goes for a soundtrack that is very similar to Castlevania but with more of a fast-paced tempo which works well with the gameplay.
This time around, I played on the Nintendo Switch and it handled extremely well, with the game playing the same as Vampire Survivors with auto-attacking and auto-targeting. The movement takes a bit of time to get used to, but it is ultimately not an issue. If you want though, you can choose to play it as a first person shooter with manual controls and that ends up being a lot of fun, especially with the options to control some but not all of the weapons and the various options you are given to suit the game to your preference.
Ultimately, Vampire Hunters is a very fun experience that stands out thanks to going a different route. The first person shooter hybrid idea makes this a very unique game and essentially a Doom version of Vampire Survivors. Obviously this will not be to everyone’s liking, but it is ultimately a can’t miss experience. This is an ideal way to do something different, and along with Halls of Torment, stands out as one of the better takes on the formula.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided.
