Rather than being an overhead game with 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, and the result is a truly different take on an arcade-style FPS game. 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.
Vampire Hunters is still in Early Access, so be aware the content is still being added and there is more to be done with the game, but there is a lot of potential here. New maps and weapons have been added in recent updates, so a complaint some have had about a smaller amount of weapons and stages is slowly but surely being addressed. The last recent updates added new maps, weapons and modes, and the game feels much more full than it was at launch.
As with vampire Survivors, you must collect items to get more power and level up RPG-style, this time by collecting orbs to power up your arsenal, with the end result being you become a one-man army. 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 there is still more content coming to help improve this further,
Graphically, Vampire Hunters is okay and recent updates have improved it since the initial launch which was rough looking, and the improvements have helped the game stand out. In terms of audio, 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. Given that improvements are constantly being made, this leaves Vampire Hunters a lot of room for growth in these two areas going forward.
In terms of controls, you can use standard mouse clicks to shoot and the spacebar to jump, while also having sprinting options, but there is another choice as well. You can choose to play the game entirely like Vampire Survivors with auto-attacking and auto-targeting, which does create a different experience that feels more in line with that part of its inspiration. That said, if you choose this notion, your score at the end of your run will be lower and the game encourages you to use the manual controls.
Ultimately, Vampire Hunters still has a ways to go with more content being added during the Early Access period, but this is a great start. What we have is a unique fusion of two different game styles, and while the combination is not quite perfect just yet, there is so much potential for what can be done here. This is one to keep an eye on and a game that will most certainly be a must-play soon.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided.
