One striking difference is that every level except the first one now gives you objectives in the form of a tome or two placed in far-off corners of the map Those are juicy, but perhaps the most impactful addition is the unlockable map, which is handy for both tracking down coffins that unlock extra characters and for moseying over to leftover healing chicken drops when you find yourself in a pinch. You don’t need to nab ‘em to complete the stage, but they do unlock new parts of the game: anything from a cheat sheet for weapon evolutions to a new system that lets you choose up to three powerful passive buffs, such as enabling crits for certain weapons or tripling the times they bounce. One striking difference is that every level except the first one now gives you objectives in the form of a tome or two placed in far-off corners of the map. The final level throws a curveball that turns that generosity on its head, but we’ll figure out how we feel about that later. Go on, Vampire Survivors says, sometimes. It still feels generous, with occasional explosions of potency sprinkled along the way thanks to either chests that contain five items at once rather than their regular one, or the way you occasionally get to randomly level up ten times in a row. It only takes a few minutes before that sound becomes a constant rush in your ears the power curve is palpable. Most enemies drop gems when they die, which you can hoover up for XP and an oh-so-satisfying sound effect. Every run earns you gold, which can be spent on permanent stat buffs that send you into your next run a little tougher. Basic armaments combine into evolved, superpowered versions of themselves that munch up monsters faster than kids let loose on British baked corn snacks. Within 30 minutes, if you survive a stage until its very end, you go from chucking out a mesley couple of daggers to a never-ending dagger hurricane being just one small component in your whirling armageddon arsenal. The core appeal remains the same: escalation. If you haven’t played at all, then God yes, please check out all the stuff. If you haven’t played since the early access launch then yes, it’s worth checking out the new stuff. There are new maps to conquer, new characters to conquer with, and new secrets to uncover. It’s still about collecting upgrades until you’re the locus of an unstoppable death machine, and now that it’s left early access that death machine comes in more colours and more flavours. Vampire Survivors is an arcade-style survivathon about weaving through fields of enemies as your weapons automatically obliterate the oncoming hordes. Fireworks burst in every corner, thanks to the evolved version of my diamond-spewing runetracer weapon that’s now called ‘NO FUTURE’. Pulsating lights stretch in a vertical column from the top to the bottom of my screen, scattering into deadly particles like notes played on an accordion of cosmic destruction. The full release of this still splendid arcade splat’em up adds variety, depth, and an endgame you may or may not feel compelled to conquer.
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