Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors

fun

沁人心脾啊沁人心脾，爽得像是空口吃黄油

Not as catchy as the 1st one

Despite enjoying the original Vampire Survivors quite a lot, I had found myself ignoring poncle’s new title in the lead-up to release. After all, a spin-off that turns the original game into a dungeon crawler with roguelite deckbuilding elements didn’t excite me all that much. The original Vampire Survivors felt fresh when it released, and set a whole new genre into motion – whereas this looked like it was milking the IP by taking the gameplay and making it play a bit like Slay the Spire. But I couldn’t have been further from the truth. Despite there being thousands of roguelite deckbuilders available in 2026, Vampire Crawlers somehow manages to feel like something completely new. And, controversially, I’d also that this game is even better than their original release. Yes. Better than Vampire Survivors. This game really is that good. FAR FROM SUCKING Unlike Survivors where your character is placed in the midst of chaos and has to keep moving frantically in order to stay alive, Crawlers is a much more sedate affair on the surface. You control your hero from a first person perspective and guide them through a small map using either the buttons on the HUD (if you’re crazy) or by using traditional controls. The goal is to get to and beat the boss encounter on each floor before being able to move down to the next level, which will naturally progress in difficulty. What’s immediately noticeable is how much the game resembles Vampire Survivors with a lot of its key mechanics – despite taking place from a different perspective. Candles can be broken for money, floor chicken, or other goodies; enemies drop blue gems that level you up and provide you with a choice of different upgrades, and all the bonuses and weapons you remember from the main game are all here – albeit in card form. The game does introduce a lot of additional elements and items as you progress, but there’s a comfortable feeling of familiarity going in as you experience old items in a whole new way. It’s impressive how they’ve managed to rework everything for this new gameplay style in a way that remains faithful to the original. And that is because action is a whole different ball game from Vampire Survivors. Running into an enemy will initiate combat with a group of foes, who will be lined up in rows to fight against you. You’ll naturally start off the first turn with your hand of cards and a limited number of mana. Every card has a mana cost, so if you’re not careful you may end up running out of mana with cards still in your hand. On the flip side though, playing cards with a sequential mana cost will add to your combo and increase the effects of the next card played. That duplicator ring will now add double the amount of projectiles, or that whip will hit with double the power. It’s a great foundational mechanic that encourages you to supplement your mana wherever possible and have cards with a varying cost to help build up your multiplier. It seems like a straightforward loop, and that’s because it is – at first. However, new gameplay mechanics are introduced almost constantly and help make you more powerful – whilst also adding an extra layer of strategy to keep in mind. There are gems that you can craft onto weapons to make them more powerful (as well as a Blacksmith that can create extra slots on any card in your deck), recruitable heroes that add their own special cards to the deck for additional boons during gameplay, wild cards that can be used once for a stat boost or extra cash – and also allow you to start your mana chain again from zero without breaking your combo, and so much more. I found myself unlocking new cards or fundamental gameplay mechanics after every run, which made sure that even failed runs don’t feel like a failure. That’s what made me enjoy the game far more than the fantastic Vampire Survivors, as you really need to think about what to do in order to survive. Using weapons that can push the enemy back a row will effectively give you a free turn, but do you risk it and play something more powerful instead in the hope that you can take them out? Do you break your combo on a health recovery item to get a chunk of health back, or do you go all out instead and hope you find some floor chicken lying around the dungeon? Do you upgrade your weapon into something more powerful, but lose two cards in the process? Do you add a 2X multiplier gem to your strongest card, or add one that allows you to play it twice? There’s so much to consider, and somehow the game still retains its fast pace – especially later in the game as you start producing incredible combos against foes with enormous amounts of health. Vampire Crawlers drains you of your free time with as much relentless energy as the titular undead being do with blood. In a world that is now full of Vampire Survivors clones, this sequel feels like a breath of fresh air and is one I won’t be giving up any time soon – especially as it plays flawlessly on the Steam Deck. Now, how about making a Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard From Vampire Survivors But This Time It’s In Virtual Reality?

Extremely fun and consistently inventive, with lots of creative ideas and a lot to enjoy for both deck-builder fans and people who love Vampire Survivors, since there's a lot of overlap with the build-crafting and powerful meta-progression here

Все хорошо

Subtle tactics and strategy, isnt readily obvious. Addictive as hell. "One more run" then the sun is coming up and you're late for work.

i think the fact that all the negative reviews are from people who haved still played 20+ hours is quite telling. its fun. unlike others i think the bosses having countdowns is actually good as it somewhat makes you take different cards you dont care about for normal battles (i.e armor and freeze) and actually makes the bosses feel more like a challenge... almost like a boss fight or something.... removing this mechanic would just removes challenge and make boss fights feel the same as normal enemies. some mechanics and cards could be balanced a bit better; the arcana cards vary from completely awful to incredibly powerful so you always take the same ones no matter what crawler you are using. regardless game is still super fun, worth the money and am looking forward to future updates.