WHY HAVE I PLAYED THIS GAME FOR 75+ HOURS!?
AND GOTTEN 100% ACHIEVEMENTS????
I didn't buy this for a long time because I thought it looked low-budget/lazy, visually, and repetitive, not to mention that the gameplay loop looked like that of one of probably 100s of free mobile games. Then I found the free demo version of it on itch.io. Played that for a bit, and enjoyed it, but it confirmed my suspicions. I got bored of it but kept having the hankering to go back and play it more, so I decided to buy it on Steam just to see what the full version had to offer. What the hell, it's $5 and I can get a refund on it if I don't like it.
The sheer amount of unlockable content immediately won me over. So many characters with different passives, so many secrets to explore, weapon combinations to discover, and characters to unlock. The progression in this game is perfect. You can unlock something new with nearly every run. It makes it so easy to just think "I'll unlock the next thing real fast", but then real fast turns into 4 half-hour runs.
Long story short, I decided to limit myself to 1 or 2 half-hour runs each day because otherwise I would just get way too sucked into it. I don't know if you can do the complicated math, but 75.5 hours does not divide evenly into .5 or 1 hour segments based on the number of days I've played VS. So what I'm trying to say is that I failed miserably, but had a great time.
Vampire Survivors brings back the exciting feeling of unlocking content by playing that is missing in games these days. I say confidently that it has nothing to do with nostalgia. There is just something incredibly exciting about having real, tangible, and rewarded goals while playing a game. VS and older games' unlock philosophy is "Have fun playing this game and your reward is to have more fun playing the game". Modern games' philosophy is "pay more to have more fun, or you can play a LOT if you don't want to pay. But we'd really prefer that you pay". The play-to-unlock always seems like they relented to include it because they didn't want to be accused of being money-hungry. But it's a thin veil. Don't know when this turned into a rant, but the point is, Vampire Survivors does it right and is a lot of fun. You should try it. What do you have to lose? $5? You can always get a refund if you don't like it!
(it's also free on mobile now)
AND GOTTEN 100% ACHIEVEMENTS????
I didn't buy this for a long time because I thought it looked low-budget/lazy, visually, and repetitive, not to mention that the gameplay loop looked like that of one of probably 100s of free mobile games. Then I found the free demo version of it on itch.io. Played that for a bit, and enjoyed it, but it confirmed my suspicions. I got bored of it but kept having the hankering to go back and play it more, so I decided to buy it on Steam just to see what the full version had to offer. What the hell, it's $5 and I can get a refund on it if I don't like it.
The sheer amount of unlockable content immediately won me over. So many characters with different passives, so many secrets to explore, weapon combinations to discover, and characters to unlock. The progression in this game is perfect. You can unlock something new with nearly every run. It makes it so easy to just think "I'll unlock the next thing real fast", but then real fast turns into 4 half-hour runs.
Long story short, I decided to limit myself to 1 or 2 half-hour runs each day because otherwise I would just get way too sucked into it. I don't know if you can do the complicated math, but 75.5 hours does not divide evenly into .5 or 1 hour segments based on the number of days I've played VS. So what I'm trying to say is that I failed miserably, but had a great time.
Vampire Survivors brings back the exciting feeling of unlocking content by playing that is missing in games these days. I say confidently that it has nothing to do with nostalgia. There is just something incredibly exciting about having real, tangible, and rewarded goals while playing a game. VS and older games' unlock philosophy is "Have fun playing this game and your reward is to have more fun playing the game". Modern games' philosophy is "pay more to have more fun, or you can play a LOT if you don't want to pay. But we'd really prefer that you pay". The play-to-unlock always seems like they relented to include it because they didn't want to be accused of being money-hungry. But it's a thin veil. Don't know when this turned into a rant, but the point is, Vampire Survivors does it right and is a lot of fun. You should try it. What do you have to lose? $5? You can always get a refund if you don't like it!
(it's also free on mobile now)