Vampire Survivors continues to release excellent DLC, but it isn’t the only great survive-’em-up on the market!
I’ve played a lot of Vampire Survivors, including the vast majority of its DLC and I’m looking forward to the Warhammer spin-off due later this year too. Finding myself hooked on the survive-’em-up subgenre — and yes I will refer to them as that instead of “bullet heaven”, don’t try and stop me — means that I’ve played a lot of similar games. Some are weaker offerings like Cyberheroes Arena DX, but there are a rampaging horde of above average choices. So here I’ve compiled five excellent choices that offer something a little different to the genre leader, but are also tremendous fun in their own right.
Army of Ruin
Starting with what is probably the closest game to Vampire Survivors on this list, Army of Ruin features all the bright colours, fun looking enemies, and simple move and autoshoot gameplay. It’s a solid system that works well and the visuals are surprisingly impressive for what is arguably a simple game. The main gameplay twist here is that you also have an active ability that can attack enemies around you before needing to reset with a cooldown timer. Each character has their own one, as well as a personal weapon and unique stats.
And boy are there a lot of characters, weapons, and items! You unlock new things at a hell of a clip, with individual levels offering you specific challenges that will give you gold for stat buffs or new weapons and characters. I liked knowing where I needed to focus my efforts to get a new fun toy to play with. Additionally, levels have difficulty options as well, with you getting to scale up how hard it is to access new challenges for unlocks. There’s a ton of content here, and I’ve barely scratched the surface in spite of dozens of hours playing.
Something that also uses the active ability system and builds on it further is R.I.P. You unlock active abilities by levelling up as you’d expect, deploying them when you need to, ideally when facing one of the many bosses. These feel powerful and can really turn the tide if used correctly. There’s a hell of a tide to turn here too, with hordes of zombies bearing down on you right from the off. Interestingly, enemies here have to actually attack you rather than relying on contact damage, meaning you can prepare yourself a little more readily, assuming you can get your timing right with the sheer volume incoming.
The extra twist here, aside from the lovely grimdark aesthetic, is that you also have to aim your attacks. Most survive-’em-ups are content to just let you fire freely and not worry, but not in R.I.P. You’ll need to pick your targets to get the most out of your weapons, and those that are directly beneath your crosshair will suffer additional damage. This forces you to actually consider accuracy and not just dodgeroll around everywhere. It’s challenging, but the visuals certainly get my attention.
Halls of Torment
Another grimdark style game, but this time with a fantasy setting is Halls of Torment. My initial feelings on this one weren’t great, but the Diablo-esque art style appealed and I gave it a chance. This one does a great job of actually making your enemies feel threatening, as they aren’t just numerous, but also powerful. Your choice of hero heavily dictates how you’ll handle them too, with a ranged fighter and a melee fighter playing in genuinely different ways rather than in Vampire Survivors where certain weapon choices can negate specific playstyles.
There’s a much bigger focus on story here too, with excursions into the titular halls often being to rescue a character to add to your town or about finding an item to unlock new levels of the halls. You have to plan for your mission too, as you’ll want to be aiming for these objectives, and some characters will be better equipped to handle them. I liked the inclusion of actual — albeit it simple — puzzles to acquire some of your objectives. There’s a lot to like here, and the art style really does a good job of bringing it all together.
From grimdark to literally everything in the universe! Everything is Crab isn’t necessarily about crabs unless you evolve into a crablike creature. This one is wildly different to other genre offerings, with you evolving your creature constantly throughout a twenty-or-so minute run. On the surface, that wouldn’t be a lot different, but the sheer variety of different evolutions is mindboggling. The illustrious Reuben Howe describes it best with “…having 12 charmed creatures, many of whom were ferrets, while my main mouthpiece was a leech maw and my legs were tentacles turned me into an eldritch horror.” which is a hell of a way to end a run.
Unlike others in the genre, considering how many evolutionary paths there are, Everything is Crab requires much more planning, and isn’t simply a game in which you get stronger because attacks hit harder. You’ll need to pick out complimentary evolutions to give yourself a fighting chance as your run continues. The bright, playful art style certainly helps to keep things interesting. I can understand why pixel art was the choice as there’s no way anyone has the time to create and animate that number of different creatures!
My favourite one to finish. It helps that I really like Deep Rock Galactic as a base game, but even that lends itself very nicely to the survive-’em-up genre. You’re a dwarf, doing what dwarves do and mining all the goodies you can out of a planet. Sadly, the planet doesn’t like that and just so happens to be swarming with bugs of different varieties who are happy to kill you. You’ll level up, tool up, and shoot up the monsters as you try to mine all the resources you can to pursue meta progression for new characters and weapons.
The twist here is that you can mine any rocky surface you can find. Yes, mining gold to aid your run is useful, but if you’re backed into a corner, you can dig your way backwards while blasting bugs at the same time. Very satisfying when you manage to get out of a tight spot. Each stage ends with a rush to your drop pod to head ever deeper, before finally taking on a boss or blowing up a huge chunk of planet to take home. The weapons feel great, and you’re constantly unlocking more and better options as you might expect. The only downside I have here is that the enemy variety is occasionally a bit lacking.
I’m sure there are plenty of other excellent ones that I simply haven’t got to (yet). I’m told Megabonk is a lot of fun and Yet Another Zombie Survivors looks pretty good too, so with any luck I’ll find time to survive even more!
