Vampire Crawlers might be my GOTY as a roguelike lover

As the resident roguelike goblin at Kyusai HQ, I could barely hold myself together waiting for Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors to emerge from the darkness. Its predecessor, Vampire Survivors, tanked my social life, and I was hoping for a part two. 

Thankfully, Vampire Crawlers is an absolute dream to play – and I’ve barely been able to put it down since the game launched. While I’m not sure it’ll hit the same way for absolutely everyone, I think fans of roguelites and deck-builders will fall in love with this indie gem. 

Stylish expansion on the original game

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors – or, more succinctly, Vampire Crawlers – is a roguelite deck-builder with a dungeon-crawling format. 

In this game, you’ll make your way throughout maps like haunted libraries and forests, casting spells to defeat enemies, stay alive, and generate crucial resources. Enemies vary wildly, including everything from vampire bats to milk-beings, with a boss to defeat at the end of each level.

It’s not just a case of picking the strongest card to do damage with. Combos are key in Vampire Crawlers; playing cards in order of their mana cost will stack up a combo, enhancing the effectiveness of your cards. By pulling off combos, you can do unreasonable amounts of damage or triple your armor stats. 

As you explore each level, there’ll be the chance to pick up treasures and power-ups, just like in Vampire Survivors, along with gems that can be added to your cards to make them more impactful. 

There are even some special encounters tucked away in each map. I won’t spoil what they are, but I would advise interacting with everything possible to nab coins and getting ready to button mash when prompted. 

While running out of health does indicate the end of a dungeon run, Vampire Crawlers is a roguelite, meaning there’s a permanent progression system in play.

This shows up in between runs when you visit the town. In the town, you’ll be able to unlock power-ups and boosts, change characters, and upgrade cards, while also checking out your unlocked items. There are plenty of characters to unlock, each with their own perks, which makes progression even more rewarding.

Moreish gameplay with beautiful art

As with the original game, you’ll gain experience while progressing through Vampire Crawlers and defeating enemies, indicated by the bar at the top of the screen. Reaching a new level will provide you with powerful rewards, along with meta achievements for notable milestones for each level.

If you’re a fellow roguelike sicko, the gameplay loop here will keep you firmly glued to your screen. There’s a good amount of strategy in play, thanks to the power-ups and character options, but there’s a small amount of luck involved, too, with which spawns and power-ups you get.

I found the difficulty curve to be satisfying; there were moments where I tried to zoom ahead without leveling up enough to take on the boss of the level and got promptly smashed into the floor. There were tricky moments in the later maps, but they never felt unfair. 

A small feature that I particularly enjoyed was the overkill mechanic. If you’re battling a boss and get them down to no health, any further damage dealt past this point in the next turn rewards you with coins.

Visually, I found Vampire Crawlers to be a treat. It nicely follows the aesthetic of the first game, with a strong pixel art style, and every sprite feels lovingly crafted. Checking out the various monsters and bosses was a highlight for me.

In terms of performance, Vampire Crawlers ran well on both PC and Steam Deck for me, with no notable quirks, frame drops, or bugs to report. I particularly enjoyed playing the game on the Steam Deck, as the controls felt perfect for the handheld. 

Ever since the game’s demo came out, I’ve been counting down the days until Vampire Crawlers is released – so being able to say that it’s a diamond is incredible.

The game feels polished and rewarding to make progress in, and I highly recommend it to fellow fans of roguelikes and roguelites. Folks who don’t enjoy deck-builders or card-based games might not get the same enjoyment out of it, but I’d encourage folks to download the demo anyway and see what they think.

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