Vampire Survivors Review (PS5) – Don’t Invite This One In If You Still Want Your Life

It’s been a long time coming for Vampire Survivors to make it over to PlayStation. Originally released in 2022 for PC and Xbox, the top-down gothic monster-killing roguelite took a bite out of the world by offering an extremely casual experience with addictive gameplay loops, and was as cheap as a meal deal in 2024. The stakes were low for the game: a small buy-in, a similarly short time to beat and some dopamine every level up or chest you unlocked. Suddenly those low stakes became almost literal ones as they pierced the chest of anyone who played it.

Since its release, we’ve seen it reach new platforms, release DLC content with new maps, modes and even collaborations with other games like Among Us and Contra. Hell, even I couldn’t wait to try Vampire Survivors myself and played it on my phone last year, but I didn’t let the game’s fangs quite get to me because I knew its time on PlayStation was inevitable. And now after nearly two years, Vampire Survivors is finally playable everywhere, but is it already in the coffin for some? Absolutely not. If you’re one of the few who are yet to play it, then buckle up because I have a perfect way to ruin all of your life’s obligations.

I Died Once Already, I Can’t Die Twice

There’s no story set up for Vampire Survivors, you click ‘Play’, pick the one character you currently have unlocked, select a level and you’re promptly in a run. The only controls you need to think about are the left stick (your movement) and cross (selecting in menus) and it’s honestly as simple as that. Your character of choice will have a starting weapon. As everyone starts with Antonio Belpaese – who has an almost striking resemblance to Trevor Belmont – you will have a whip which flicks wherever you’re facing automatically. Enemies will immediately approach you and your goal is to essentially manoeuvre your character to defeat them.

The more enemies you kill, the more gems are dropped for you to pick up which gives you XP. Every level-up will present a menu of a handful of items to choose from; you’ll have only a few at the start, unlocking more as you complete challenges like defeating a certain amount of enemies or surviving for such minutes. Maybe it’s because I’m privy to how the game works that I got quite a few unlocks in my first run but I think there’s a masterful dangling of a carrot here. The notion of just one more run quietly seeps into your gaming habit for Vampire Survivors, one new item could mean a better chance at survival or even a shot at the level’s boss.

I think it’s a good time in the review to point out that the solo developer of this game previously worked on casino slot machines, so if anyone can perfect the cadence of gameplay = reward it’s Poncle. There’s an innate simplicity much like hitting spin on a fruity to Vampire Survivors that just scratches that primordial itch of dopamine.

I Want To Suck Your Time

Bigger enemies drop chests for you to collect. Once you bust them open it shoots out rays of light, items flowing like reels of a slot machine and you get a random upgrade for a currently equipped weapon. You can have six weapons equipped during a run, as well as six power-ups which buff your stats. These range from damage or health increases, how often your weapon will fire etc. It doesn’t seem it during your first couple of hours but the combinations can get wild.

This is where the fun really begins as Vampire Survivors progressively gets more intense as you progress. Whether that be new levels you go to or the upgrades you buy in the main menu, it’s all rolled out in a specific way to keep the difficulty just on the side of doable. As you become stronger, everything becomes tougher but by the end of it all it is just flashing colours on the screen as if you’ve just hit the jackpot.

As you’re getting to grips with the game and unlocking new elements like a map, secret finders, and an item shop you learn just how many secrets there are to discover and herein lies the loop that is just so addictive for a completionist like myself. I feel like I’m at the point where I can competently speak on Vampire Survivor’s quality, but I know there’s just so much more to find when I inevitably go back and lose even more hours of life to it. New characters, abilities, and different types of modes to unlock linger in secrecy for me to find. And with a whopping 221 trophies currently to collect, I feel like I might be here a while.

The Price Of Immortality

Outside of the main stages you’ll play, there are challenge modes as well as modifiers to shake things up. Hyper is a more intensive version of the main game, Hurry is a sped-up version as well as Arcanas that adds random modifiers in-game. I’ve not dabbled in these modes so much as I’m trying to unlock everything linearly – if that’s possible – but to know there’s a seemingly endless wealth of game here is astonishing.

Different characters will have different starting weapons, stats and a special trait that might cater to your playstyle, but it arguably all plays very similarly from front to back. This is where I think the game’s DLC has made attempts to change the format a little bit to keep players engaged outside of the base game, however, they don’t come with the main game package. Not to be expected as no other platform versions do but it is a shame that “new” content is paid DLC.

Another aspect to enjoy is Vampire Survivor’s co-op, you can do this through couch with up to three other friends and basically all enjoy the base experience together. Whilst there are some liberal uses of the Castlevania franchise, the game does manage to extend outside of just being a copy of it visually. There’s a mount of unique enemies to best, wonderfully designed character sprites to play as and a soundtrack that keeps the games atmosphere chaotic.

A Vampire’s Reflection

Vampire Survivors is pretty much a perfect game for what it’s set out to be. Something so casual and quick to pick up but simultaneously insanely addictive. Whether that’s the random drops in-game that play out like a lottery win or the visual feast of a late-game run with it being thousands of pixels on screen popping with light and colour or just the sheer perfect unfurling of unlocks.

It’s hard not to get sucked into this if you have a single modicum of an addictive personality, which let’s face it most of us do. I think Poncle’s continued support of the game is fantastic, the presentation is so unserious yet seriously engaging. The in-game currency is fair, meaning you can buy upgrades and characters fairly easily and the rate of unlocking keeps you going.

I can’t pick at any faults due to how much play time you get out of this for the price. One might argue it’s a little shallow overall and I can see that, there’s nothing deeper outside of its core loops that compels Vampire Survivors to be an artistic masterpiece, instead, it’s an absolutely perfect waste of time.

Vampire Survivors delivers on exactly why it’s an addictive rougelite with near-perfect execution. Incredibly easy to pick up, even easier to get lost in and a well of secrets to keep you playing. It doesn’t offer too much variety with its gameplay but you’ll barely notice as the flashing lights of weapon upgrades and coins enamour you.

Vampire Survivors is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS/Android and PC via Steam.

Developer: poncle
Publisher: poncle

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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