this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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[–] chepox@sopuli.xyz 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That dude with 800 hours saying it's OK lol

This game is a solid 10. Really addictive and balanced. Very well done.

[–] Ashyr@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Help me understand it. I enjoyed it a while until I discovered the combination you need to chase to consistently get good results. Getting anything else felt like a waste of time and chasing the same build quickly became dull.

What am I missing? I'm glad for its success and that others are enjoying it and would like to get it as well.

[–] BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

There are many build that works, you found one good, I recommend trying other combinations

[–] Pheonixdown@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's more than just getting to the end timer.

Different characters can favor different builds, how many did you unlock and get to 30 min with?

Did you kill the Grim Reaper?

Did you build an egg farmer?

[–] Ashyr@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Probably 5-6 characters with 30+ minutes. I never got death kills, but came close a few times.

I think fighting death just takes too long for me to really feel like starting over when I fail. The thirty minute grind the game is built around just felt rough to me. Especially when the thirty minutes mostly feels trivial, just a time gate to endure.

No idea what an egg farmer even is.

[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know what an egg farmer is either.

But I found a lot of this fun of the game opened up when I went into the unlocks and secrets menu and found out there's things I could do to open up different game modes, difficulties, etc

[–] Ashyr@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Those are some good suggestions.

[–] Iapar@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

You can activate modifiers that makes more enemies spawn, faster etc. Later maps have different conditions. There is variety for what the game is.

And that is what I adore about the game. Every time it got boring another item,mechanic, secret showed up.

[–] Pheonixdown@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eggs are what you get for killing Guardians and the Reaper, or purchased from the merchant. They provide a small permanent bonus to 1 of the active character's stats. Egg farmer is just a massive gold farmer that you can use to repeatedly purchase many eggs on both themselves and then other characters for the stat bumps. But it really is a different kind of build.

While, the Grim Reaper isn't really THE goal of most runs, just getting to him is enough to let you get several achievements, but getting that first kill is sweet, and you don't even need to cheese it anymore, it takes a few weapons plus other decent DPS.

The achievements really are the general on ramp to most of the game, rather than just getting to 30 mins, look at them, figure out a few to try for on the next run and then trying to solve that puzzle. Getting to 30mins with weapons you've used on characters you've used in a map you've already beaten without some other goal, can definitely be boring to do repeatedly. But surviving just 18min on Bat Country to unlock Chaos Malachite can be a real challenge if you aren't well leveled/lucky/skilled, preferably more than 1 of those.

[–] abraxas@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

and you don’t even need to cheese it anymore

I can't believe the old days where people were beating the Reaper without at least one of cloak or ring. That was crazy. Only having Infinite Corridor was enough of an adrenaline rush for me!

[–] Pheonixdown@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Having done it both ways, the new way is just better, cheesing it wasn't fun, just a waiting game.

[–] abraxas@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, it didn't look fun. "Hide in in a specific spot in the library with these weapons and a low level, and hope" was the common one.

[–] abraxas@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

came close a few times

Since you can't see death's life, I'm going to be the first one to say you probably haven't come close :)

I think fighting death just takes too long for me to really feel like starting over when I fail

There are a few "very slow" builds, but if you don't take Death out in 20 seconds or less, odds are really good that your build can't even come close. Which is ok. Killing death is a very specific goal and most builds aren't designed for it.

The thirty minute grind the game is built around just felt rough to me

If you play a bit longer, you're able to reduce that to 15 minutes. Very few things are actually hard-gated to 30 minutes at all. Most unlocks are driven by character level; if you can hit level 80+ in less than 5 minutes, then you're good.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Really addictive

Like heroin. Wouldn't give that 10/10 either. The game is made by someone with background in making gambling games and it shows. It has all the mechanics of predatory mobile games, the sole thing in its favor is that those mechanics are not monetized.

[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

So in other words, it activates all our pleasure centers without exploiting that/causing damage? It's almost like it's the perfect game!

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

It's not pleasurable when you play a game for addiction and not fun.

[–] rigatti@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I thought the creator was a web developer?

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I don't know which technologies those gambling games used. Could be web based.

[–] Dagnet@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Imo, it's not balanced at all. And I love that

[–] jasondj@ttrpg.network 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Came here from All.

On my phone the linebreak in the title was after the “positive” and I seriously braced myself for a vampire pandemic.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We just hit +200,000 positive reports of vampire attacks in the greater London area, rising to 800,000 across all of England. The world is in turmoil, and we can only pray that as night falls in the Americas the casualties don't rise too high

[–] nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

If you use the 30:1, sales to reviews ratio for highly positively rated games they've sold 6 million units.

[–] jimmeth@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

I played it til I started hallucinating at night

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's it? But there's 3 million steam decks sold. There should be at least that many reviews.

[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you really think that everyone who plays a game leaves a review for it?

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

It's just a joke. One I suppose for just people interested in the SD. Vamp Survivors spent ages at or around the top of the most played games list on the SD, so it seemed like everyone who owned one was playing Vamp.

[–] tacosanonymous@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Shit. I forgot to review. BRB.

[–] ShitOnABrick@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I can see why the game is really good I got the game on my phone and tend to play it every so often its really fun I tend to have a whale of a time

[–] Nacktmull@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I liked it but after a few sessions it quickly became boring. How did you keep it interesting?

[–] abraxas@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm guessing you haven't played it enough. It changes and evolves in some interesting ways as you play it. I don't want to spoil it, but if you've only played "a few sessions", you probably are at the tip of the iceberg.

There's not unlimited replayability or anything, but there's a lot more to it than a guy and a whip hitting a bats.

[–] Nacktmull@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I played a few times until death spawned and killed me. What should I try to achieve after that?

[–] abraxas@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So that means you unlocked at least the next map (it unlocks with character level, but no way you didn't hit high enough level first playthrough if you made it to the Reaper). Maps after the first start to have unique items that will change up your gameplay experience. There's an "unlocks" section that will show up soon if it hasn't shown up yet in your game.

You're also going to unlock new weapons and items based on characters you play and things you find. That will start to unlock evolutions for weapons (have you discovered any?) where a weapon turns into a better one.

The second map has an item that lets you have more understanding of powering up.

The third map unlocks something that gives you more focus as you play. By this map, the enemy difficulty starts to rise and continues with other maps.

The 4th map unlocks a new mechanic that is arguably "the real beginning"

At the 5th map, the (admittedly limited) storyline will start to form. And things get a little weird.

Through all that, more maps and characters will show up. And after the 5th map, some important mechanics will make you want to go back to other maps.

The directed content tends to fade away quickly, but you're left with a lot more unlockables and TONS of in-game options. Then, you either start to ramp out (either unlocking a lot of things or just being content with what you'd completed), or you start to try to unlock everything and find crazy new strategies and builds. Without spoiling much, there are builds where you just charge enemies bodily, builds where you just use one weapon and make it good enough to complete any map.

As others mentioned, you can kill the Reaper. It isn't easy. There's other reapers out there that are stronger or weaker than him.

And finally, the expansion packs have a more narrative(ish... it's not like you'll get a lot of narrative)-driven storyline.

[–] KyoStarr@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Added one to the positivity pile. This game is a brilliant pick up and play game that is very undervalued for the content it contains.

[–] manapropos@lemmy.basedcount.com 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I bought this game because it was so cheap and had good reviews but I really don’t get the hype. I got maybe 2 hours playtime before realizing it wasn’t for me

[–] Zo0@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I mean it’s a better value than a six pack at least lmao. I’m just not into roguelikes or whatever the fuck this genre is called

[–] plantedworld@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it took me a little longer than 2 hours to really start to get the hang of how to build good stuff. The more I played the more fun I had

[–] manapropos@lemmy.basedcount.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I’ve tried similar games I’m just not into the genre I guess. I gave Hades a chance for much longer due to its critical acclaim and I did not enjoy it. I get that there’s a progression, and I don’t even play games for the story, but I expect a little more than the same gameplay loop over and over again just with upgrades

[–] abraxas@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

That's my only complaint about Vampire Survivor. The surface is boring. I churned out twice, thinking "I don't get what people see in this". Then I watched a Let's Play and said "that's not the game I played".

So I went back to it, spent several hours wondering if I was just wasting my time... and then then suddenly it clicked and now I'm almost at 100 hours played.

Have you found any unique items? Unlocked any maps? Evolved anything? IMO, the game begins with Tarot, peaks with the first applause (spoiler free hint that VS fans will recognize).