Everyone has had moments when they are carefree, playing a new game, and just going about their daily lives when something unexpected and devastating happens.
Even if there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with what you’re playing, you quickly come to the realisation that you would much rather be playing something else as you simply sort of check out mentally and let your thoughts wander.
The last time I experienced this was when I was playing the brand-new single-stick shooter Hero Survival, which is basically an exact replica of this new release. I couldn’t help but want to turn it off and go back to Vampire Survivors.
There are some changes, of course, but none of them are beneficial. If you haven’t played Poncle’s sleeper hit before, the objective is straightforward: live for as long as you can in this original twist on the twin-stick shooter genre, where your character only has movement control and fires automatically.
With a tonne of characters, levels, and equipment to unlock in addition to frequent free and paid updates that continuously add new material to an already substantial package, it’s truly one of the best gaming deals available today.
Finally, there is Hero Survival. It does a similar job with the in-the-moment gameplay, but it falls far short in every other area. There are just four game regions, and the few characters are largely the same aside from their fundamental characteristics, despite being humorous allusions to real-life or imaginary figures.
Instead of each having their own special attacks or arsenal, you have to unlock various starting weapons that you can mix and match. This really detracted from the thrill of discovering something new, as everything seemed like a chore because of the extremely expensive upgrade tree.
I would have preferred it if each character had had a unique equipment or weapon that encouraged me to try out more of the other characters. However, as soon as I found the Rambo equivalent, I would try out a new character, be let down, and quickly return to my favourite avatar.
At first, you must gather gold in increments of ten coins for each coin you find. Since upgrades might cost thousands of dollars, you will probably have to grind for several hours before making your next purchase.
The way each round goes is as follows: after selecting your character, starting weapon, and level, you drop in and try to survive the progressively longer waves. The tenth wave ends with a boss encounter against a demon.
Though this seems straightforward enough, there are a lot of unresolved problems that go beyond the absence of information. Initially, you battle the same monster at the conclusion of every zone, which seems pointless and made me wonder why I should continue playing after the first mission.
The upgrade system comes next. The majority of the enjoyment in Vampire Survivors comes from finding all of the amusing little secrets hidden throughout the game, crafting the most powerful character you can, and ultimately reaching the point where the game practically plays itself.Here, you’ll have to fight for every upgrade you receive.
Every time you level up your character, you’ll receive benefits that let you choose from three randomly selected possibilities. It might provide you a continuous advantage for the run, give you a short-term boost till you level up again (gross), or let you replenish some of your lost health, which is the only way to do so, as I would like to emphasise.
The transient buffs, in my opinion, are a little dull and go against the attraction of this unique genre. Getting stuff and weaponry basically works in the same way, and it happens at the conclusion of every wave.
The problem I had with this was that, in the unlikely event that you get lucky and obtain a new or upgraded gun, you can only view the stats of what you’re offered, not what you have equipped. Almost all of the things have more bad impacts than favourable ones.
You cannot go back if you decide to add a new shiny rifle to your arsenal and forget that what you had was greater than what you are acquiring now. The fact that you are only allowed to have four weapons at a time can hinder your advancement.
Normally, I’m an enthusiast for vibration and find it strange when a game doesn’t have any kind of rumble. Since my days with the Nintendo 64, it has been the norm, and it has persisted well into. This is probably one of the rare times that I have turned it off voluntarily because there is only one kind of rumble available, which is activated either by picking up a coin or being hit.
The confusion this created would occasionally make me panic, which would lead to me getting hit in real life when the previous one had all been in my head.
In the end, Hero Survival makes me think of all the occasions when, as a child, I would ask my mother for McDonald’s on the way home and receive the common reply, “we have food at home.”