Ever because it got here to Change on the tail finish of final summer season, Vampire Survivors has been my airplane sport. Certain, different run-based indies like Balatro and Useless Cells, all-encompassing triple-A titles like Tears of the Kingdom and Tremendous Mario Bros. Marvel, and retro compilations like Sonic Origins and TMNT: The Cowabunga Assortment, have shared that title, however I at all times know that after I must go time on a flight, no sport does in order successfully as Vampire Survivors. Logically, I do know that every run will final, at most, half-hour, however for some motive, it by no means feels that means. And due to that, I look down for what seems like 20 minutes, and after I search for, 2 hours have handed.
I journey rather a lot, so I play Vampire Survivors pretty commonly. Nonetheless, every time I activate the sport, developer Poncle has snuck extra into it. New characters, new maps, new methods to customise your expertise – I am frequently shocked and delighted by further options and content material the developer has added within the time since I fired up the sport. Certain, Poncle places out free updates frequently, generally whilst surprises, as was the case final week, however these paid items of DLC – every of which price $2.50 or much less – are the tentpole content material releases. The most recent, Operation Weapons, crosses over with Konami’s legendary Contra IP in each anticipated and sudden methods to ship the identical Vampire Survivors enjoyable we have recognized with a definite Contra taste.
Operation Weapons provides a major quantity of Contra content material to Vampire Survivors. On prime of 11 new characters, 11 base weapons, and 11 weapon evolutions, Operation Weapons brings an infinite Contra-themed map known as Neo Galuga, which progresses nearly in lockstep with how the unique Contra (and its current remake, Operation Galuga) advances. You begin out blasting, slashing, zapping, whipping, and in any other case annihilating people and robots, however as you go additional into the map, extra sinister threats present that this is not just a few customary Earth-based struggle. Alien eggs, constructions, and enemies slowly be a part of the fray, as do an elevated variety of robotic adversaries. Identical to what occurs within the authentic, the alien and cyborg presence ultimately takes over the struggle, giving Poncle loads of room to play with the Contra license.
Earlier than I knew it, I went from blasting away foot troopers to enemies on jetbikes to waves of flying Metallic Aliens and snake cyborgs. I liked repeating the identical means of leveling up my character and their weapons, however with myriad enjoyable discoverables scattered all through the Neo Galuga map. Alongside the way in which, I uncovered some enjoyable Contra-themed power-ups – like homing missiles – that allowed me to additional fight the alien horde.
Nonetheless, the most important shock got here close to the tip of my first profitable run on Neo Galuga, as a ticker appeared on the underside of the display, telling me that one thing large was taking place in a selected nook of the map. I solely had a couple of minutes to get there, and with denser waves of enemies impeding my path, I used to be anxious I would not get there in time. Nonetheless, as soon as I did, I used to be greeted by one of many coolest issues I’ve seen Poncle do with Vampire Survivors. I will not spoil it past saying it is a distinctive encounter that pays homage to an iconic struggle with one of many Contra sequence’ recurring enemies.
Although I’ve solely achieved a number of runs, I am steadily unlocking new characters and weapons. A lot of the new content material is evident about easy methods to unlock the following character, which is useful in unlocking further weapons. You unlock Invoice inside the Neo Galuga map, then unlock Lance by evolving Invoice’s Lengthy Gun, and so forth. It is all in service of giving the participant a transparent path to experiencing all of the content material that Operation Weapons has to supply with as minimal friction as attainable. Add on prime the Bonus Stage, and the Operation Weapons DLC is effectively value testing for all followers of Vampire Survivors, no matter your Contra fandom.
The wildest half about all of this, as I at all times tout, is the sheer worth of Vampire Survivors. Although the sport is usually on sale, it by no means actually wants to be; even when you purchase the sport and all its DLC at full value, you are spending lower than $15. It runs effectively on Change, which is the place I play it, nevertheless it’s additionally verified for Steam Deck, hammering residence that that is the last word airplane sport. Although Poncle continues to launch free updates a 12 months and a half after its preliminary Steam launch, these main tentpole releases excite me for the way forward for Vampire Survivors.
Will the longer term maintain extra crossover content material? We have already acquired collaborations with Amongst Us and Contra, however phrases couldn’t describe how excited I might be for crossovers with much more outstanding properties like Closing Fantasy or Resident Evil; think about slashing your means by means of hordes of fiends in Zanarkand as Lightning earlier than a boss battle in opposition to Sephiroth, or exploring Raccoon Metropolis as Chris Redfield, taking down low-level zombies earlier than a Nemesis spawns on the map. The Operation Weapons DLC even has my creativeness operating wild with some much less apparent crossovers like Road Fighter; so lots of these characters have such iconic strikes. Beginning off with Ryu throwing a Hadoken earlier than evolving all of it the way in which as much as a Shinku Hadoken could be a pure development that could possibly be utilized to a number of of the sequence’ characters. And since Vampire Survivors contains music and remixes from the Contra sequence, that makes these crossover concepts much more engaging.
This text is not about hypothesis or making a wishlist, although. However that’s what Vampire Survivors’ newest DLC evokes. It exhibits that Poncle is greater than able to giving these IPs the care they deserve whereas staying true to the Vampire Survivors components that made me fall in love with the sport within the first place. Vampire Survivors: Operation Weapons DLC is out now on all platforms apart from PlayStation (that model arrives later this summer season when the principle sport involves the platform) and prices simply $2.50.
For extra on why Vampire Survivors is effectively value your time, take a look at our evaluate of the bottom sport proper right here.
