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I’ve become a fan of survivor-style games. Games like Vampire Survivors, whatever we’re calling this genre; bullet heaven, survival roguelite, auto-battler, etc. I’ve played a good chunk of these types of games and I find the gameplay to be addictive. Some are better than others and the good ones will keep you hooked for a while. One day I was browsing Steam, looking for games like these I may have missed, and that’s when I came across Vampire Hunters. It was in early access at the time but I was intrigued by the fact it was a first-person shooter. All the game’s I’ve played in this genre so far have been in the top down or some kind of overhead perspective so I was interested to see how the gameplay would be in first-person. I ended up getting it during a sale while it was in early access but didn’t actually play it until it left early access. Developed and published by Gamecraft Studios, Vampire Hunters was released for PC in October, 2024.
Like other games in the genre, Vampire Hunters is light on story and heavy on gameplay. It’s got all the staples seen in other games of its kind. You must survive waves of foes for a set amount of time, earn experience, level up and upgrade your character, unlock new stuff, rinse and repeat. But what makes Vampire Hunters different than the others, at least as of this review, is that it’s played in the first-person perspective. It’s a first-person shooter. That, and you can have up to fourteen weapons equipped at a time.
Vampire Hunters features several characters to select from and multiple stages to play through, most of which need to be unlocked. Once you enter a stage, you can begin killing monsters which will continuously spawn and you are given the option to allow your weapons to auto-fire. You earn points for killing enemies and killing multiple in succession increases your combo for even more points. Every character comes with a unique skill and starts with a Blood Skill that temporarily makes them more powerful when activated. Enemies drop experience when killed and after collecting enough, you level up and can select an upgrade. These include new weapons and weapon upgrades and relics and contracts that offer different bonuses. Contracts come with a bonus but also a negative like more boss health for example. When you reach certain times, bosses will appear and the amount of bosses that appear increases the longer you survive. When you hit the thirty minute mark, you’ll have to do something specific to beat the stage.
At first, I didn’t think there was enough distinction between the characters. In the beginning, I really couldn’t tell them apart from a gameplay perspective. I know they have their own strengths and weaknesses but I honestly didn’t notice and thought it was only their unique skills that made them different. It wasn’t until I started unlocking things in their skill trees that they started to feel more distinct. Each character does level up independently and by reaching certain levels and meeting certain requirements, you unlock things.
Before starting runs or hunts, you can prepare. This means choosing your character, stage, starting weapon, and equipping artifacts which are items that grant bonuses. You earn resources based on your performances in the stages and these can be spent on various upgrades and improvements including permanent upgrades that affect all characters, skills, and artifacts in each character’s skill tree. You can also buy any unlocked weapons so they can be equipped as a starting weapon for your character. Then there’s constellations which can alter the gameplay in various ways. Think of them as gameplay modifiers. Several make the game more challenging and will affect your score. One is basically an endless mode. Monsters will keep spawning endlessly and get stronger the longer you survive.
Like other games in the genre, much of the fun comes from building your character with weapons, relics, and the skill trees. Your character can equip primary, secondary, and passive weapons, all of which can be upgraded during a hunt. There are a ton of weapons in the game that deal different damage types including piercing, frost, fire, and poison, among others. Weapons range from melee to typical firearms to more exotic firepower and passive weapons come in different types like familiars, orbs, and a magic deck just to name a few. With all the different weapon types, you have a crazy amount of options at your disposal. You can unleash rats, fire lasers, missiles, summon meteors that will come crashing down, cut foes up with a chainsaw, mow them down with a minigun, set them on fire with a flamethrower, throw knives at them, and so much more. You’re also not restricted to what you can equip besides the total amount. If you want multiple miniguns, you can equip multiple miniguns. You have options. Certain constellations will dictate what can be equipped and there’s one that will change your weapons randomly every minute.
I find the action in Vampire Hunters to be interesting because the combat is fun but if I’m being honest, I would say the gunplay is a mixed bag. Several weapons don’t feel particularly amazing to fire. They just feel kind of stiff and showcase basic visual feedback. It’s really only a problem when you don’t have many weapons equipped so the ones you do have are more noticeable. But when I had close to a dozen or more, I stopped noticing the lackluster feel of certain ones. On the plus side, the gore effects are nice and are what really make the combat fun and satisfying. Blood puffs appear when enemies are shot and bodies will go flying and can be gibbed. And when you unleash your arsenal at a horde of foes, turning them into a mist of blood and seeing gibs fly everywhere, it’s quite awesome.
The stages are all distinct. You’ll face many of the same enemies across multiple stages and they come from everywhere so it’s always wise to keep moving. However, there are spots where you can make a stand and won’t get surrounded. You can basically force enemies to come at you from one direction. That said, the enemy AI isn’t too bright but this isn’t a game about intelligent foes. It’s about mowing down hordes of them and becoming more powerful. Chests will spawn in the stages that offer upgrades and bosses will also drop chests that contain special or boss relics. The stages aren’t massive or anything but are big enough for you to maneuver around the hordes being thrown at you. Some include ziplines to quickly get you from one location to another, jump pads, one stage lets you grapple around, and health potions will spawn in certain locations. Certain stages include unique mechanics like rune buffs and pickups that award bonuses.
If there’s any gripe I have with the game, it’s that it doesn’t have the same addictive quality as some others in genre. And I feel that’s a big draw of these types of games. Sure, you unlock things pretty quick in the beginning because you start with nothing but once I had a good chunk of stuff, I felt like the loop was starting to lose steam. Even with all the weapon combinations, at a certain point, the hunts started to feel the same. My arsenal in one hunt could consist of entirely different weapons from my arsenal in another but I would always end up slicing through baddies like butter after a while and it didn’t really feel any different if that makes sense. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to unlock and the gameplay can be addictive but, eventually, it starts to taper off because the hunts start to feel similar no matter what weapons you have equipped. I think what might help is more ways to differentiate the characters and more content in general, maybe additional progression systems. The constellations mix up the gameplay and add some more challenge and variety which is nice. There’s also weekly challenge runs to complete and you can check out the Classic Mode which shows off an early version of the game.
Visually, the game is colorful and appears to be aiming for a retro styled aesthetic. Every weapon does look different and I like the visual and gore effects and diverse environments. Even though you’re going to see the same enemies over and over again, there are many different foes and new ones are introduced as you progress through the stages. The action is backed by a pretty catchy soundtrack. There’s quite a few tunes here that really stick out in my head. I did find a review that claims one of the songs is also heard in another game. I haven’t played it so I don’t know if that’s true but I can say I enjoyed most of the music in this game. On the technical side, the game did run smooth for me and I encountered no major issues.
I enjoyed my time with Vampire Hunters and as of this review, the mixing of first-person shooter with bullet heaven is a novel concept and I would say it works. I just feel the game needs a little more to get it up to par with others in the genre like Vampire Survivors or Halls of Torment. As a first-person shooter, I think the gunplay could use some improvements but I found the overall action and combat to be fun and satisfying. It does feature the addictive qualities of the survivor bullet heaven genre. However, I feel it doesn’t sustain those qualities all the way to the end. The gameplay loop loses steam at a certain point, mainly because each run or hunt turns into the same kind of slaughterfest without variation. I think if the developers intended for the gameplay to keep players coming back long term, they didn’t quite hit the mark.
I would welcome more content and/or progression systems. The constellations allow for more variety and add more to the replay value as a result but it’s just not enough to keep me hooked. I think the game needs to offer more ways to differentiate characters. I also wouldn’t be opposed to some kind of end-game content, either. Something specifically designed for those that beat every stage and unlocked most if not everything already on offer. It could include a whole new set of weapons and items, maybe some new stages with unique mechanics and features along with new and tougher foes and bosses. All of this is not to say I don’t like Vampire Hunters or think it’s a bad game. In fact, I think it’s quite good. I just think it needs a little more to keep the player engaged.
I do recommend Vampire Hunters. If you’re a fan of first-person shooters and survivor style games, I think you’ll get a kick out of it. It does blend the two genres nicely and while I feel it could be better, at the very least it shows the concept works and proves to be fun. There are some issues on the first-person shooter side as well as the bullet heaven side but, overall, Vampire Hunters is a fun game that should keep you occupied for a while. Definitely check it out.