GOTY Sleeper Pick ‘Vampire Survivors’ Is The Best Deal In Gaming This Year At $5

Vampire Survivors

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While most GOTY conversations are centered around a central showdown, God of War Ragnarok versus Elden Ring, there’s one game that keeps slipping into conversation with a fraction of the budget, playable at the fraction of the cost, Vampire Survivors.

Vampire Survivors is either $5 on Steam or free on Xbox Game Pass. It is also probably the most value for your gaming dollar in the entire year, given how inescapably addicting it is, and how many hours you will no doubt extract from it.

Vampire Survivors has you controlling a central character mobbed by all manner of monsters, bats, skeletons, wizards and more, and you will collect weapons and upgrades to boost your ability to mow through them while avoiding getting hit yourself. A simple concept, and one to me that almost feels like it’s a borderline idle-style game. I mean it’s not idle, as you certainly always have to be moving around your character to avoid death, but that’s all you’re doing, moving and buying upgrades when the opportunity arrives. It’s strangely both soothing and frantic at the same time.

Oh no

poncle

There are two main hurdles you are going to have to “get past” in order to enjoy Vampire Survivors:

Vampire Survivors is a dangerous time suck. Most early runs will take around 10 minutes or so, but later ones are more like 20-30. And not only does time fly during them, but the immediate instinct afterward is always “okay one more,” as next time you’ll play a little better, make your build a little better. Then it’s four hours later and you’re like “what have I done?”

Whether Vampire Survivors can swoop in and totally upset games like Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok seems somewhat unlikely, but whatever, it’s absolutely worth playing either on Xbox Game Pass or shelling out the best $5 you’ll spend this year on Steam. No word on when PlayStation or Switch might get it, but they’re missing out.

So you’re welcome for this recommendation, but also, I’m sorry. Goodbye free time.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.