How Vampire Survivors got past me last year blows my mind. With the launch of the new Emergency Meeting Among Us-themed DLC, I took the chance to dive into the game for the first time, and the hype is real.
Vampire Survivors is a minimalist game at heart. There are no real controls besides movement. Everything is based on timing and strategy, topped up with a pile of chaos. The goal is to last 30 minutes without dying as wave after wave of enemies come at you from every angle, including through walls. Hearing what it is about isn’t nearly as exciting as playing it, though.
Jumping into the game, it is non-stop action that can get extremely challenging. As you level up, you choose from a selection of new passive and active skills. Anything from armour and shields to lightning and whips are at your fingertips. You are given a small selection of characters to start—four when playing multiplayer—and as you progress through different maps, you will slowly unlock more characters, maps, abilities and power-ups.
It sounds extremely repetitive, but because of the care developer Poncle has put into Vampire Survivors, it never feels like you’re playing the same game twice. Whether you’re trying to hit the 30-minute mark, completing missions to unlock new characters or items, or upping the difficulty to really challenge yourself, there is always something exciting to do.
Poncle also keeps the game alive with regular DLC available. Vampire Survivors was released over a year ago, on October 20, 2022. Its first DLC, Legacy of the Moonspell, came not long after, in December 2022. The next was Tides of the Foscari in April 2023. Today, Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting was released. This DLC brings Among Us to the game with “the scientific base of Polus Replica, 9 new characters, 15 new weapons, 1 new Adventure, 6 new music tracks, 20 in-game-only achievements and space ducks. Obviously.”
“Emergency Meeting is a substantial package adding a ton of new content to Vampire Survivors, bringing people back into the game a year after release.”
Clearly, I’m here for the space ducks. Emergency Meeting is a substantial package adding a ton of new content to Vampire Survivors, bringing people back into the game a year after release. For me, I was interested because my almost 9-year-old loves Among Us. We sat down and played together, and we had a great time. Surprisingly, it wasn’t even the Among Us content he was interested in. Trying different characters, maps, and abilities kept him interested way past bedtime.
Playing the Adventures portion of Vampire Survivors, the Among Us map lets you play and unlock more themed characters and abilities. In all honesty, this part of the game feels very unbalanced. We reached level 77 and the full 30-minute runtime on our first run-through without trying. Though the theme made it fun for a little while, the lack of challenge meant we weren’t as excited to play. The only times I died were because I got bored and stopped paying attention. The abilities feel very overpowered.
I enjoyed playing Polus Replica with the regular Vampire Survivor characters. The buildings and ledges make for a difficult battle, often getting stuck in rooms and needing to fight your way out. Mechanics force you to bolt across the map to stop an earthquake-like AOE. Half the time, what you’re looking for is behind a wall, and you need to fight your way in with under 90 seconds on the clock. It’s an added layer of fear while you’re fighting for your life. Not to mention, the new enemies are interesting and exciting.
Vampire Survivors is a game that I’ve slept on for over a year, and I fully intend to let it take over my life for the foreseeable future. With three new DLCs, plus the base game costing under $15 CAD, there is no reason not to play. For any Among Us fans, the Emergency Meeting DLC is fun but not perfect. Though the standalone adventure isn’t the best, the added maps, characters and abilities are definitely worth the added $2.49.
