Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 92.8

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/23/2023

The standard to which all other games on this list are held! We recognize that it's not just the basics of gameplay but also the depth of content and collectables that makes it addictive.

It's a simple casual game about moving towards some things and away from other things. And it's a complex hardcore build crafting systems game about over the top screen wiping action. It's a very influential game with an auto-fire design that isn't just replicating how weapons work without it, where as one dev on another game put it "every weapon makes you move in a different way." Many followers don't fully understand what it attempted to deconstruct and many attempt to do their own thing.

Also I just found out a full symphony orchestra was used for the DLC soundtrack - what the fuck!

We're not considering some more recently added features in our main scale, mainly just because they came out after the game had moved to DLC. The multiplayer is free, but the boom happened before it happened so we're just kind of leaving it in metadata for now. The new adventure mode is also linked to DLC.

It's totally possible, just annoying, to add more categories to the scale, but for now we're going on 'vanilla' Vampire Survivors circa 2023. It's easy to see which categories we are comparing, anyway, on the scale heatmap!

There isn't as in depth review notes here, but if you check out the explainer much of it is about breaking down what made Vampire Survivors so successful and seperated it from other similar games that came before. The scoring guide also will walk through how Vampire Survivors works for every category on the scale.

Note on other games: "Many of these games have campaign or dungeon crawling mode, but we're not really scoring that for or against them directly, just if they include the wave survival modes."

Longer reviews are sometimes for worse games: "I just write more when there are issues to note. Some are just more complicated. Just don't think a short review means it's bad, often it means there's little to complain about. Enjoy the scale!" - xoxomonstergirl

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 11.3

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/23/2023

An excellent choice to scratch your Vampire Survivors itch. This one is very inspired by oldschool Diablo 1 feel from graphics to enemy types and attacks. Great enemy patterns/AI, kind of beautiful sometimes to watch them move. Has options for Auto Aim and Auto Attack. Quick Toggle available at all times means it still gets high scores in those columns.

There is a prelude so you can try it out and see if you like the more downtempo vibe. I can see how some people complain about the graphics, but it's pure nostalgia for me! It's a great game, but I'm personally often looking for something a little more over the top and upbeat in this genre, which explains my lower playtime vs. some others.

I should write more on this at some point, it's one of the better games on the list, but I imagine it being up so far and already popular most people already know that. Like a few other games the detail of notes suffers because I played most of my time in it before I was making notes and they are already on my list to play a lot more of. That's generally a good sign, but I intend to revise the notes later.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 5.8

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/18/2023

This game is notable both for being widely loved but also for being a firm twist on the genre by focusing on summoning (though plenty of other games on this list like Keeper's Toll have necromancer or summoner characters or skills.) This is not only one of the best VS-likes, though, it's also one of the best necromancer games ever! Also includes a card game mini-game that's totally optional accessed through your lair.

Lots of unlocks from characters to game modes and a lot of depth in a lofi presentation. Patches may have removed the ability to go infinite without amazing luck unfortunately. It's possible this won't scratch the itch for you if you want to see a lot of attacks/bullets come out of your character. You spend most of the time running away from, not into, mobs of enemies while your summons mop up.

This is one of the more unique and fully realized title on this list and also well supported with an active fandom.

Raring Review Notes: "It's a bullet heaven title with a heavy horde focus. While there are plenty of projectiles, it leans more into dodging large groups of mobs in melee range. While it is isometric depending on the map and the layout you choose through upgrades any map can and will feel different. Opposed to the likes of VS, it features (Mini)bosses with distinctive skills and high mobility. The various classes all have their unique playstyle and the game is not strictly build around weapons and passives."

"Controls are great. You only need movement keys and 2 trigger keys or your stick and 2 buttons"

Raring: "In its core outside of spell based classes it's still a necromancy game. You raise your minions and while you can support them, they will do most of the work for you. In earlier iterations the game used to be fairly hard and unlocking Bosses to raise them as minions felt very rewarding. Sadly my review score took a bit of a hit when it started to orient itself more on VS adding features that made difficulty redundant unless you kept looping for higher leaderboard scores."

"While it has become a tad too easy and as such the incentive of "one more run" has been lowered, it is still a solid recommendations. For less than 5 bucks you get an incredible bang for buck value if achievement hunting is your thing. It's still the best class/necromancy based horde survivor if pixel art is your jam."

Raring and I both came to the same pure vibes score: 8.5

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 4.4

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/16/2023

Previously called "Soul Survivors"

A so-far solid single stick shooter in Early Access. VERY close in aesthetic style and design and actually keeps 1 handed movement focused play. Edit: Seems they are adding a dodge, so this will need to be re-examined.

Also very Dark Souls inspired visually with some fun subtle jokes for fans. Bumpin' music. Graphics an upgrade - especially on elite/boss animations - while still feeling pretty lofi.

Necro earns this a summoning game tag from me.

Classic inspired classes have their own unique weapon and move set, with some interesting twists like fighting style movement combo to activate a move for the monk. They also have their own money pile and upgrade tiers. Not a ton of maps, but a decent range of characters considering their depth - unfortunately no crazy crossover evolutions it seems.

It's still early access so I intend to check back in later for a real review. First impressions are pretty positive.

Includes a necromancer summoning class In Early Access so we'll see how much of a summoning game it is - very responsive developer!

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 3.4

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/16/2023

Underworldly anime styled survivors-like staring cute gals sweeping up baddies and operating out of a cafe hub world. First impressions are generally positive!

Enemies feel slow and awkward at first, because the less lofi art style kind of exposes that mechanic in the early game (some games do some great work to make the slower movement feel more natural, but I can accept it as a quirk.) It's not quite as bad as it is in some of the 3D titles and some characters like the bats feel animated quite nicely even while slowly drifting in. It's not something I spent too long worrying about as they can quickly overwhelm you. Map obstacles like lava on the ground add another level of complexity to dodging enemies.

You can save the game on quit which is pretty useful. There is a dash unlocked via in run ability selection (so possible to go without seeing at times). Sound effects are a little crunchy. There's a store in Endless Mode.

The translation issues were kind of persistent through the game, often confusing me as to basic mechanics. I think most of the meta upgrades are actually fairly typical of the genre, so the stumbling wasn't too bad, but when it came to the weapon related menus I admit I'm still not entirely sure what the options mean. I wish "drinks" (crafted difficulty modifiers) didn't limit other achievements and could be saved for later if the particular mix of positive and negative changes doesn't appeal for the next session.

I got the DLC for it, not really sure why honestly. I don't feel upset about it but it does feel a little silly in retrospect with a genre that's mostly about unlocking stuff in terms of giving you a reason for another run. Generally all the paid DLC and cosmetics and stuff is what has turned people off from other popular genres and lead them here - but it's worth noting that Vampire Survivors also has DLC now!

One reviewer seemed confused they couldn't "get the nsfw scenes" but I don't think there are supposed to be any haha. I didn't get the impression it's particularly horny. I like the art style but can't help wishing it was a pixel style or at least closer to the cut scene style in game. I hope it gets better localization and more descriptive stats, I'll be checking in to play more.

Free on Android, but with gacha transactions.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 4.3

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/20/2023

Feels like a "clone", though it has dash, toggleable auto-aim and menu option for auto-fire. Interesting day/night cycle concept. Aesthetically, from the vampire theme to the characters to the directly ripped off and similarly named weapons, the clone aspect may be hard to get past. Gameplay feels crafted but progression feels slow as I'm several hours in, pretty good at these games now, and still only have the first map. Looks like it has more depth than it feels it has in play. Lots of systems but I am for some reason more confused than interested in them, maybe just because of how they are spread out through different menus for unlocks.

I think there are four separate tabs for currency based unlocks, and each character has their own set of moves? It's a lot of flipping back and forth to try and figure out synergy. I have other UI quibbles, like it looks better but importantly it's annoying to get into a run by having to go use the joystick to click down to the map and then another step etc. Finally, the characters are more fully rendered but somehow also feel more generic. It's not actually bad.

If it was the only game on the market I'd 100% it. As it is, if I want more vampire survivors to the extent I want the same game visually remastered but playwise toned down, I have better options. That sounds a little harsh re-reading it, but I'm probably going to have to learn to be harsh to get through trying 600 of these.

Edit 12/21/2023: New features including Endless Mode and Bestiary bumping it significantly up the similarity scale and overall ranking.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 3.0

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/5/2023

A zombie themed survivors-like notable for being one of the best with 3D art style. Despite the very 'realistic' 3D graphics (and they're not actually attempting to be, favoring simple style that reminds me of PS3 era shooters), it keeps the arcade vibe, fast pace and almost all of the gameplay style of Vampire Survivors, making you focus on moving away from some things (enemies) and towards others (your leveling resource) as the primary strategy. I think they could have done more complex graphics but decided not to, favoring ability to stack enemy density.

It notes in the menu that the optional manual aim and fire were implemented at the request of the community (pretty cool) but the game was not designed around them. That auto-first design and explicit noting, plus that it's enabled by default, gets it full points in those categories despite the presence of other options. Weapons "evolve" but not in the combine two to get something weird way.

Technically you control a group of "survivors" (really seems more like a military unit but I guess if you're shooting this many guns that makes sense) but we're going to call it 1 for Direct Control of Single Avatar since you don't individually trigger any of their abilities, for the most part it's just an aesthetic representation of how there could be so many attacks on screen.

Due to the engine there's never quite as many enemies or attacks on screen, but it still feels fairly over the top and invincible builds are possible in endless mode. Due to the style of weapons it's not as common for each survivor to cause you to move in different ways, which is something I like about other games I call mowing games. Due to the "realism" it also never quite seems to get as creative, though it does pretty well inside the genre. While it seems obvious in retrospect, the helicopter strike for example felt fresh mechanically and visually. Like the best abilities in these games it changes the way you move, in this case kiting huge crowds in as straight a line as possible.

Kind of wish one of the gals was available in the first three characters as the realistic style makes the masculine first three even more apparent (and overall masculine vibe) even though technically the game has a better balance than many on this list. I originally had a longer rant on it but it doesn't feel fair to leave it when many on the list have no girl characters.

My partner said they dislike that the gems float so they can't tell exactly where they are and hit enemies more, something I hadn't noticed. In general the more isometric viewpoint and "correct" height characters makes it more easy to hit enemies. Overall this one is pretty solid if you like the presentation and I didn't feel ready to move on when I had to.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 2.1

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/23/2023

Disfigure is a cool game with an obviously cool dev who put it up for optional donation. Perhaps it's humble due to the lack of surface breadth - characters, skill trees, bestiaries - but the gameplay is tight. Steam reviewers seem to agree. Sometimes you just want an arcade game! It's an arena shooter without exploration and slower and more tense than most survivors-likes. It's got a shadowy minimalist vibe and great shifty beats on the soundtrack.

While it's got a trigger button, I found it totally fine to play with auto fire on - aiming, however, is not optional with the strategy of pointing your light. We're going to count the "switch flashlight" button as a special move button. Rogue-lite aspects are limited to weapon unlocks and not permanent incremental upgrades, so still around the same level of skill (and luck) required each run. Steam cloud would be nice.

I'll be playing more of this one! More notes to come then!

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 5.9

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/13/2023

Reliance on trigger is particular to this one, making it a twin stick shooter in VS arena style wrapping. Dark pixel art style will be a matter of taste, I like it. Moving slower when firing and reliance on trigger for early progression makes it feel slower and a little more boring personally, though. Also earns it a lower spot on this list for mechanic differences.

20 Min is a common suggestion for folks looking for another VS-like game, likely because it had a public version out pretty early in the wave, but I feel it's also kind of closer to other top down shooters pre-Survivors, before the genre got as defined. Some may like it more due to the more hands on feel, others will bounce before getting to the real bullet heaven aspects.

Like a few other titles on this list I put in most of my time with it before I was "officially" researching survivors-likes. So it just has a bit less in the way of notes. Sorry!