If you’ve had the chance to play Vampire Survivors on PC or Xbox Series X/S, then you’ll know how addictive it can be. Slaying legions of monsters and demonic enemies with magical weapons as you traverse wide-open stages can make you lose a few hours if you don’t keep track of time. The game was even more interesting for fans of Castlevania or anything related since many of the sprites and abilities were heavily inspired by the classic vampire slaying series. If you never read our gameplay impressions of the base game, you can do so right here. It’s honestly a great indie game that is easy to get into and spend time trying to master. But new downloadable content from the developer poncle, titled the Tides of Foscari, will have you returning to Vampire Survivors for more runs.
With the new content, players can dive into a new stage called Lake Foscari. It’s a forest area with a large lake nearby and a few key locations that include a maze and fungal village. With this stage comes new monsters and baddies to run into, all of which get added to your Bestiary when you defeat them. The new monsters look great in the new stage, offering a different flavor in comparison to the other stages within the base Vampire Survivors, or its first downloadable content pack.
There are some secrets to find within the new stage, but it might take you a while to find them all. You’ll have to traverse the majority of the stage in order to find everything. Some things you can find include more powerful enemies that yield extra bonuses if you’re able to defeat them, as well as hidden pathways that lead to other sections of the stage that might seem unreachable at first. Exploring around will require you to take some time to level up before venturing deeper into the map, otherwise, you’ll walk into a spot with an overwhelming group of enemies.
Everything from snakes, werewolves, ghosts, and other forest-themed monster is in here. Unfortunately, they don’t do much differently in comparison to the rest of the game. There are some new animations for a couple of enemies that look good, but nothing too significantly different from how enemies attempt to overwhelm you or crowd up the stage. Some of the larger enemies or bosses you run into are powerful and look intimidating. If you slack off during a run, you might find yourself overpowered and ruined by their arrival.
Luckily you’re equipped with new weapon options to use against the legions of monsters that attack you. There are 13 new weapons that include magical missiles and powerful spells with devastating effects. There are also additional boosts that you can discover with varying effects that are different than previous boosts you can obtain.
Whether they are ideal to add to your arsenal will depend on your run, but you can discover new combinations of upgrades to open up more powerful attacks to take you through a full run. You’ll want to keep grabbing some of the standard upgrades from the base game to keep everything going strong and find ways to combine the old and new for complete dominance of the area.
The new characters that come with Tides of Foscari are interesting, but you’ll have to discover them on the stage and purchase them from the menu before using them. When unlocked, they have their own perks and starting weapons that are different from the previous cast of heroes. Again, their usefulness with their starting weapons and perks will vary depending on how you play and what stage you go into. But luckily you can use the new characters in every stage you have unlocked already, and the extra perks you’ve unlocked also apply to them when you start a run.
The rest of the new content consists of new music tracks to play while you slay the armies of evil, as well as new achievements to earn with new milestones. Playing with the new characters for a period of time and upgrading their weapons usually unlocks a new achievement, as well as finishing the Lake Foscari stage too. It’s a neat package of new stuff for a game that was already jam-packed with content and addictive to boot. For anyone that wasn’t into what Vampire Survivors was already offering, nothing here will do enough to change your mind. This Tides of Foscari content is more of what made Vampire Survivors already good with little changes to the core of the gameplay itself. If it’s not broken, no need to fix anything or mess around with it too much. But if you already enjoyed Vampire Survivors beforehand, then you’ll love what is included here.
Have you gotten to play through Vampire Survivors yet? What is your favorite character or group of abilities to use during a run? Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments down below!
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