Following the extraordinary success of Vampire Survivors in 2022, developer Poncle has revealed its follow-up game. Revealed during today’s Xbox Partner Preview, Vampire Crawlers in a spin off of Vampire Survivors, bringing the “one more run” mentality that permeates Poncle’s hit to another genre within the same world.
As the name implies, Vampire Crawlers is a dungeon crawler. However, rather than the top-down view of Survivors, you play from the first-person perspective in a deck-building roguelike. “It’s about mowing down hordes of enemies using cards, while you explore dungeons, playing as slowly or as fast as you prefer,” Poncle founder and CEO Luca Galante told Xbox Wire. “You can take your time and be tactical, or play cards as fast as you humanly can, because the game is built to always provide accurate logical outcomes, regardless of the visual chaos that your abilities might cause. On top of the deck-building element, there is also a card customization mechanic that can dramatically alter the way you play your cards.”
If that sounds like too extreme a departure from what you loved about Vampire Survivors, fear not, as Poncle says many of the trademark characters, upgrades, and weapons, such as the Bible, whip, and garlic, carry over to this experience. “Fans of Vampire Survivors will encounter familiar elements like treasure chests, weapon evolutions, unlocking something new after every run, a banger of a soundtrack, and terrible humor,” Galante told Xbox Wire.
Released in 2022, Vampire Survivors took the gaming world by storm. A “bullet heaven,” players take on hordes of enemies as a singular character who attains absurdly overpowered abilities to the point of becoming an unstoppable force, able to take on thousands of enemies at once. It’s noteworthy for having one of the best hooks in recent years and for being extremely affordable; the base game is $5, and you can get it alongside all the DLC released over the last three years, of which there is a ton, for just under $21. It has featured crossovers with such games as Balatro, Castlevania, Contra, Saga, and Among Us.
We don’t know much more about Vampire Crawlers, but it will be available on Xbox, including Game Pass Ultimate, “soon.” For more on Vampire Survivors, check out our glowing review here.
