Whenever I play Vampire Survivors lately, I eventually end up wondering what other games could give the same sense of progression and satisfaction. It’s been more than a year since Vampire Survivors released, so there has been plenty of time for developers to take the idea and run with it. Luckily for gamers everywhere, there are hundreds of games like Vampire Survivors, and some are great alternatives to Poncle’s indie sensation. In this list, we’ll be going through 5 great games with features and mechanics to Vampire Survivors, but are great in their own right.
Vampire Survivors and its cohorts are part of a newer genre called reverse bullet-hell. Naming conventions aside, we should take a look at how the genre plays so we can better define the games in this list.
What is a reverse bullet-hell?
A reverse bullet-hell is a new genre where the player destroys thousands and thousands of enemies homing enemies, typically with skills or attacks that fire on an interval. Whereas a regular bullet-hell or shoot-em-up has you avoiding bullets and enemies, reverse bullet-hells have the player throwing out so many projectiles that they can cover the screen and destroy thousands of enemies within a matter of minutes. The genre was made popular by Vampire Survivors in late 2021, and ever since there have been hundreds of new and exciting games with similar gameplay mechanics. I’ve also heard this genre called a bullet heaven, an idle shoot-em-up, and horde survival.
Vampire Survivors helped spark the reverse bullet-hell genre as we know it.
Call it what you will, but the success of these games cannot be understated. The great thing about reverse bullet-hells, and games like Vampire Survivors, is the constant dopamine drip of new features and progression. Oftentimes there are exciting, screen clearing abilities and new features constantly being unlocked. Enemies will usually drop XP on death, so your character becomes powerful very quickly. With such fast progression on a micro level, it feels good to play and even better to win. Usually when the player is defeated, they will have the opportunity to upgrade their character for the next run.
Of course, Vampire Survivor is an easy recommendation and feels great to play, but today we are looking at some alternatives.
Halls of Torment
If you look at a gameplay video of Halls of Torment, you might think that its a long lost reverse bullet-hell from the depths of gaming history. In reality, Halls of Torment was developed by Chasing Carrots and released into Early Access this year. It simply takes a lot of visual inspiration from games like Diablo, Divine Divinity, and other classic ARPGs.
When you venture into the renowned Halls of Torment, you’ll find thousands of enemies coming at your from every direction. There’s plenty of skeletons, worms, demons, liches, and goblin-esque creatures. As you mow down the hordes of enemies, you’ll unlock quests, collectibles, and items that you can use in future runs. Progression is made by completing quests, which will unlock even more things for the future – who couldn’t use more things? It’s a wonderful, addictive cycle.
Halls of Torment has very memorable and nostalgic visuals because it is inspired by classic ARPGs like Diablo.
One of the great things about Halls of Torment is the variety of characters and the skills. It uses stereotypical RPG classes such as Swordsmen and Archer, but there are a few unique additions such as the Exterminator who wields a flamethrower. Since Halls of Torment is in early access, updates are coming fast and furious – the latest update added a new level to conquer and two new playable characters: the Norseman and the Beast Huntress. I’ll definitely be playing this over the next few days to see all of the new content.
Halls of Torment is one of the better reverse bullet-hells I’ve played, and it certain deserves a mention when talking about Vampire Survivors. Halls of Torment is available on Steam for $4.99. It is currently in Early Access.
Boneraiser Minions
Boneraiser Minions is a weird and silly reverse bullet-hell that has a different vibe than Vampire Survivors. You play as a necromancer who summmons the undead to protect himself from the living. If you want to get an idea of the humor in this game, I’ll have you know that the first minion you can raise is called a “boner”. That should tell you all you need to know! It goes to say that Boneraiser Minions is full of innuendos, but the gameplay is solid.
Boneraiser Minions is a fun and silly timewaster. It’s full of funny innuendos that add to its charming personality.
My favorite part of Boneraiser Minions is easily the minions! As you play, you’ll unlock more and more types of minions, and eventually they can be fused together into appropriately gruesome monsters. Minions can be improved with perks depending on which of the 16+ classes you play as. Some classes are a completely different playstyle, like my favorite, the Voodoo Shaman. This class gets bonuses to the amount of zombies that can be summoned, so by the end of some runs I would have dozens and dozens of zombies following me around eating my enemies. Glorious!
Boneraiser Minions is available on Steam for $4.99. It scored a respectable 8 out of 10 in our review – this is definitely a game to check out if you like Vampire Survivors! It is still getting content updates fairly regularly as well. The latest update added a new class, achievements, relics, and a multitude of other things.
Soulstone Survivors
Between the 14 playable characters, hundreds of skills, perks, weapon crafting, and curses, Soulstone Survivors is a game that keeps on giving. There’s so much content in this game and its still in early access! During each run, you’ll kill hundreds or thousands of enemies to level up and select new upgrades. Eventually, you’ll come face-to-face with one or more boss monsters. After defeating them, you’ll unlock more levels, and additional options, called Curses, for the current level. As you may expect, completing each level on higher intensity curse modes will yield higher experience and rewards. There’s also achievements tied to many unlocks, which explains why there is a cool 241 achievements waiting to be unlocked! Currently I have 116 out of these and I have over 20 hours invested according to Steam. I can stop anytime, I promise!
The sheer variety of skills, characters, perks, weapons, and abilities are almost overwhelming. Just going through the character list shows the creativity and imagination the developer’s have put into the game. There’s a character that looks like an ancient spartan warrior, and another that looks like the Lich King from Warcraft lore. Every character has a unique skills – the aforementioned spartan warrior uses a spear, but the other characters have their own weapons and skills.
Soulstone Survivors is available on Steam for $9.99. It’s currently in early access, but there is a demo available. I highly recommend you give it a go!
20 Minutes Till Dawn
20 Minutes Till Dawn forgoes the idle nature of some reverse bullet-hell titles, and instead plays more like a twin-stick shooter. It begins like many other titles, with you dropped into an arena with monsters coming from every direction. Luckily, you start with a gun that you can, much to my surprise, aim and shoot with a mouse or controller. The starting pistol is basic and has a reload time after a certain amount of shots, but there are other guns and other characters that you can unlock. Whenever you level up during a run, you can pick a new ability. During my time with the game, I found several really intriguing skills. At one point, I had a ghostly friend that followed me around, and at another point I had lightning strike an enemy whenever I reloaded my gun.
The best thing about 20 Minutes Till Dawn? The aesthetics. The entire game has an almost-monochromatic look and feel, with most characters being a shades of green and grey. The projectiles and important enemies stand out in stark reds, a nice contrast that gives a very retro style. I’ve only put a few hours into 20 Minutes Till Dawn, so I’d like to give it more time and unlock more of the characters and weapons.
20 Minutes Till Dawn is available on Steam for $4.99.
Brotato
Ever wonder what it’s like to play as a potato and cut down countless amorphous, deadly blobs? Brotato might be the game for you! It may seem simple, but there’s a lot of strategy involved here. Rather than a huge open area, you’re confined to a somewhat small room while enemies come at you in waves. At the end of each wave, if you survive, you can pick up a new weapon and upgrade.
The strategy comes in when you’re not killing enemies. Selecting your items and stats are key here because your success depends on how you build your character during the run. There are countless options, and sometimes I’ll spend minutes trying to decide how I want my character to go. Even when your character dies, you’ll earn progress toward new items you can pick up in future runs. It’s a lot of fun, and others seem to agree because Brotato has a 96% positive rating.
Brotato is available on Steam for $4.99.
Conclusion
With so many games like Vampire Survivors on the market now, it can be hard to know where to begin. Luckily there are many options, and these are just some of the games like Vampire Survivors that can scratch that reverse bullet-hell itch. What games did I miss? Let me know in the comments below.
