Vampire Hunters is one of the first action rogue-likes in a very long time to borrow very little from Vampire Survivors and instead do its own thing.
Honestly, it works really well; with era-authentic visuals and cutting-edge performance (Vampire Hunters runs at around 360FPS on my 7700 XT), engaging gameplay, and a challenging yet ultimately rewarding progression system, Vampire Hunters is a real thrill to play for a fan of titles from the golden era of first-person shooters (1994-2005).
While Vampire Hunters gives players the option to fire their weapons manually, akin to a traditional boomer shooter, I personally prefer to play using the auto-fire mode. It allows me to focus on manoeuvring my character and avoiding damage while my massive arsenal of up to 10 weapons deals with all manner of unpleasant creatures.
Playing a Vampire Survivors-style game from a first-person perspective is an entirely new experience that is equally as fun as playing it the traditional way, and I hope more developers copy the formula in the future and turn a great game with a unique idea into an excellent genre filled with great games.
Image credit Vampire Hunters - Published and developed by Gamecraft Studios.
That being said, Vampire Hunters is not a perfect game, and like many games in the action rogue-like genre, in an effort to provide players with a larger arsenal, includes items and weapons that are borderline offensive to some groups. In the case of Vampire Hunters, those groups are Christians (particularly Catholic Christians) and fans of the horror genre.
The use of crosses and crucifixes in the horror genre is an established trope that dates back to 1897 (Bram Stoker’s Dracula)! We all know how it works: a hero holds up a cross, and the vampire cowers in fear and retreats. However, in Vampire Hunters, the developer opted to use the cross as a McGuffin by creating a Crufix crossbow and a Crufix boomerang, which honestly is a level of disrespect that would not be shown to other religions.
While this borders on blasphemy, I do not believe the developers intended it as such, and Jesus himself has Forgiven far worse sins and offences aimed at it. A prime example of this is when he said the following about the very people who were crucifying him.
For a man to forgive repentant enemies takes a level of strength few men can muster, but to show forgiveness and compassion to those who are in the very act of torturing you, crucifying you for crimes you didn’t commit, that takes a level of grace and power that is beyond anything human strength can muster, and yet Jesus Christ in his dying moments chose to show grace to the graceless, and mercy to those who showed him none.
One thing both Vampire Hunters and over 125 years of horror lore have gotten wrong is this: the strength of the cross is not the cross itself, but the strength of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of God, who died upon it, and who in doing so shattered the hold of satan over the earth, and when he rose from the dead three days later, restored communion between imperfect humanity and a perfect creator so that whosoever believes on him could have everlasting life.
That right there is true power, the power of a God, not a cross-shaped boomerang or crossbow, regardless of how inventively blasphemous they may be; take notes, Gamecraft Studios!
Image credit Vampire Hunters - Published and developed by Gamecraft Studios.
Vampire Hunters is a action rogue-like video game developed and published by Gamecraft Studios, it was released on 26 July 2023 and retails for $9.99.
Vampire Hunters is available exclusively on PC.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Vampire Hunters is unrated and contains the following:
While Vampire Hunters is still rough around the edges and sometimes a little too difficult for new players, it is one of the most exciting invitations to the action rogue-like formula since Vampire Survivors. Despite having many excellent titles in my backlog, I find myself returning to it repeatedly.
Unfortunately, Vampire Hunters is not well known and will die on the vine unless its player base increases dramatically.
While this may sound bleak (and it is), it’s not hopeless, and the developer has some options to ensure this doesn’t happen. One option is to make a deal with Epic Game Store to offer Vampire Hunters as one of its weekly games or work with Xbox to add Vampire Hunters to Game Pass and port the game to Xbox consoles.
Doing this would ensure enough people know about Vampire Hunters so that a sequel or paid DLC would have a player base willing to buy what the developer is selling.
If I were in the developer’s shoes, I would do whatever it took to get Vampire Hunters on Game Pass, even if it meant offering Vampire Hunters to Xbox for $1 a year for two years to get my name out there while I worked on completing the game before starting work in earnest on developing paid DLC that is both affordable and content-rich in the hope that gamers who played it via game pass would be more than happy to spend a few bucks on a DLC pack that make a good game even better, in much the same way I (and many others) automatically buy every Vampire Survivors DLC due to how content rich and affordable it is.
