This is my unwanted feedback for Vampire Hunters. I felt like writing this post because this game is so close to being something actually fun but misses the mark.
I’ll start with some of the good stuff, the music is fantastic and the idea of stacking all these guns is really funny and can be fun if done properly.
Now on to the criticisms.
For starters, the game is way too grindy. The grind isn’t fun and wasn’t created to add to the fun. It’s a thinly veiled attempt at making the game feel like it has more content than it does. The game currently has four pretty short levels but you can’t beat them until you level up. Each upgrade gets very expensive, very quickly. Right now, I’m earning about ninety coins per run on the second level. I die early so I could earn a tad more if I complete it. Even considering this, and even considering that the most recent update increases gold earned, almost every upgrade costs more than one hundred coins after leveling it up a few times. This is a ridiculous amount of grind. Replaying the same level over and over again to earn a small pittance of coins so you can barely upgrade one thing is not fun at all.
Even unlocking achievements does not feel substantial. You get a few coins and you unlock a new starting weapon…which requires you to purchase the unlock with coins before you can use it. Even if you get some achievements that give you a lot of coins, by the time you can earn those achievements those coins would be meaningless.
Now, the repetitive grind would be bearable if the main gameplay loop was fun, but it’s not unfortunately. There’s a fundamental design flaw to the game. To begin with, the level design is just a long corridor with infinitely spawning enemies. This is not a problem in and of itself, but it becomes a problem with how much health the enemies have.
Because of the level design, I’m forced to move backwards to have enough time to kill the enemies. If I move sideways or run ahead, they will hit me as I try to move past them, or hit me from behind once I move ahead of them. The only real choice is to move backwards. The problem is that enemies keep spawning so you will have a hard time moving forward in some sections. This would have been OK if the level design was just a large room where I could move freely like Vampire Survivors. Instead I am even limited on how much I can walk backwards thanks to a barricade moving slowly forward.
This problem is compounded by the fact that for some God forsaken reason, weapons run out of bullets and must be reloaded and the reload times are ridiculously long. I see absolutely no reason why weapons need reloading for this game. The purpose of weapons needing to be reloaded in games is to either simulate realistic gun combat, which this game clearly isn’t doing, or to punish or create tension for people spamming shots and missing. This doesn’t make sense considering how bullet spongy the enemies are combined with their infinite spawn rate.
Either the level design needs to be changed to a large room so I can move around freely and kite the enemies or the weapon design needs to be changed so that no reloading is necessary. With a corridor design, the momentum can’t stop. There needs to be constant forward motion so enemies need to have lower health. You’re supposed to feel like an unstoppable machine of carnage that’ll make America proud with how many guns you’re carrying instead of a goofy goober trying to vanquish foes by slapping them with a soggy pool noodle.
It gets worse however. The soul drop rate is also very low. Souls are how you unlock new weapons and upgrade said weapons. Instead of feeling much more powerful as you stack new guns to the point you are covering most of the precious screen real estate, you feel powerless. It’s as if all those guns don’t even matter so what was the point of this gun stacking design in the first place. If you’re going to make all the weapons ineffective, I would rather have one powerful gun and have a fun time rampaging through enemies like in Ultrakill or Doom. There’s no fun to be had here. For example, I unlocked a new sun beam weapon. It does a lot of damage and is quite fun to use but the reload time is so unbearably long that this weapon is pointless to have.
Making weapons worse, making the game unfun, and then requiring me to grind to the point where weapons are effective and the game can be fun is not good design. It’s terrible. Please stop. For a good philosophy on difficulty, I think Dark Souls is a great example. If you are skilled enough, you can beat the game at souls level 1, with a broken sword. Heck, people have beaten the game using bananas. What I’m trying to say here is that the reason why grind is necessary in the first place is to get better at the game, not because the game is literally impossible to beat because of some artificial time gate.
I’ll stop it before it turns into an unhinged rant. I’ll just leave you guys with this. Developers need to earn our money and time. At the end of the day, I need to have a reason to pay for and play your game over anything else I can choose to spend my time and money on. What most people are looking for isn’t the “quote unquote “the best game ever made”, they’re just looking for a fun time. The game NEEDS to be fun so when considering how to design something in a game, the first question that should be asked is “will this make the game more fun, or less” instead of will this prolong the play time, will this increase engagement, will this make more money, will this cover up any flaws in our game, will this be “broken”, and etc. Make it fun. Make it fun and people will flock to your game. A game about stacking so many guns that it covers half your screen should throw reason and convention out the window and focus on what would make the game more fun. There’s potential here but it’s bogged down by unnecessary tedium.
That’s it, this is just my rant because I’m getting old and when you get older your own mortality becomes very real and time becomes the most precious thing on this earth. Earn our time! catch you guys next time.
For those of you wanting to check out the game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2206270/Vampire_Hunters/
Ducky Obrien 