It has been a ritual that every night before bed, I get a run-in of this week’s game. I have done this for about a week now, and I’ve played enough and I am going to do my best to say something other than “it is just Vampire Survivors as a deckbuilder.”

Vampire Crawlers:The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors is a roguelike deckbuilder from poncle. The game was released on literally everything on April 21, 2026, and retails for the very affordable $10.

At first glance, there is not much that differentiates this incredibly long-titled game from its predecessor, but once you get into the nitty-gritty, it becomes very apparent that this game deserved its standalone release. Art design and general aesthetics alone bring back memories of sitting on a train or a plane and sinking hundreds of hours mindlessly walking around libraries and milk factories. It is truly like seeing an old friend again, catching up, and reliving the past.

Vampire Crawlers is deceptively simple; just like the previous game, it’s about killing creatures of the night, leveling up, and achieving untold power and killing the same guys in more fantastical ways. Cards have a mana cost, and playing them in ascending order will net you a benefit based on the multiplier, amplifying the damage/effect. Bringing back the classics and beating up on baddies will reward the player with the iconic blue and green gems. Leveling up gives the player the option to choose one of three cards, gems, and maybe even a fusion.

The aim of Vampire Crawlers is, by all accounts, to build the most overpowered, synergistic deck possible to dispatch the waves of enemies that you encounter within each level. I’ve gotten to a point where I am starting to think about the complexities and synergies of the deck that I am building, rather than focusing on achieving a higher damage number for the sake of speedrunning the section. This does mean that the earlier levels, once completed, are just never worth returning to unless it is for the endless mode.

I am still unlocking things. It is wild that there is this much content for a $10 game.

The meat of Vampire Crawlers comes from what you do with the money you get from each run. Gem slots for pretty much every card can be bought and managed at the blacksmith. Things like hitting more times, adding armor mods, refunding cost, allowing the cost to go up/down to keep the multiplier going, and so much more. The blacksmith extends services to the gems that you find within dungeons, allowing the player to evaluate gems that are worth having and removing others to make each run more consistent.

The inn has everyone’s favorite characters and new ones to recruit for dungeon runs. I am a big fan of Mortaccio and his bones that deal damage to multiple enemies. The village shop is where the player will upgrade power-ups like the number of projectiles, might, luck, splash damage, and all that good stuff. Lastly, the fortune teller has a tent set up so the player can equip an arcana card that grants special abilities that screw with the traditional setup, such as more mana when playing a certain number of cards, double healing, and keeping armor and mana between turns.

I found myself a lot of the time zoning out when I had a combo in my deck that I could get consistently, and other times, getting frustrated when things got unlucky.

Vampire Crawlers is just first-person Vampire Survivors. THAT’S IT. The game still looks very nice with vibrant colors amongst the spooky, dark backgrounds. The sprites are, again, perfectly done. The baddies are always so spooky and gross-looking, especially that flesh monster that I constantly die to. You will be battling through familiar places like the forest and the library, with new areas sprinkled in that look great.

I played a lot of Vampire Crawlers on mute. After a certain amount of time, the annoying, repetitious sounds of the card effects and groans of the monster give way and drown out the great soundtrack. I decided that, just like the previous game, I could turn on a podcast or some music and just vibe to the game, which is fine by me.

Vampire Crawlers was an absolute blast to play in the beginning, and now, after roughly 13 hours, it is becoming less appealing. It is an incredible take on the roguelike deckbuilder because it wants you to break the game immediately, to the point that it rewards you immediately for doing so. The counting mechanic works incredibly well; it looks great, both when watching the flare of your attacks on screen and the overall dungeons. I still really like the art design of Vampire Survivors, and it translates really well to first-person. I could use more variety in the sounds. Vampire Crawlers is an exceptional addition to the genre, creating some of my favorite moments. A truly excellent second game.

9/10