RPS 2022 Final Advent Calendar, December 24th

We’ve come to the final day of this year’s RPS Advent calendar! This means that behind that door is our actual game of the year. Best goats of 2022. Unfortunately behind the door there are also a lot of bats, ghosts, and zombies, man that looks like a giant praying mantis I guess? How on earth are we going to get through all of this?

by Hell has become a bulletDamn! Our game of the year 2022 is Vampire Survivors!

so: All Hail Vampire Survivors, a perfectly sized video game that can be consumed any way you want! On a quick bite before you put the kids down for a banto, on a long one, or in the corner of the library after school. The objective of the game is simple: you control a little person who periodically launches automated attacks, and you must guide them out of harm’s way for as long as possible. The “damage” being sticky ghouls and hordes of bats who replace colossal praying mantis princes and colossal minotaurs as the clock ticks down.

As you slash enemies with an ax strike, you will collect gems that will give you experience and cash to bank. And with EXP comes levels, which give you a choice of strength. Would you take the garlic that gives you a harmful aura? magic wand? The pigeon that for some reason is the equivalent of Call Of Duty Harrier? These attacks stack up, and eventually you’ll collect them too, so those little axes might turn your circle of machetes or your fireballs into full-blown meteor strikes.

Whatever money you earn before you succumb to the mud can be spent on permanent upgrades, making running easier and more varied. There are plenty of different levels and characters to choose from too, my favorites being the Cursed Library which is basically a long tunnel and the cherry-bombing shark guy. Seriously, it’s great that Bunkle has brought us a more ferocious game that only requires as much time as you want it to.

Alice 0: Vampire Survivors was one of my favorite Early Access experiences. After going through the initial blast of unlocks and violence, every two weeks or so I’ll be called to check on a new character, level, secret, or something. lovable. What a fun eleven months of sweet strolling through outrageous ultraviolet violence.

first: Vampire Survivors may not hold a special place in everyone’s heart, but it’s an undeniably special game. Sure, it’s basically a fidget spinner. I said a lot to my colleagues in a heated debate on Slack about which game should be the game of the year – this or the Elden Ring. But it’s a fidget spinner that makes you declare “Oh, now, what is that?” Every 30 seconds hordes of werewolves feed on your personal space. This makes it The best fidget spinner

Plus, I can play while petting my cat. So it’s a game worthy of the year.

Husam: Does the Elden Ring let you combine garlic and multiple copies of the New Testament to create an impenetrable force field that melts skeletons? I do not think so. GOTY.

Rachel: I can’t stop playing this game. He has taken over my life. The feeling of slicing hordes of monsters like a hot knife through butter is a high that I can’t stop chasing.

Alice B: Such as me Boring spinners actually perform a very important function for many people, he said to Ollie during said polite discussion. The metaphor doesn’t stretch too far, because fidget spinners don’t cause lightning bolts to hit the ground and spoil carnivorous plants every 3.2 seconds or so. Vampire Survivors packs a lot of fun, creativity, and a perfect experience balanced into half an hour max.

I was already on Team BATSBATSBATS, but I think what really swung the vote was when Graham, may RPS in peace, put his thumb on the scale by popping into our conversation like Banquo’s ghost and implying that Vampire Survivors reinvigorated the genre and brought it into the public consciousness. In this regard, he said, “It’s the Dark Souls of the 2022 video games, while the Elden Ring is just the Dark Souls 3 of the 2022 video games.” (Except he wrote “video games,” because he’s one of those people.) This is absolutely true, of course. But mostly I voted for Vampire Survivors because it’s really fun.

Catherine: I haven’t survived a round of Vampire Survivors yet, but any game that lets you play as an old man whose primary attack style is An impregnable wall of garlic breath Definitely deserves GOTY’s Most Wanted crown. I love you, Bo.