Vampire Survivors serves up another bloody treat with the Emergency Meeting DLC.
It’s a little-known fact that I really like Vampire Survivors. I’m hardly in the minority, but since cleaning out the last DLC, Tides of the Foscari, I’ve actually been spending some time with the also enjoyable survive-’em-up Army of Ruin. Now it’s time to return to my previous love with the tremendously fun Emergency Meeting DLC that adds a new map and a slew of new characters and weapons.
If you aren’t familiar with the base game, allow me to slip some information under that rock. Swarms of enemies rush towards your chosen character who automatically fires their weapon at them. Your only direct control is movement, but the real game comes in with what weapons and items you select as you level up. Certain combinations are brutally effective, whilst others won’t get you past the five-minute mark. It’s simple yet ludicrously fun and addictive thanks to the near endless array of unlockable characters, maps, weapons, and secrets.
Emergency Meeting is an unexpected crossover between Vampire Survivors and Among Us. I’ve played a bit of the latter, but I’m not hugely familiar with all the ins and outs of it. With that said, this is an excellent inclusion to the base game. The new map, based on one of the maps from Among Us, doesn’t feel as big as previous ones, but it’s more intricate thanks to various buildings and corridors that can act as quicker routes from one part of the map to another once you’ve learned them.
You’ll want to make your way around the map quickly at times too, as occasional tasks will pop up that need to be completed in a time limit, much like the game this DLC is based on. These tasks simply want you to reach a certain spot on the map, and reward you with a five-item super chest if you make it in time. Failure results in damaging effects occurring that can cause you a lot of harm, especially later in a run. It’s a neat feature and allows you to get items and level them up to become more powerful quickly.
Powerful is the right word to use, as I’ve had some utterly devastating runs with some of the new characters and weapons. Various colours of Among Us characters are present, including imposters, all of whom have their own weapon that can be evolved and ability to make use of. The Scientist is absurd, giving you access to a 1% per level skill buff of your choice multiple times during a run. Reaching the end of my first run with them had the character tanking all the damage from two Death enemies thanks to such a huge health regeneration stat.
New weapons are also insanely effective. The evolved version of the Engineer’s Lucky Swipe has electrical attacks criss-crossing the screen constantly, wiping out everything in its path, whilst the Imposter’s Sharp Tongue skewers heaps of enemies right from the off. I was a big fan of the new Life Scan weapon that heals you, but once evolved gives you a random permanent stat boost for the run. I got to the point where some of my most powerful attacks were triggering constantly as my cooldown was so low.
Weapon evolutions happen when combined with mini versions of the associated crewmate. These can be found on the map or from levelling up and provide additional attacks themselves. It does mean that taking these characters to other maps could really slow down your progress as it may take a lot longer to get the combinations you want. With that said they’re just as fun in other areas as in their own map.
Then there’s the music, which is as excellent as ever. Each character has their own theme that plays for your run that can of course be applied to characters. They’re a bit bouncier and less dramatic than some of the base game and other expansion offerings, but they’re no less enjoyable. Character designs are spot on too, for both players and enemies, taking the Among Us art style and giving it that wonderful Vampire Survivors pixel-art look that never gets old.
The only possible downside of this expansion is the cost, and developers Poncle have made a point of saying that it’s more expensive because of the collaboration. It’s hardly a downside though, as it comes to the princely sum of £2 rather than the £1.60 of previous DLC releases. It’s hardly breaking the bank for how much more time you can put into this cracking game.
There’s really no reason to not add the Emergency Meeting DLC to your Vampire Survivors collection. There’s more excellent content for next to no money. It never ceases to amaze me just how much enjoyment you can get out of such a cheap game with such a simple premise. I’m already awaiting the next expansion.
The Vampire Survivors Emergency Meeting DLC is available now on PC and Xbox.
