Vampire Crawlers, the anticipated and unlikely sequel to hit roguelike Vampire Survivors, releases later today. Reviews for the Survivors follow-up have already started to appear, and while it sounds like if you loved the first game, you'll like this one, Crawlers isn't scoring quite as highly as its predecessor.
Vampire Crawlers has an 82 on OpenCritic and an 80 on Metacritic. Like I said, strong scores. Most studios would snatch your hand off for any score that starts with an eight. However, Vampire Survivors was loved by players and critics alike, and its scores were quite a bit higher than the ones Crawlers has managed so far.
Survivors scored 86 on Metacritic and a very impressive 88 on OpenCritic. Crawlers is an ambitious sequel to Suvivors, so it tracks that it might not be as instant a hit as the first game. It isn't just more Survivors. It takes the whole concept and turns it on its head. It's still a roguelike, but instead of a top-down view, it's a first-person one, and it's not a shoot 'em up; it's a deckbuilder.
None of these big changes were hidden. Indie studio poncle has been up front about...
