For those of you who crawled into a bunker under threat of AI/Trump/Musk/plague/Flame-throwing-robots and haven’t resurfaced in the past year, a little indie gem called Vampire Survivors came out to ground-swelling applause last Halloween and created a whole new genre in the gaming-verse (no official name for the genre yet but I like Horde Survivor the best). Yes, I know this is a review of Witchcraft Survivors but one cannot speak to one without the other.
I personally don’t think that the similarities are a negative thing, as this is how new genres for entirely new styles of games are created. First, we get clones, then clones with twists, and if the category continues to flourish, we eventually get a robust new gaming genre that spans generations. Will the “Horde Survivor” genre join the rich conjoined+name+classification stuff of legends that came before it, like “Metroidvania” and “Soulslike” or “Stardew-Adjacent”? Too soon to tell, but I think Witchcraft Survivors may be the first “VS-like” (my second pick) of many and it did help further the genre for me.
Both games do share A LOT in common. You pick a hero with a different set of starting attributes and are dropped into a zone with a single basic attack. You are immediately set upon by some lowly minion-type creatures that will quickly ramp up in numbers and strength. Your enemies drop an ever-increasing number of XP gems, artifacts and riches, making you more powerful and helping you to survive. Your most vicious foe is the clock that always counts toward the end (30 minutes in both starting zones) and unleashes mini-bosses and challenges at key intervals with an impending boss at the end. When it’s over, through victory or death, you spend your winnings to permanently increase your chances in future runs.
There are some aspects where Witchcraft Survivors is a little TOO like its predecessor. The first level is an open field, and the second is a long corridor. You choose from exactly three new abilities when you level up. Treasure chests drop on the map and guide you to them with side arrows. Waves of bats come flying in, forcing you to move quickly away until you have strong enough AOE abilities. It crossed a line of blatancy that was hard to swallow when rings of enemies formed around me and started marching progressively closer and closing their ring of death and, OF COURSE, a mini-boss came moshing into the pit to up the ante!
Still, there is much to like in the witch’s new brew! Some little things in the UI are very nice touches, like the ability bar at the bottom. I always thought it was a little disruptive in Vampire Survivors the way you always have to pause and go into your character screen to see what abilities you were close to maxing or needed. Witchcraft adding them to the bottom is convenient and doesn’t feel distracting or cluttered. There is much more information available on your status in general. Oh, and as good as the Vamps soundtrack is, the guitar-shredding, double-kick-pounding, pure metal of Witchcraft Survivors is superior.
The jury is still out on the price tag for the November 6 release, but with Vampire Survivors at $5, I really can’t see Witchcraft Survivors breaking double-digit dollars.  The real difference here is in the characters and abilities, and these changes alone are worth spending a few bucks to take this one for a spin if you are a fan of the predecessor or just want to experience the genre.
In the Vamps flavour, each character has a different starting attack, though all are obtainable by every character, and a unique perk, such as higher health regeneration. Aside from the perk, this makes all characters essentially the same after a few minutes of game time. Witchcraft has six unique characters with their own skill trees and, most importantly, different attacks. Yes, some abilities are essentially reskins of other characters’ abilities, but many are entirely unique and the animations are completely different, adding new life and flavour to the game on fresh runs. There is one set of unlocks between runs in both games that enhance future runs with that roguelike quality, but in Witchcraft, each character also has their own unique skill tree that enhances their own runs and unlocks character-specific abilities while at the same time adding minor upgrades to all other characters.
My biggest complaint about Witchcraft Survivors is that it’s a little too easy on us. For example, in my first run, I completed it and downed the boss. Vampire Survivors took me a few tries to get there. I could chalk this up to being a little more experienced in the genre, as VS kicked me in the face the first time I played it because I had no idea what was going on, but the difficulty never seems to scale the same. Food drops way too often, which feels like a bonus initially but ultimately takes a particular element of survival away, and the Endless Run can become monotonous as there seems to be a scaling cap on the enemies and you can essentially live forever.
This could be looked at as a more accessible entry point for those who thought Vampire Survivors was too difficult, and seasoned VS players can crank the WS difficulty up to make it slightly more similar.
Of course, there is a long time left until the release date and updates have already been coming throughout the pre-release, so new difficulty curves could be added yet.
Witchcraft Survivors is set to release November 8 so stay tuned as we will give a final verdict before the release to show you how it develops!
