Steam Just Added A Surprising Twist On Vampire Survivors I Can’t Stop Playing
The city that never stops.
When a game as big as Vampire Survivors comes along, it’s bound to be followed by plenty of imitators. That may be a good thing if you can’t get enough of whatever the latest trend is, but I’ve never found any Survivors-likes very compelling, so I experience them mainly as clutter when I’m digging through Steam for new games. But the most recent Steam Next Fest finally gave me a demo in the subgenre that I actually enjoyed, and now that the full game is out, it’s even better than I was expecting.
Despite finding its title completely preposterous, I can’t get enough of Monsters Are Coming! Rock & Road. That would not be the case if it were just another Vampire Survivors clone, but it mixes auto-combat with tower defense mechanics, adding a satisfying strategy layer to its endless monster-slaying.
Monsters Are Coming’s mix of tower defense and Vampire Survivors feels transformative.
Each stage starts with a choice of city and map. Maps offer different mixes of resources and monster spawns, but the city is where real variety comes in. Your starting city comes with strong defenses, but unlockable choices mix things up by buffing different tower types, changing the way you earn experience, or even mirroring every tower you place. That makes each run unique, and offers some interesting synergies with the maps themselves, despite your goal remaining the same each time.
That goal is to get your mobile city to the Ark, a settlement where humanity is gathering to fight back the constant monster threat. The city moves constantly down the screen, its towers attacking any nearby threats, as you scuttle around the map gathering resources and fighting off monsters. Just getting close to enemies lets you attack them automatically, and approaching a tree, stone, or gold deposit will start harvesting it.
While much of the action is automatic, there’s a lot of strategy in a good Monsters Are Coming run. Wood increases your towers’ attack speed, stone repairs the city, gold lets you purchase new towers at shops you find along the way, experience points earned from fighting and harvesting grant you new towers, and chests give your hero new abilities or activate static defenses around the map. You’ll want to gather a little bit of everything, but deciding what to prioritize is key to making it to the Ark.
Horde combat and tower defense strategy make a surprisingly excellent mix.
That level of strategy makes Monsters Are Coming feel more active than other Survivors-likes, but it also has the build-crafting element that’s core to its genre. You’re able to choose from a few options whenever you earn a new tower or weapon, and making smart choices is just as important as how you move through levels. While you start with only a small arsenal, completing new levels or winning with new cities grants you additional options. There are also special challenges to complete once you start to get the hang of the game. The conditions for unlocks range from gathering a certain amount of wood to arranging towers in specific configurations, which keeps repeated runs from feeling stale.
Monsters Are Coming feels like an obvious hit for players who are already fans of the genres it brings together, but what I appreciate most about it is how it’s made a type of game I don’t typically like actually work for me. I’ve had mixed success trying to play outside my comfort zone lately, developing a love of picross puzzles but still finding incremental games almost categorically shallow. Monsters Are Coming hasn’t turned me into a Vampire Survivors fan, but it’s proven that a thoughtful, unique take can transform even the most familiar genres.
