Like many PC gamers, I've become a bit spoiled buying single-digit dollar games on Steam; I bought Deus Ex: Invisible War for 40 cents. Never played it, but still worth it.

Having been exposed to such cheapies, I can say that "Vampire Survivors" is one of the most affordable games available on the PC. It's an ingenious and unexpected bullet-riddled roguelike that works with just about anything and has me tweeting "one more time" in the middle of the night when everyone in the house is asleep, and as PC Gamer editor Robin Valentine recently said on Twitter, it's "dangerous to have on your hard drive."

Vampire Survivors is built around a horde mode on a simple, sprawling map. The first challenge in Vampire Survivor is how to handle the shooting: choose one of the Belmont look-alike characters and try to defeat a horde of ghoulies and ghosts that grow in power and numbers over the course of a 30-minute timer. Each weapon is mechanically unique, with different AoE, rate of fire, and damage profiles. Weapons are not aimed directly at the enemy, but are fired at different times, influenced by the position of you and the enemy.

Take my go-to character, Alka Ladonna, for example. He starts off the early game with a relatively unforgiving weapon: a wand that shoots a fireball in the direction of a random enemy on the screen about once a second. Since I have no say in where these fireballs go, I must simply follow the fireball's lead through the claustrophobic crowd of enemies in the direction it clears, and grab the level-up gem at the end of it.

Contrasting this is another hero, Imelda Belpassé (whose vampire name is Castlevania-like). She starts out with a magic wand that fires on the nearest enemy. Imelda can aim directly at the enemy from the start, allowing for a more accessible and aggressive style of play. I still prefer Arca's high-risk/high-reward randomness as it is unique to Vampire Survivors, but she has many options from the start.

The pre-set firing patterns are fun and encourage the construction of a complementary arsenal. For example, unwieldy but powerful fireballs work well with more consistent and precise ones such as Imelda's staff or boomerang crosses. Such careful construction in the early stages pays off in the final third as an explosive, self-perpetuating power fantasy.

With six weapons upgraded to the max, at least some of them evolved with item combos, the character simply unleashes a torrent of bullets, pushing back endless waves of enemies. It's practically self-made at this point, but that's part of the fun - it's closest to slamming your unit into a deathball in an RTS or tactical RPG, dragging and choosing doom stacks for your battlecruiser in StarCraft, or Melf's in Baldur's Gate Minute Meteors, or putting together a party of mages in Baldur's Gate, or clicking on an enemy and watching the sparks fly, it stimulates the pleasure centers of the lizard brain.

It runs the risk of becoming tedious, and I luckily moved from an easy early game to a rehash of the endgame when Vampire Survivors dragged its feet. Fortunately, with the ability to adjust game speed and enemy challenge, Vampire Survivors' abundance of hidden characters, challenges, and levels revived my enjoyment after a period of stagnation. Reminiscent of the continuous final level icebergs of Binding of Isaacs or the gut-wrenching secret levels and bosses of Ultra Kill and Brutal Force, Vampire Survivors' secrets allow for a sense of generosity and surprise, and the game's newest addition, Vampire Survivors, is a great way to get a feel for the game and its characters.

One challenge that caught me off guard was having to defeat a seemingly invincible boss, which seems more like a game rule than something that can actually be overcome. This requires hustling to far-flung corners of the map to collect special items. These items, when fully upgraded along with two specific weapons given upon leveling up, unlock a pair of uber weapons that allow you to kill that juggernaut and unlock hidden characters.

I tried this maneuver twice without success, and a day later, playing casually, I lucked out and ran into the RNG side of the build both times. I frantically changed course, ran the gauntlet, got everything I needed, and completely upgraded with only 2 minutes to spare. I could have used this novel exploit build (opens in new tab) to stand in one spot for 30 minutes and cheat the fight, but it felt great to finally put it all together. This kind of goofiness is one of the unique strengths of "Vampire Survivors," I think.

While Vampire Survivors can certainly be enjoyed on a desktop, I think it could really be enjoyed on a Steam Deck (or failing that, a thin and light laptop). Most of the gameplay for this review was done on the couch or balcony. Unleashed from a desktop-grade CPU, Vampire starts to get a little sluggish in the steamroll sequence at the end of the game, but the game doesn't demand much in the way of reflexes, and I honestly like that effect. Creator Poncle has plans to move this game to a new, hopefully more stable engine (opens in new tab) by the end of the year.

Vampire Survivors is a killer little game, a fun roguelike that absolutely hooked me, even though I'm pretty tired of the genre. This game will only take up your free time, not your wallet. Currently on sale for $4 through November 1, you can choose between this great indie game or one of the three cheapest beers from my former employer.