It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the Vampire Survivors-like genre, often combining action roguelite mechanics with bullet hell gameplay, and I'm always on the lookout for the next great one.
That's why when Steam Next Fest rolls around, I scour the list of playable demos for a title like the one I just played called Dark Light Survivor. The name sounded familiar, and so I checked out the dev's Steam page, and sure enough, the new title is a spinoff of an existing one.
The original title, Dark Light, is a Metroidvania that launched in 2022, and I've had on my wishlist for a while. And it immediately jumped out at me because, yes, please, I need more games like this that are "Survivors" spinoffs of existing IP.
It quickly reminded me of titles like Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and Temtem: Swarm, both of which take the same universe and characters from the original game and add a roguelite bullet hell spin for something unique and fun.
Not everyone is a sucker for the genre like me, so I get that I may be alone in my thinking, but I want more games like this. Every big IP should have a "Survivors" spinoff, because why not? And with games like Megabonk bringing in a slew of new players to the genre, it seems as popular as ever, so big publishers should be diving in more. Give me Call of Duty Survivors, Marvel Survivors, and Destiny Survivors. Give it all to me.
Dark Light Survivor is a bit more active than some other games in the genre because it requires you to aim towards your enemies with ranged weapons (you can toggle auto-firing as well) along with a melee weapon, but there's also a home base of operations in third person that you can explore in between runs, and I think that's just neat. It can also be played in an over-the-shoulder camera in third-person a la Megabonk, too.
The demo is quite limited with only one playable class, and it's definitely a bit rough around the edges with its visuals, but it offers the same itch-scratching roguelite stuff I love, all while exploring areas and taking down hordes of enemies, leveling up and getting new abilities on each run.
Dark Light Survivor's demo is playable now in Steam Next Fest, and it's entering early access soon, where it'll likely join a long list of games in the genre that I've invested in early on while watching it grow and improve with each update.
Like our content? Set Destructoid as a Preferred Source on Google in just one step to ensure you see us more frequently in your Google searches!
The post One of my favorite Steam Next Fest demos is further proof that all games should have a ‘survivors’ spinoff appeared first on Destructoid.
