A brand new experience to discover | Review - Vampire Survivors: Tides of the Foscari

The award-winning game Vampire Survivors has recently released its second DLC, titled 'Tides of the Foscari.' This DLC is available for $1.99 on all platforms, including Android and iOS devices. It adds a ton of content to the already amazing value of the original game, which is completely free-to-play.

For those unfamiliar with Vampire Survivors, it is a highly addicting rogue-lite RPG survival game playable with only one hand, with the players only needing to control the character's movements. Attacks are automated and the whole gameplay focuses on character and skill building and surviving the countless waves of monsters.

The new DLC “Tides of the Foscari” adds 8 new characters, 13 new weapons, 1 passive item, and a brand new map to play in. The featured new map, called Lake Foscari, features an enchanted forest and neighboring village, swamplands, mushroom and flora-based enemies, and mazes for players to get lost in. Being a forest, the place is filled with trees that can block the view for players and can pose obstacles as well. There’s also a bit of challenge when it comes to navigating the highly restrictive village fences and the mazes, when enemies are coming from all directions.

The new DLC doesn’t outright unlock all these goodies instantly, requiring players to work for almost every single new addition. The only thing unlocked from the start is the new map Lake Foscari. Everything else is unlocked via a multi-part process that is best left to the players to unravel — Let’s just say it involves finding certain points of interests on the map,  leveling up certain weapons and characters, or surviving for over a specific amount of time.

Think of it like doing a ritual with all the different ingredients you need to gather to perform, Tides of the Foscari offers players a new recipe, instead of giving players a finished dish. This way, players are not just outright buying the new content, but instead purchasing a fresh new experience of playing the game on the way to unlocking the various characters and weapons added.

I haven’t unlocked every single character and weapon yet — that will take time, multiple runs, and a bit of luck — but so far the added weapons (some of them are just evolved versions of other new weapons) are all exciting and fun to use, and they are relatively well balanced compared to the original roster of weapons, with their own unique mechanics and gimmicks.

They don’t cannibalize the purpose of any existing weapons and are a good fit to the overall selection. The characters on the other hand are directly tied to the lore of the Foscari, and are also directly related to the new weapons, although players can also unlock the weapons for use by other characters.

To sum it up, Tides of the Foscari adds an amazing value proposition to the already highly addictive game in Vampire Survivors. It doesn’t just introduce new content but rather an entirely new experience for players to unravel and enjoy. At only $2, it's an incredible value, almost as good as the original game, which is unbeatable being free-to-play at least on mobile platforms.