Vampire Rush HD Review
Game: Vampire Rush HD
Developer: A-Steroids
Publisher: Chillingo
Available on: iPad Only (Standard definition version available for iPhone/iPod Touch)
Since the iPhone came out, and games started to get popular on the device, there has been a plethora of tower defence games come out. Some have been good, some have been terrible but almost all of them have been your run-of-the-mill tower defence games. Place a tower, maybe a huge gun, then sit back and watch the enemies fall to your constant stream of awesome,otherwise known as bullets.
Vampire Rush HD changes that formula a little by adding the elements of hack ‘n’ slash games in to the mix. Instead of just placing towers and weapons you can now take executive action and run headlong into the hordes of enemies with your trusty sword and slice your way to victory.
Does the genre warrant a change of the tried and trusted formula? Does it work?
If anything can defeat the oncoming hordes it's circles of strange light. Everyone knows that!
At the angle and distance that the player will be viewing all of the models in the game, the graphics look as good as can be expected from an iOS game. There are moments when the camera zooms in and the main character can be seen up close, at these points the graphics look a lot less polished. Thankfully those moments are few and far between and are on screen for such a small amount of time that it doesn’t detract from the overall feel of the title. The artwork that is used for the loading screens and such are well done and look amazing on the iPad’s high definition display.
Just like any tower defence game, the gameplay revolves around stopping the advancing hordes from getting to their goal, in the case of Vampire Rush HD that goal is the town gates. You, as Capt. Greg, are given the task of stopping the vampires, among other nasties, from reaching those gates. That’s where Vampire Rush HD differs from most of the usual tower defence games. Usually you’d be given the ability to place towers and weapons in order to destroy the advancing waves of enemies. In Vampire Rush HD, while you can still do that, the primary weapon is you, just like a hack n’ slash game, as the enemies approach you can run up to them and attempt to swipe and slash your way to a more vampire-less conclusion.
POWER!! UNLIMITED POWER!!
As with most games on the iOS devices, Vampire Rush HD is only really good for a single play through, unless you’re the type of person that makes use of the integrated Crystal feature to try and beat other people’s, or your own, scores. That being said, it’s a very enjoyable game and the fact that it’s quite original means that most people will keep coming back for more.
In a world of remakes and re-imagining the same tired old formulas it’s always refreshing to see a game company try and make something original. Vampire Rush HD is that game, an entertaining blend of the hack ‘n’ slash and tower defence genres that seemingly go hand in hand with each other, creating a game that’s funny, enjoyable and, for £1.79, well worth the price of admission.
Martin Baker
By day I play video games, test video games or just simply write about them. By night I fight crime on the streets of London as a masked vigilante known only to a select few ... damn SECRET identity. Could never get the hang of that.
I've been writing about video games for about 10 years now, and playing them for even longer, starting off with a Spectrum ZX passed down to me in about 1988. Yes, I used to play games that came on cassettes. Yes, they were AWESOME!
I've been writing for God is a Geek since October 2010 and loving every minute of it, aside from that I write for my own website and work as a video game tester for Testology. So, yeah, I'm pretty much living the life of a gamer, and I don't intend stopping anytime soon thank you very much.
Unless I run out of money, then we might have a problem.
