There are notable horde games where your run progress through stages, but the stages are weakly differentiated - not comparable to, say, moving to a new stage in Dead Cells. There are no checkpoints or levels, but rather different maps to play your run on. The primary objective of each run is to survive rather than progress in the traditional sense.

A dramatic increase in player power and enemy numbers/difficulty during the run.

Create a build during your run by choosing from randomized abilities and powerups.

Run-based gameplay where you survive as a single character against hordes of enemies.How do we define a horde game? Allow me to suggest the following criteria: It's not a bad name you do indeed fight a horde, and it evokes the 'survival horde modes' from older shooters typically an ancillary game mode where players fight to survive as long as possible against impossible odds. Let's call games in this genre horde games. Whether by refinement of its predecessors' formulae or blind luck, Vampire Survivors has brought these elements to the masses. While many elements were present in earlier games, like Crimsonland in particular, Vampire Survivors was actually inspired by a mobile game named Magic Survival.

Thus we are left with the question: what are the key elements of the genre that exploded into existence with the success of Vampire Survivors? The mix of arcadey action, roguelike randomization, run-based gameplay, and a low price point was a massive success, and, predictably, Vampire Survivors inspired a whole industry of similar titles. The game sees you fighting off massive waves of enemies with increasingly powerful abilities. Vampire Survivors entered Steam Early Access in December 2021, and was described by the developer as 'a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements.' The game skyrocketed to success almost immediately, and at time of writing has over 100,000 Steam reviews and an Overwhelmingly Positive rating.

State of survival horde