The new Vampire Survivors update 0.10.0 adds a cheat menu, and after using it to unlock some things I was stuck on, I really wish more games included one.
Vampire Survivors, if you haven’t heard of it, is a delightful game about leveling and destroying literally thousands of monsters in one run. I would describe it as a roguelike; you choose a starting character with certain attributes and a specific weapon, and you’ll level up that weapon, other weapons, and other items as you collect gems by defeating enemies. Your weapons fire automatically, so you mostly have to take care of collecting experience and items while avoiding the baddies.
The game launched in Early Access on Steam late last year and receives regular updates that add things like new characters, weapons, power-ups, stages, and special items, though you usually have to unlock them by completing certain requirements. The game is an absolute blast, but unlocking everything can be challenging and time consuming. I’ve already put 40 hours into Vampire Survivors, but the in-game menu tells me I still have 26 things to unlock. When I look at this list, sometimes I get demotivated and choose to play something else.
New Secrets Menu Accepts Spells
The new cheat menu – called the Secrets menu in the game – can solve this disincentive in a big way. It accepts codes (“spells”) to unlock characters, special items (“relics”) and stages, meaning I can now choose what I want to unlock myself and what I just cheat for. I still want to unlock most things by actually completing the requirements, but there are a few things I just didn’t want to deal with, and thanks to this Secrets menu, I can easily get what I care less about.
The new Secrets menu in Vampire Survivors. Screenshot by Jay Peters/The Verge
Cleverly, the developers of Vampire Survivors also chose to make the Secrets menu self-unlockable. You won’t be able to find the item that unlocks it until you understand the game well and have already unlocked some other stuff. If you’ve made it this far, I’d say you can make the choice of what to cheat for yourself, and I’d like other games to take a similar approach.
I’m currently playing Death Stranding and even though I love the story, the moment to moment gameplay is so slow. I wish I could trick out a truck with infinite health, battery, and some sort of hover ability so I could easily make supplies and see the game’s story, but I think I’d have to suffer through hours of frustrating traversal to get find out what’s going on with Sam Porter Bridges.
The Vampire Survivors’ Secrets menu doesn’t just unlock unlockables; there’s also a UI rotation spell, which I can appreciate because it’s silly, even if it doesn’t sound fun to use. In the 0.10.0 patch notes, the developers say they’re working on more spells, so hopefully there will be more out-of-the-box ideas. (Big head mode, maybe?) I won’t spoil how to unlock the Secrets menu or what codes do what, but if you want to know, here’s a GameFAQs guide.
Vampire Survivors is available in Early Access on Steam for $3. It generally works pretty well on Steam Deck, where it’s one of the most popular games on the platform, though I wasn’t able to enter cheat code spells on the gaming laptop — I had to enter the codes on my MacBook Air.
Add Comment