Vampire Survivors, GOTY Dark Horse Contender, Is Out On Xbox And Game Pass Today

One of this year's best games--that doesn't involve burly dad gods or fighting unbeaten sword maidens--is now out on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. Vampire Survivors exited its early access development period this year, and as of November 10, it can now be acquired through either the Xbox console marketplace or as part of an active Xbox Game Pass subscription.

In case you missed it, Vampire Survivors combines accessible gameplay with deep combat systems. The main aim is to survive 30 minutes against unending hordes of supernatural monsters while slowly gaining more power. As an example, the first level hurls a small swarm of bats at you from the start, and several minutes in, you'll be facing off against werewolves, mummies, and the walking dead.

While the challenge increases the longer you survive, so does your arsenal. Your first few characters wield standard monster-slaying tools such as whips, knives, and holy water, but you'll soon unlock an inventory of garlic shields, holy boomerangs, and fireball spells. It's worth noting that your character fires each attack automatically, and your only job is to control their character movement while collecting upgrade gems and choosing how to evolve your weapons.

Weapons can also be combined to form frightfully powerful tools of destruction, and the more you play, the more you'll unlock. Why throw a single knife when you can unleash a never-ending barrage of blades at anything in front of you? For more on that, you can check out GameSpot's Vampire Survivors weapon combinations guide.

For Vampire Survivors fans who have been playing the game on PC through the Xbox client, there's more good news, as the console version benefits from cross-progression. That means you won't have to start from scratch, as your synced data will automatically be accessible on your console.

November is turning out to be a big month for Xbox Game Pass, as Vampire Survivors is one of several new games that have been added to the service lately. This month has also seen Return to Monkey Island, Ghost Song, and The Legend of Tianding added, and on November 15 you can grab medieval murder mystery Pentiment and the artisanal sci-fi experience of Somerville.

More games will be added in the second half of the month, but as usual, that will mean that Xbox Game Pass will lose a few games to make space for the new arrivals.