Spellbound Survivors Review (PC)

Something that looks like a cross between a Yeti and a blue ice robot is chasing me on this bridge, presumably somewhere in the Arctic, accompanied by a ton of other enemies. There are ice zombies, slow and unable to do anything to hurt my character even back when the Paladin was level 1. There are flying monstrosities, fast crawlers, and some brightly colored alien-looking bugs.

They are all converging on my position, determined to eat all my health. They have no chance. Lightning is raining down on them, lasers are targeting the more capable ones, while shields are flying out to hunt them. The limited number that manages to get close is vaporized by a violet vortex that’s at max level. I also have health regeneration going, in case I slip up and allow any of these monsters to actually touch the Paladin.

My biggest problem isn’t the boss that’s showing up in less than two minutes. I’m confident that my array of weapons, especially when boosted by another few levels, can deal with anything the level can throw at my avatar. But I am already struggling to understand everything that’s happening on the screen. If the visual overload increases, it’s likely I’ll do something dumb that will end this run. At least I have a ton of coins for upgrades.

Spellbound Survivors is both developed and published by Toasted Squad Studios. I played it on the PC using Steam. This is an action survival experience with rogue elements, obviously drawing much of its inspiration from the very successful Vampire Survivors.

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There’s not much narrative or universe-building in the game. A powerful wizard is creating monsters that can do his bidding and the various characters gamers unlock and play as are the only ones who can stand against him. I doubt players will create an emotional connection with this universe and there’s not much writing to facilitate such a connection.

The main gameplay mechanics of Spellbound Survivors are easy to understand and execute. Pick one of the characters and then a level (there are five unlocked based on prior performance). Then fight to stay alive for as long as possible, killing all sorts of creatures in the process while preparing for the big bosses that arrive every five minutes.

Characters attack automatically, so players only have to worry about their movement. Avoid contact with all opponents to conserve health. Walk back over the very visible experience drops to gain levels, which in turn allows players to choose special abilities and then upgrade associated with each of them.

As time passes new types of enemies appear and their numbers increase, making survival more difficult. Bosses come with their own special attacks and tend to come accompanied by even bigger groups of creatures. Defeat them and get to the chest they drop and then get ready to push through the loop again and again.

Each character has a unique special ability, designed to eliminate big groups of enemies quickly and efficiently, so use that as soon as it’s charged up. Spellbound Survivors hen adds a set of even more powerful abilities linked to the Legend Bar, including the option to call in a mythical beast to clear the screen.

Once a run is done, players can use the currency to upgrade global stats that will increase their ability to survive and deal damage, but make sure to keep some in reserve to get additional characters. Spellbound Survivors offers a lot of variety, designed to give players the freedom to develop a play style.

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Regardless of that, the Vortex power will be the most useful ability initially and it’s a good idea to upgrade it as fast as possible. I tended to then go for lightning attacks and the spinning shields, if possible. All levels feature health drops, and I rarely picked the regeneration support power. When it comes to the Legend Bar, the mythical creature ally is tempting but the power that simply showers the character with currency is also very useful.

Spellbound Survivor’s issue is the sameness of the gameplay loop. Player characters can become incredibly powerful by simply standing in one place to kill enemies, mainly using Vortex, before moving in a circle to pick up all the experience that’s lying around. Bosses can pose a problem when the screen is filled with other enemies but it’s mostly easy to avoid their attack patterns.

Still, the game has good core mechanics and that means there’s a platform to which the developers can add extra ideas. Extra enemies and more interesting bosses would go a long way toward making the action more exciting. Spellbound Survivors isn’t a good-looking experience. The pixel art by itself is a good fit for the genre, given the tons of enemies and effects that end up on the screen as players spend more time on a level.

The game’s problem is the lack of effort. There’s no attempt to create some original enemies or to deliver powers that actually look cool in action. Bosses look very bad and the only fun visuals are associated with the monsters players can call in.

The music is the better part of the presentation. It works well with the action and even adds a layer of excitement when players are simply standing still and killing enemies while waiting for boss o’clock to come around. It does need more tunes to be a truly great game soundtrack.

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The Good

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Conclusion