God’s honest truth, I have no loyalty to these Survivors-like games and will switch sides at any opportunity. You don’t need to buy me drinks or wow me with bespoke features: just give me a rogue-like hook that will make me want to replay repeatedly. Grind Survivors, you cheeky scamp – you’ve done just that, but also have some of those bespoke features I just referred to.
The premise is simple enough: spawn into a biome and stay alive until you reach a boss, then repeat on a higher level. As a demon hunter, you teleport into an arena (conveniently killing off and earning XP on your arrival) and shred through the overwhelming number of enemies that hone in on your coordinates, paying attention to the overhead timer indicating how long until the biggest of ‘em all arrives. Surprisingly, these are quite easy in comparison to the deluge of lesser enemies invading your space.
Grind Survivors, like any game of its ilk, revolves around killing enemies, collecting orbs dropped behind to level up per run, as well as two varying game currencies: one for upgrading gear, the other for an increase to permanent stats. Levelling up happens quickly in the early stages, providing one of four options, such as increasing base attack and speed, through to piercing modifications to elemental attacks. Unlike other games in the genre, you don’t have helpers and instead focus on levelling up your gun, aside from the permanent buffs.
The options include dual SMGs, revolvers, shotguns and railguns. Each has varying stats that make it stand out, such as fire rate and spread. Though you can upgrade their abilities by infusing other weapons within their group (rarity and level) to create some even beefier ones. On top of that, you can then roll for significant improvements. Each gamble increases its power, but also the percentage increases for losing all of those stats if you roll again. Gulp!
What I particularly like about Grind Survivors, a game by Pushka Studios, is how increasing the permanent stats isn’t the be-all and end-all. Like its namesake, you really have to grind in this game to get the currency required to invest in your skill tree, as the requirements for each stat increase as you go down the chain. Naturally, every increment counts, but it’s the choices you make with the per-run levelling that improve the chances of survival, and earning better loot and ash to invest in your stats and gear. In these sorts of games, I typically put my focus on the range for attracting orbs and XP, though here, I’d recommend attack speed and reload speed.
This comes with a caveat, as you really need to keep moving as the hordes are enormous. The dash function has a very short distance, though this can be upgraded, and you can add damage to those you pass through. These strategies change as you unlock better weapons (better gear drops with each difficulty you ascend), and you may then find that piercing or bouncing bullets offer better crowd control than before. To finish off on upgrades, you also have the chance to apply runes that add buffs such as increased damage, incendiary bullets and much, much more.
What don’t I like about Grind Survivors? It is, without question, a grind. I’m fine with this and enjoyed my experience. However, besides the expected repetition to level up just enough to beat the boss, you then have to do the same thing again at a higher difficulty. This means multiple attempts in the same biome again and again. Granted, you do get better gear, but the sheer volume of enemies and sometimes monotony of playing 18 minutes of a 20-minute challenge to die and then repeat multiple times is a chore. But if that’s too easy, there are infinite modes, too.
You are, of course, rewarded for your endeavours, as should you break through those stages, you unlock new biomes and characters, which then open up further potential to change your style of play. It is pretty much the same old same old after that, which does sound boring but is synonymous with the genre. I personally really liked it, though and am more likely to be loyal to this Survivors-like longer than some of the others reviewed. Or at least until the next one. Bottom line? Grind Survivors is very enjoyable, but unsurprisingly a big ol’ grind.
