Defend Earth: Xenos Survivors

Abandonware with years-old bugs. Super uncool for crap like this to be bundled.

Pretty barebones Vampire Survivors clone. What Easy Target said in another review here is pretty obvious even early on: you either go for Vitality + Armor + Ion Shield or you won't make it. After some 8-10 minutes in (or every set number of levels), you'll get a warning for an event. Complete it and you'll get a crate - sometimes you also get all the experience scattered around, but I have no idea how/when that triggers - which is very underwhelming in how it opens. It shakes violently and then just *click* open. I'd rather it just immediately opened and gave the rewards, I always got annoyed by VamSur's very long casino-like animation whenever you opened a chest. There are no combos or synergies, which makes the already paltry number of upgrades even more boring. Seriously, there's: extra speed, extra armor, extra health, extra loot distance, extra damage, extra bullet speed, extra reload speed, extra permanent credit bonus, extra experience, extra critical chance, extra dodge chance - that's 10. There's probably like 2 or 3 more that I didn't unlock/forgot to mention, but it's not worth it. Weapons are very meh. Razor Blade is utter trash, Satellite Bomb is barely worth it, Ga…

There is an extreme lack of variety in weapons/abilities compared to most games of this genre which makes the gameplay too repetitive. Combined with how lackluster the upgrades are, it makes the progression system too tedious and boring. At least it's really cheap.

This is a mostly competent Vampire Survivors knockoff. Play sessions can be much shorter, ranging from 3-20+ minutes instead of mostly 30+. Some starting weapons do not feel useful enough to facilitate survival, and maximum movement speed is still quite slow. I've only just unlocked the 3rd area - Atlantis Lab.

Defend Earth: Xenos Survivors takes a familiar survival-action formula and places it within a large-scale science-fiction conflict where humanity faces overwhelming alien forces. The core idea is immediately recognizable for anyone familiar with survivor-style roguelites: enter dangerous battlefields, survive increasingly aggressive enemy waves, gather upgrades, and slowly evolve from a vulnerable soldier into a devastating force capable of clearing entire screens of enemies. While the genre itself has become heavily populated with different titles, the game's focus on military themes and extraterrestrial warfare gives it a different flavor compared to fantasy-heavy alternatives. The game's setting creates a stronger sense of urgency by presenting humanity in a desperate struggle against invasion. Rather than battling skeletons, demons, or mythical creatures, players find themselves fighting alien armies across environments that resemble real locations under attack. This shift in presentation changes the atmosphere considerably. Defending cities and landscapes threatened by massive extraterrestrial forces creates a more direct sense of conflict. The world feels like a battlefield …

Picked this game up on a whim not expecting much, loaded it up and 6 hours just flew by. It's not too complex, but there's enough variation in characters and builds to keep things fresh for a little while. I'm really enjoying it so far, highly recommended for its price!