Halls of Torment vs Vampire Survivors: Which is better? Answered

Poncle’s Vampire Survivors was a sleeper-hit in 2022, offering an addictive experience that few had seen before. Since its release, many games like it have entered the market, but few have managed to forge an identity of its own. Halls of Torment by Chasing Carrots aims to change that and brings several innovations to the tried and true formula, but is it enough to claim the throne? Let’s go through it with Halls of Torment vs Vampire Survivors: Which is better? Answered

Halls of Torment vs Vampire Survivors: Which is better? Answered

Before you draw your pitchforks, I want to preface this comparison by saying both are superb, and fans of the genre will find plenty to enjoy in each title. If you’re torn between the two and only have time for one, here’s how they shape up. For ease of use, I will cover several categories with an overall verdict at the end.

Presentation

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Vampire Survivors and Halls of Torment take a very different approach to presentation. One is jolly and colorful, and the other harsh and gritty. This is a subjective take, but here’s what each title offers.

Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors applies a simple 2D graphics style. It doesn’t look like much until later into runs, where the entire screen crawls with enemies, and powerful abilities engulf the battlefield. This title doesn’t shy away from colorful effects, even if they don’t gel with the gothic backdrops.

The music is worth a special mention as it really is fantastic. It’s so good you can buy the soundtrack, and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra even recorded a score for the Tides of Foscari DLC.

Halls of Torment

Halls of Torment has a different approach to the visuals, offering a top-down isometric style reminiscent of retro Diablo titles. This style won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it sets the scene, and you’ll love it if you’re a fan of old-school ARPGS. Even magical effects are more grounded in reality, and this bold approach makes the title stand out against others in the genre.

Music in Halls of Torment is an ensemble of tense drums that add to the vibe the visuals have already set up. It’s not a score you’ll start tapping your feet to, but that’s not the idea. The soundtrack is more of an environmental score and accomplishes that goal with flying colors.

Winner: Vampire Survivors

I like both titles’ art styles but prefer the insanity of Vampire Survivors‘ visuals, and the soundtrack elevates it to another level. Vampire Survivors gives more than a few subtle nods to Castlevania in its presentation, and I’m a massive fan of that. Halls of Torment is a clear winner here if you prefer a grittier atmosphere.

Gameplay/Mechanics

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Vampire Survivors is unique as it essentially created its own video game sub-genre. Whereas popular titles like Brotato follow the Vampire Survivors formula very closely, Halls of Torment isn’t afraid to mix things up. Let’s see who does it better.

Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors gives players a power fantasy bursting with satisfying explosions and magical abilities. Not only that, it’s fully functional with a single control stick. There are countless ability combinations, and the forgiving difficulty curve allows for creativity. There’s meta-progression in Vampire Survivors which means you’re always making progress even if you have bad runs. 

The gameplay loop of collecting gold to upgrade your global stats and new characters is addicting, and you’re spoilt for locations to play in. Vampire Survivors achieves the difficult task of catering to casual and hardcore players alike. There’s no ‘wrong’ way to play, and whether you want to min-max or just see pretty colors, you can do that here.

Halls of Torment

Halls of Torment shares many similarities with Vampire Survivors but builds on the mechanics to create a unique experience. You can play with one stick, but you can aim your main attack manually. This makes Halls of Torment a Twin Stick Shooter, and it’s the optimal way to play. 

The gear and armor system is my favorite addition to the formula. If you want new toys to play with, you can’t just buy them with gold. You have to defeat bosses for loot and then send it to your base for future use. Systems like this make runs feel more involved and add more satisfying layers of progression to the gameplay.

Winner: Halls of Torment

Vampire Survivors is wonderfully simple, but Halls of Torment‘s additions enhance the gameplay loop. In many ways, Halls of Torment feels like a natural progression of the genre without taking away from the addictive formula the genre is known for. 

Amount of content

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This may be controversial as Vampire Survivors has had two full-blown expansions at the time of writing, and Halls of Torment is still in Early Access. Still, knowing what you’re getting is important if you can only pick one.

Vampire Survivors

To put it lightly, Vampire Survivors is enormous. The roster is ridiculous, with over 50 characters, and there are over 15 different stages to play on. 

Each of the 50+ items is part of a combo that offers seemingly endless ways to build your character. There’s also a slew of modifiers to play with and an almost impenetrable amount of secrets to unravel. If you enjoy the genre, there is easily 100 hrs worth of content in Vampire Survivors, and it can all be tackled in 30 min sessions.

Halls of Torment

Vampire Survivors sets a very high bar for the ‘amount of content,’ but Halls of Torment isn’t about to go down without a fight. Halls of Torment offers seven different classes. It may sound like a paltry amount, but every character feels unique, whereas, in Vampire Survivors, characters do blend together.

Halls of Torment also has a unique system of plundering dungeons and sending your finds back to the keep for future use. This system offers incentives to grind gold and adds depth to building characters. Figuring out the perfect loadout for each hero is a system not present in Vampire Survivors and encourages some welcome prerun decision-making.

Winner: Vampire Survivors

As I stated at the beginning, this isn’t a fair comparison, as Vampire Survivors is a complete product with expansions, and Halls of Torment isn’t. I have to award the win to Vampire Survivors, as I’ve spent over 100 hrs in the title and counting. I feel I’ve seen everything within 25 hours of Halls of Torment. This will no doubt change in future updates.

Difficulty

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Difficulty is subjective but a deciding factor for many, so let’s talk about it.

Vampire Survivors

You’re not meant to beat Vampire Survivors on your first few goes. You’ll continue to earn permanent upgrades as you play, and eventually, the game becomes relatively easy, aside from a few deliberate difficulty spikes. 

Once you know what weapons and combos work for you, Vampire Survivors is comfortable and, I daresay, relaxing. There are plenty of ways to increase the difficulty, but with how forgiving the game is with healing items, it’s not a challenging game once you learn the ropes. With the right build, you can walk off and make a coffee, knowing you’ll still be alive when you return. It’s a spectacle, but not everyone will see this as a good thing.

Halls of Torment

Compared to Vampire Survivors, Halls of Torment is far less forgiving. The same permanent upgrade system is present, but the boosts never trivialize the game. No matter how good your luck is, if you want to win in Halls of Torment, you have to work for it. Enemy strength and mob density quickly get out of hand without good decision-making, making level rewards feel much more meaningful.

Health pickups are a rarity, making getting hit very punishing. A minor mistake at the start of a run can be the deciding factor in a battle 20 mins down the line. In this world, you feel like a survivor instead of an overpowered hero, and if you win, you know you earned it.

Winner: Halls of Torment

This is very subjective, but the difficulty of Halls of Torment is one of the title’s biggest strengths. An easy game doesn’t mean it’s bad, but my wins in Halls of Torment feel more rewarding. There’s something to be said for a game where you can chill and enjoy without being laser-focused on it. If that’s what you’re after, Vampire Survivors is perfect. For me, I prefer the tension of Halls of Torment.

Verdict

I’m going to upset a ton of people regardless of what I say, so here goes… I prefer Vampire Survivors. It helps that Vampire Survivors has been out for a while and has all the content you’d expect from that. There’s so much to see and do, and although I prefer some aspects of Halls of Torment, Vampire Survivors offers a more complete package. The comparison is a little unfair, as Halls of Torment isn’t finished. If you’re a fan, I daresay you need to play both. If you’re suffering on Halls of Torment, check out our builds guide.