Sanguivore: Twenty Below [Review]

Sanguivore: Twenty Below is an early access vampire survival escape room style game made by Blood Eater Games. This game being early access means that there will be bugs and issues riddled throughout the game. We ran into a few issues. Aside from one game session, we were unable to get the game to run on the steam deck without crashing.  We ran into the same problems on the ROG Ally. It was to the point where the game became a hassle to play.

My teammate encountered several problems through her playthrough. I saw that there are options in the settings for the Steam Deck, so I know the game will be made with the device in mind, but none of the options work at the moment, so there wasn’t much we could do. Luckily everything in the first round was fine, up until she died. After dying she was thrown into a locker by the vampire and the game completely froze, unable to be revived or come back, and she had to force quit the game entirely. After resetting the game, we found that she could no longer join a game at all, and next to that she couldn’t even host a game. After switching to the Asus ROG Ally for a hopefully better experience, we came across similar problems.

Another issue my teammate had was with switching items (the item menu would not allow her to scroll, stopping her from using items efficiently) and, once again, when she was grabbed by the Vampire, the game crashed. We had to move her to a computer and even then the item scrolling issue was still prevalent. Unfortunately more issues arose as we noted, when we attempted to  change the resolution,  the mouse was stuck in a box at the top left of the screen. Which was only a problem because you can’t navigate the menus properly or efficiently with a controller. Later, when she hid in a locker while in the room “Office 13,” the game glitched and the first person camera relocated above the locker she was hiding in, making it so she could not leave the locker. Even if she made enough noise to attract the Vampire, the Vampire wouldn’t seek her out to kill her. It was almost like she wasn't even playing the game anymore.  

Even with these issues listed, don't be discouraged to check this game out. Let me start by saying we absolutely love this game and everything about it. The atmosphere and the overall gravity of fear put into the game is amazing! My editor was screaming and hiding a lot. I personally was finding myself in a locker like every two minutes. Starting on the stage we played, players are locked in a jail cell and need to find a way out. After escaping you can explore the environment you are trapped in. Shortly after, we found notes on the ground with a game plan to escape from this hell hole. Some cool features this game has is the use of proximity chat using a push to talk feature, and if used, the Vampire will hear you and make its way to you. So, playing this game in game chat and not using Discord is the way to go. Also most sounds you make, including running and moving things, will also alert the vampire of your whereabouts. You aren’t left completely defenseless though, traps can be used to subdue the vampire and escape, although the vampire will only be stalled not defeated. In one cool take down, the Vampire caught me and held me in the air, I then took out a silver mirror and flashed the light at him. He screamed and dropped me. I love all of the creative ways to fight back and escape captivity. Earlier in this review I mentioned this game is an escape room. There are many ways to escape, for example, during our first escape, we tried the fire escape plan which required us to pull a fire alarm. The second time, we blew up a wall on the bottom floor, and we actually escaped, or so we thought. Something I think is odd and at the same time good is the fact that when everyone is able to escape, everyone absolutely has to escape. If someone has been killed or captured, you have to go back and get them so you can all escape. Now what I don't like is if everyone gets out, all survivors should be allowed to leave, but on the flip side if you do lose all of your health you are not just completely dead so all players can just keep playing the game as long as someone is still alive and not captured. After completing the first stage of the police station the game puts you in a town that you now have to escape. I really like that the game just continues. It's a complete story about your escape. It took us 2 hours to complete just the first area.

Sanguivore is a fantastic game, and in early access, this means the game will just get better and better over time, unlocking new features and more to do in game. I personally don't add review scores to early access games, but with what my team and i played this game will definitely get a 8 out of 10 for now. As more updates are added to the game, we will be doing another review, and hopefully the review score improves! Sanguivore is available now in early access on Steam.