Free App Review: Vampires Live

I’ve mentioned that I bought an iTouch in recent posts, but why should any of you readers care unless I write about it? And so, today I’d like to debut a new series I like to call “Free App Spotlight”. There’s no point in reviewing free iTouch/iPhone apps, because if people are even mildly interested in one, they’ll download it real quick and see if they like it. Paid apps, on the other hand, are something people might want to read an review on before laying down a dollar or two to buy it, so I’ll make sure some paid apps get reviewed on this site.

With that, let me tell you about this surprisingly fun game available for free on the App Store. Vampires Live is one of developer Storm8’s many rehashes of a singular game formula, but Vampires Live is the first one I played, so why not talk about that one? It could be classified as an MMO, though there are no worlds to explore and all actions take place by pushing a button and the game telling you the outcome. Even so, managing your vampire clan is addictive enough to keep people coming back to the game several times a day.

After a short tutorial at the beginning, the extremely light story is set up and you learn about all the different things you can do in Vampires Live. Being an MMO, most people will be drawn to attacking the vampire clans of real people all over the world and gaining experience and blood (the game’s currency) through battle victories, but managing the abilities of your clan (basically, the types of attacks/defenses everyone uses) is important if you want to win any fights. Missions, such as “Drain a Human” or “Terrorize a Park”, are all done with the push of a button and drain energy, which can only recharge over time. Similarly, health and “frenzy”, the thing that allows you to attack other players, must be recharged. As a result, you can’t really play this game for a couple hours straight – it’s really more of a “few minutes here, few minutes there” type of thing, and that’s just fine. However, if you care about your character, you’re going to want to play often, as players can attack you and steal all your blood even when your device is off.

In terms of graphics, there’s mostly just text and some icons that represent abilities and the like. The sound is minimal and is only heard after completing a few specific missions or after a battle. The real star here is the simple but surprisingly addictive gameplay. Give it a look, and if you like it, add me to your clan: JTMQW5.

Final Score:

By Josh60502