Maniac may be the best Vampire Survivors-like you’ve never heard of (and is one of the best Steam Deck games of 2024)

I don’t believe we’ve ever lit up Maniac here on VG247. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen much coverage of this topic anywhere else. Maniac isn’t the kind of game that makes headlines, even if its whole gimmick is something I can’t believe no one thought of before.

If you haven’t started Googling yet, “Maniac” is what happens when you create Surviving Vampires-look like and dress him in GTA 2 outfit. So, if you’ve ever wondered what one of these GTA code games would look like and how it would play, Maniac has the answer.

Maniac is one of the few truly good Vampire Survivors games released in 2024, and certainly one of many coming out this year. And no, I refuse to call this genre “bullet heaven.” If anything, we should default to a much better (and more descriptive) genre label: ASS, auto-shooting-survival. In summary, Maniac is a great game.

What makes Maniac pull off this joke particularly well is its desire to combine the two games it’s primarily inspired by. The influence of Vampire Survivor finds a new home here, first when you start relying entirely on melee combat, and then when you switch to firearms (or a rocket launcher).

GTA 2’s gore is responsible for some of the most destructive action in any of them, and a big part of that is the physics engine. Even in the early stages, when mayhem and chaos are kept to a minimum, simply watching your character interact with the world and its inhabitants is a joy. It captures the best parts of the One Wanted Star atmosphere we all remember from the classic GTA games, before things get too hectic. And like those games, Maniac doesn’t hold back when you continue to push its limits, it even welcomes it.

The more your power grows – thanks to character upgrades, pickups and truly powerful weapons – the more the screen becomes covered in blood and car debris. I especially like how the game manages to implement cars/driving in traffic, which would otherwise upset the careful balance of speed and power that ASS works so hard to achieve.

The driving physics are tuned to achieve this feeling, with forgiving handling that tempts (and rewards) you into last-second turns and pulls you into the blockade for a boost. It’s truly impressive how well Maniac’s systems work, especially considering that a competent product sold on this basis alone could work just fine.

Maniac runs great on the Steam Deck.too much. Of course, you don’t need a laptop to play it, but I’m willing to bet it will quickly become your favorite ass game when you do. Otherwise, just upload a video of someone at maximum wanted level and watch complete chaos unfold. Take it on Steamor add it to your wishlist when the (already cheap) price drops.