Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns
Poncle · Indie, Action, Action Roguelike
Overview
Grab your blaster, join Contra Force, and be the bullet hell in Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns
Read moreShow less
Are you a bad enough Vampire Survivor to save the President's cousin's sister's dog from the traitor squadrons of Red Falcon? Join Contra Force and stride into a doomsday extravaganza in Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns.
Assemble a squad of classic Characters and arm yourself with an explosive arsenal of arcade weaponry in this action packed expansion for Vampire Survivors. Blast through thousands of fearsome foes and bonkers bosses from throughout the lauded lineage of Contra games. Persist determinedly through prodigious stages inspired by iconic Konami series, but be prepared for a bullet-hell of a fight, because if your trigger finger lacks stamina, Earth may lack a future.
Operation Guns embraces the visceral simplicity of classic Contra, with build-focused Characters that encourage min-maxing and stat manipulation, a tonne of weapons (we're talking 22 including evolutions!), and a difficulty curve that combines quintessentially arcade-hard gameplay with the Vampire Survivors formula.
A squad of determined Contra Force Survivors deployed to become the bullet hell, including:
Bill Rizer - a big guy with a big gun, bent on vengeance against an alien menace.
Loves: action movies, high-calibre rounds. Hates: Cryogenic coffins, space creatures.
Lance Bean - known for attacking aggressively, always having hair dye on hand, and having a brain almost as impressive as his muscles, Lance is partially responsible for creating Contra Force's strange new weapons.
Ariana - forced to defend her home amongst the jungles of Galuga from the vile traitors of Red Falcon, Ariana is an expert in evasive manoeuvres, turning her Movement Speed into extra Armour.
Lucia - is she a clone? A cyborg? A tabula-rasa terror tutored by Team Contra to be the perfect warrior? Her past is a mystery, but her deadliness on the battlefield is well known, as is her reputation for rebounding from any supposed defeat even stronger than ever.
Brad Fang - the bad-butt product of twisted genetics and cutting edge cyber-tech, Brad Fang is half-man, half-wolf, half-robot, and 150% super soldier.
Browny - designed to be an all-purpose battle bot, a string of strange bugs (or features) in Browny's programming have caused this diminutive droid to be obsessed with partying. Fortunately, this calamitous coding error does nothing to impede Browny's prodigious combat prowess.
Sheena Etranzi - a guerrilla combat genius especially skilled in jungle combat and all manner of experimental weaponry, Sheena is a true survivor and no stranger to prevailing against impossible odds.
Probotector - a hyper advanced recon robot programmed to protect humans in inimical environments, this RD009 Probotector Model can convert any enhancements to its Armour into more Might for its many modular weapons.
Arm yourself with Contra Force's radical arsenal with almost-homing missiles, a bevy of high-tech blasters, and the ever faithful Spread Shot. Evolve these deadly contraptions into experimental Prototype weapons, and supplement every salvo with 3 new Pickups - you'll need every edge you can get to survive the challenges of Operation Guns.
Run and gun through multiple mayhem-filled biomes inspired by classic Contra levels. Explore Galuga Jungle, Neo City, and the treacherous Alien Zone in a hazardously horizontal main Stage bristling with iconic enemies and brutal bosses. Rev your jetbikes and take on a highway of horrors in a furiously fast-paced challenge stage.
Includes classic Contra tracks and covers:
🎶VS version of: The Hard Corps
🎶VS version of: GTR Attack!
🎶VS version of: Military Fortress
🎶Contra 4 - Battle in the Jungle Normal
🎶Contra 4 - Battle in the Jungle Hard
🎶Contra Hard Corps - Yoru no Nikusyokujyu
🎶Contra Hard Corps - A Spirit of Bushi
🎶Contra Hard Corps - Zephyr
🎶Contra Hard Corps - Contra the Blue Gale
🎶Contra Hard Corps - Something Wonderful
🎶Contra Hard Corps - GTR Attack!
🎶Contra Hard Corps - Last Springsteen
🎶Contra Hard Corps - R.A.V.E.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT342 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
95% of the English reviews recommend Operation Guns, which brings Contra's soldiers, aliens and weapons into Vampire Survivors. Many reviews bring up Contra, from players reliving childhood favorites like Contra III to players who had never heard of the series and enjoyed it anyway. Players praise a large stage laid out like a side-scroller with a devastated city, a boss fight recreated from Contra III, a remixed soundtrack and a roster reviewers count at twelve characters, all at a price they put at about two and a half dollars.
Players split over the guns. Many find them satisfying, and about half of the negative reviews are about them: most of the new weapons fire only in the direction the character faces, which critics say clashes with a game built around running away. The Weapon Power-Up item needed to evolve every new gun drew complaints about tedious evolutions outside the DLC's own stages, and two reviewers later edited their reviews to say a patch made it appear more often. Smaller groups raise missing Steam achievements (one reviewer later noted they were added), a bonus stage some disliked, visual noise and runs that feel too easy.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Contra in Vampire SurvivorsHigh
Longtime fans call it a nostalgia trip ("Very nostalgic trip back to my childhood. Perfect alien wars feelings.") and quote the series' lines and the Konami code. Players with no history with the series enjoy it too: "I have zero nostalgia or honestly even knowledge of contra as a franchise but this is just a blast." One player said it gave them "an interest in checking out the series they're from". A few reviews ask when a Castlevania pack is coming, and one jokes: "When we said you should collab with an iconic Konami franchise, this wasn't the one we meant." A few add they would still like Contra Uprising or more Contra III music represented.
The stage and its boss fightHigh
The main stage, Neo Galuga, gets steady praise. Reviewers like its left-to-right layout that nods to side-scrollers, the variety of enemies from soldiers to alien horrors, and one area in particular: "I really thought the devastated city was the coolest area, possibly in all of Vampire Survivors." The final boss comes up often, with one player saying "the recreation of the Contra 3 Terminator boss was a major step up for presentation in Vampire Survivors". Another wrote: "Best DLC of the 4; adds a massive new map, a large roster of new survivors and enemies, a new super fun boss fight, and of course, new weapons to use." One player found the map "a bit awkward to navigate", and one recommends the included Adventure as "probably the best way to experience the DLC".
A lot of content for the priceMedium
Reviews that bring up the price or value usually count the content too: "12 new characters and 2 new maps = more reasons to spend time in vampire survivors", "12 chars? for a little over 2 bucks? thats like 1/10th of an COD skin". Some players say it launched at a discount, and one notes the price stayed low for a licensed crossover: "$2.49 USD for a crossover with Contra. Poncle won't even increase the costs for the licensing." A few say they bought it mainly to support the developer.
The musicMedium
Reviews that mention the soundtrack praise it, including two negative reviews. "Found myself staying in the music selection window just listening a good amount of the songs there", one player wrote, and another: "The soundtrack for this drop slaps." One reviewer says the music "did take a bit to grow on me", and another missed specific Contra 3 tracks.
Where players are split
Forward-firing gunsHigh
Many of the new weapons are guns that shoot where the character faces, and players disagree about them in detail. Fans like the change of pace: "Many new weapons require aiming and maneuvering, adding a satisfying layer of skill to the familiar Vampire Survivors gameplay." Another wrote that the guns "may not seem as interesting and unique as some of the other DLCs (in some respects, they aren't) but man are they satisfying." Critics see a design clash: "Why are you adding forward firing guns to a game where you are always moving away?" One negative review argues "they wanted to put twin-stick shooter elements into this DLC, but without the twin stick shooter controls", and a positive one agrees a controller is close to required. Some judge the weapons on power instead: one counted "Only 3/11 new evolvable weapons it adds did I PERSONALLY think were any good or cool", another names the Long Gun, Short Gun, Metal Claw and Diver Mine as the weak ones, while a third found them "pretty balanced, nothing overly strong and nothing useless". The weapons are the subject of about half of the negative reviews.
Too easy or too hardLow
Players disagree on difficulty. A few say the new characters and guns make runs trivial: "I like the content But its WAY too easy so in the end its just a bunch of nothing, you just run right thru it." Others found the main stage "significantly harder than existing content" or "slightly more challenging than the base game", and one negative review calls the first map overtuned, with enemies that swarm the player without strong item support.
The bonus stageLow
The second, smaller stage gets mixed reactions. One player found both stages "fun to play on", another called the special stage "kinda mid but still passable", and other reviews call it "Literally unplayable" because enemies fill the screen within minutes, or dismiss "the on rails levels". One reviewer notes it exists mainly to unlock one character.
What frustrates players
The Weapon Power-Up evolution systemMedium
Reviewers explain that every new gun needs a Weapon Power-Up (a briefcase pickup) to evolve, and that outside the DLC's own stages the item only appears on level-up, one at a time. A detailed review calls this "tedious and needlessly limiting" and suggests allowing one Power-Up per DLC gun held, and others found it "really annoying to acquire these" outside the DLC map. One player warns newcomers that "you need to pick up a briefcase for each weapon upgrade, it's not a one-and-done process", and another found "some of the evolutions were a bit unintuitive to figure out with little explanation". Two reviewers who had complained about the item's spawn rate later edited their reviews to say a patch helped. One player welcomed the "added difficulty to evolving said weapons".
No Steam achievements at launchLow
Completionists noticed the DLC had no Steam achievements. "No achievements have been added to steam with this DLC." Two negative reviews were about this alone. One player later edited their review: "Edit: They added more achievements."
Visual noiseLow
A few players say the screen gets too busy to read. A negative review praises the map and music but says "it all goes to hell from the sheer amount of visual noise", to the point of not seeing what the new weapons do. Another put it as a joke: "So much stuff on screen I can't see the new map. 10/10."
A bugged evolutionLow
One player reports that the evolved Prototype B still fires only left and right, though "the animation implies" it should shoot in every direction like the other evolutions.
3. The player conversation
About half of the reviews were written in launch week, and the tone is warm. Most of those are short: Contra jokes and quotes, "Guns", and thanks to poncle, plus a few players who bought it to support the developer before playing. Detailed reviews come from players who own every DLC and compare it with Among Us, Tides of the Foscari and Legacy of the Moonspell; several rank it their favorite, and a couple call it the worst so far.
Weapon design is the topic both sides keep returning to, and the critics there are specific: forward-only fire, missing twin-stick controls, weak base guns. Reviews written after launch week were about as positive as the launch-week ones.
4. What the developers could do
- Give the forward-firing guns better coverage or an aiming option. About half of the negative reviews are about the guns, with critics saying guns that shoot ahead clash with a game about running away and asking for twin-stick controls.
- Allow one Weapon Power-Up per DLC gun held. Players call evolving several guns outside the DLC stages "tedious and needlessly limiting", and the review that uses those words suggests this fix.
- Buff the weakest guns. Reviewers name the Long Gun, Short Gun, Metal Claw and Diver Mine as underwhelming, and one rated only three of the eleven new weapons any good.
- Explain gun evolutions in the game. A player posted a full recipe cheat sheet, and another found the evolutions unintuitive "with little explanation".
- Fix the evolved Prototype B's firing direction. One player reports it still fires only left and right after evolving.
- Rework the bonus stage's enemy density. Critics call it "Literally unplayable" as enemies fill the screen within minutes, and others dismiss it as an on-rails level.
- Reduce visual noise during late runs. A negative review says the screen gets too busy to see the new weapons or the map.
