Vampire Survivors is like Helen of Troy—it launched a thousand games! The Gate Must Stand takes the best concepts from that title, but it doesn’t stop there. Instead, it combines the formula with traditional tower defense mechanics (Orcs Must Die comes to mind, along with Dungeon Defenders). As a result, we get this highly unpredictable hybrid that will test your capacity for strategic thinking, timing, and nerves.
Blood on the Pavement
The core loop demands absolute multitasking. You pick one of five distinct heroes. Only the first is unlocked initially, while the rest become available at certain levels or once a certain condition is fulfilled. We drop into the map with Serros, a demonic swordsman that charges forward and deals high damage in small areas. Our job is to defend gates from a demon army. We freely move our hero, and he attacks automatically. As we level up, we unlock passive and active abilities. The active abilities are manually triggered, and when timed correctly, they can absolutely obliterate a good chunk of the onscreen mob. However, Serros is not all-powerful. For maximum defense, it is imperative to use defense mechanics—towers. We call them towers, but they are actually followers like Ice Mages or Guardians that act as specialized RPG classes.
By our count, we are slowly working towards unlocking 20 base followers. With their help, you are essentially working the field to establish chokepoints, corralling enemies through fences. They are not particularly strong, but they are tireless, and when strategically placed, they can drastically influence the battlefield. Each follower has a unique set of skills. It was a lot of fun seeing how they cover ground, like the shadow assassin, or deal with the demonic army, like the fire or frost magic of the mages. You can also combine identical followers to make them stronger.
A successful run is a long endeavor, mind you. It can take up to 60 minutes to clear three stages. Some might be discouraged by the pacing, but we had a lot of fun with the sheer intensity of the battles. We also didn’t mind reaching for the 2x speed toggle to cut out the massive downtime.
Progression hits fast once the waves ramp up. Every five minutes, a boss drops in. Survive that, and you snag a relic. There are 53 of these relics, and they help you evolve your basic grunts into 38 ultimate forms. This progression combines with a staggering 149 hero skills and 150 follower skills. The build variety goes through the roof, and deservingly so. We found ourselves constantly experimenting and trying different loadouts. The matches may be on the longer side, but there is always something new to discover, combine, and play with. Win or lose, you walk away with magical coins for the roguelite meta-progression tree.
The Gate Must Stand is a chaotic mess, and we mean that in a good way, especially when hitting the 5 later difficulty levels across the 6 maps. At that point, the screen fills with so many spell effects it looks like a bonfire night gone wrong. Even so, the visual clutter is manageable, and we ended up more excited than frustrated with so many things happening all at once.
Panic Attack
We went into The Gate Must Stand expecting a simple time-killer. Instead, we found a highly intense, complex title packed with variety and replay value. The depth surprised us, and we thoroughly enjoyed discovering and experimenting with all the possible combinations.
We give it 9/10!
- Developer: Senmu Studio
- Publisher: Gamersky Games, Yogscast Games
- Platforms: PC (Steam)
- Release Date: June 18, 2026
- Genre: Action Roguelite / Tower Defense / Survivors-like
Have you tried any games that mix the Vampire Survivors formula with other genres? Let us know in the comments!
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