Off the AppStore: "Survive with Winry and Vincent: Mansion of the Dead"

• It's a solid survivorslike with 3D graphics
• See the undead come alive in a different way
• Survive long enough to unlock the extra characters and power-ups

Welcome to Off The AppStore, a weekly feature with a twist. Namely, that while these - as with all the games we cover here - are games that you can play on your phone, they're ones that operate outside of the realms of the big two ways to play: The Google Play Store and the Apple AppStore.

That means that there might be a bit of work required in downloading alternative AppStores or APKs, or that the games can simply be played in your phone browser. We'll make sure to detail that for each game though. Anyway, read on to find a new game or experience to play Off The AppStore.

Poncle had no idea what they were doing when they created Vampire Survivors, and none of us knew what would happen. It just looked like a nostalgic arcade game with pixel art, a horror theme, and gameplay based entirely around moving around while auto-attack takes care of the various baddies. Here we are, not even three years after its release, and "Survivors like" is now an established genre with some impressive entries under its belt. Hoping to become another notch is whoever makes up MarinoDev and their horrifying (but not in that way) creation, Vincent: Mansion of the Dead.

The title says it all: There's a mansion, it's full of the dead, and Vincent is there. It implies that the titular Vincent is the main character, but he already has a partner in Winry, who is all too quick to join him on the title screen. Anyway, these two characters are part of the horror creature pantheon, likely being variants of undead themselves. On a quest to reclaim the mansion from the far more unpleasant and unreasonable undead, the "heroes" must use their powers to eliminate them while avoiding becoming dead undead.

It stays true to the Survivors-like formula in that you're a character with various attacks that you can improve or add to by slaying and collecting glowing EXP orbs. The available upgrades can vary from passive stat boosts to active defences or additional weapons that act accordingly. However, you take a much more active role in that you must direct your attacks to hit the undead that present the most significant threat. Keep roaming around the mansion to see what other treasures lurk in the darkness, and true Legend of Zelda fashion, break all the pots for guaranteed goodies.

Perhaps what makes it stand apart the most is the decision to make Vincent: Mansion of the Dead a 3D game, and it looks nice. The animations are simple, but have enough character to make you want to last long enough to see what other monsters the mansion is hiding and whether they have a bounce to their step. Besides, the longer you survive, the more skill points you earn to improve and unlock power-ups as well as additional characters.

You can check out Vincent: Mansion of the Dead on its itch.io page!