Review of Vultures – Scavengers of Death on PC

What happens when you cross the tension of 90s fixed-camera survival horror with the deliberate grid-based strategy of XCOM? You get Vultures: Scavengers of Death, an ambitious, blood-soaked indie title that proves strategy and survival horror are a match made in a corporate biohazard lab. Set against the backdrop of a sinister outbreak orchestrated by the Eugenesys corporation, Vultures tasks dual protagonists Amber and Leopoldo with navigating labyrinthine, classic spaces like abandoned asylums, police stations, and underground complexes.

The game’s greatest triumph is how it successfully translates survival horror tropes into a turn-based tactical loop. Outside of combat, exploration flows in real-time, allowing you to walk, sprint, or sneak through corridors. But the second an undead abomination enters your line of sight, the game seamlessly shifts into grid-based combat governed by strictly separated Action Points (AP) and Movement Points (MP). This mechanical separation means you never have to penny-pinch your movement just to squeeze off a shot, allowing for a tight, satisfying tactical dance.

The claustrophobic encounter design keeps the stakes incredibly high. Trapping a single player character in tight rooms with shambling cultists and burrowing monsters forces tough, calculated risk management. Rather than relying entirely on a bullet repository of firearms, players must exploit the environment. Vultures rewards clever positioning: you can target a zombie’s legs to temporarily immobilize them, shoot explosive barrels to instantly clear a choke point, or use tactical actions like push to shove a creature against a wall, stunning them out of their turn sequence.

Furthermore, the dual-protagonist structure adds genuine gameplay variety. Rather than minor stat adjustments, Amber and Leopoldo utilize entirely distinct traversal tools that completely change how you approach their respective stages. Amber wields a grappling hook to cross massive structural gaps and drag weakened enemies over ledges to their deaths, while Leopoldo leverages a high-mobility vaulting mechanic to hop barriers and dynamically swap positions with flanking threats.

Visually and aurally, Vultures is an exquisite love letter to the PlayStation 1 era. It perfectly nails the low-poly aesthetic, bathing its dark, dingy environments in a beautifully nostalgic VHS filter. Combined with an ominous, droning industrial soundtrack and brilliant safe room themes that offer a brief, somber respite, the atmosphere is wonderfully oppressive.

However, the title is currently held back by its technical execution. The launch state is unfortunately plagued by frequent frame drops, random animation glitches—like zombies hilarious moonwalking into walls—and frustrating soft-locks, notably crashing when attempting to reload a save after a death.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Vultures: Scavengers of Death is a brilliant proof-of-concept that masterfully dials up tactical tension without losing a drop of its foreboding retro horror charm that is a diamond in the rough . For fans of classic Resident Evil and turn-based strategy alike, this is an experiment absolutely worth experiencing—just give the developers a few patches to clean the rest of the bugs out of the viscera.