V Rising, the latest offering from Stunlock Studios, is a game that attempts to seamlessly blend the best of survival, crafting, and action RPG elements into something unique. It is a game that is a wonderfully dark and immersive vampiric experience that I have been playing almost every night since receiving the review code. Set in a gothic open world, V Rising invites players to rise from their coffins as newly awakened vampires, stripped of their former powers, and embark on a journey to regain their strength and establish their dominion over the realm of the living.
At its core, V Rising is a game about survival and growth. As a newly awakened vampire, you must hunt for blood to regain your strength, gather resources to craft equipment, build your castle, and navigate the dangers of a world where the sun is your greatest enemy. This is a game that you could lose countless hours just exploring or building, and that is all okay. It all works to make a satisfying game loop that is hard to put down.
In a fun twist, V Rising mixes the concepts usually seen in survival games, and it works very well. The game’s day-night cycle adds a unique twist to the survival mechanics, forcing you to plan your activities around the deadly sunlight carefully. This creates a tense and engaging gameplay loop where every decision matters, and the line between hunter and hunted is constantly blurred. At night, you are a powerful force of destruction, but once the sun is up, you have to make each choice count and avoid the light as if your life depended on it because it sort of does.
“V Rising’s combat feels fluid, responsive, and deeply satisfying.”
While V Rising is, first and foremost, a survival experience, that does not mean it lacks a solid combat system. The game features a skill-based combat mechanic that combines WASD movement with cursor-based aiming, allowing for precise and dynamic combat. You can also use a controller, but I currently find it a bit clunky on PC compared to mouse and keyboard, although this may change in future versions. Much like the various ARPG offerings like Diablo or Path of Exile, combat can be customized to meet your way of play, giving you a host of options just waiting to be explored.
You can use a variety of weapons and supernatural abilities to tailor your play style. Whether you prefer to engage in melee combat, rain down destruction from afar, or use a mix of both, V Rising‘s combat feels fluid, responsive, and deeply satisfying. I have only scratched the surface of what you can play around with, and players will be able to customize their character in a way that suits their playstyle.
Once you start exploring the map of V Rising, it is easy to get lost in the massive and detailed world. The game’s map is a vast, diverse landscape filled with lush forests, dark dungeons, and everything in between. While not as expansive as some other survival games, V Rising‘s world is intricately designed and packed with secrets to uncover.
The attention to detail is impressive, with each area feeling distinct and alive. From the Cursed Forest’s haunting atmosphere to the Dunley Farmlands’ treacherous depths, every corner of the map is a testament to the game’s superb art direction and world-building. Even though you will walk through the same areas countless times, the variations in how they look from day to night make them feel entirely new, giving the game a sense of a living, breathing world that I honestly did not expect.
“From wild beasts to fanatical vampire hunters, V Rising keeps you on your toes and ensures that combat never feels stale.”
This vast landscape is littered with a wide variety of enemies, both supernatural and human. The game’s bestiary is a menagerie of horrors, each with its own unique behaviours and abilities. From wild beasts to fanatical vampire hunters, V Rising keeps you on your toes and ensures that combat never feels stale. Boss encounters are particularly memorable, pitting you against formidable foes in epic battles that test your skills and reward you with powerful new abilities. The V Blood missions, in particular, not only advance your character but also give you a taste of the many combat styles available to you, testing your mettle as you learn the game and the many ways to take down enemies.
In V Rising, both base building and crafting play an integral part that enhances both your solitary play and online experience. Base building is part of the core of the game, acting as both your staging point for missions and a safe haven from the sun and enemies. You can strategically place multiple bases in the game, which helps minimize frustrating treks across the vast map and enables quick pitstops to maintain the momentum of action. Essential for survival and efficiency, you can stock up on gear, heal, or evade adversaries by strategically placing your chests and coffin.
Crafting complements base building by allowing you to delve into ancient techniques and harness dark powers to construct your vampire stronghold and forge weapons. The castle-building process is not only fun but also highly customizable through an intuitive system. You can adjust everything from the layout of your halls to the placement of resources. Additionally, as you expand your territory, you can turn humans into loyal servants, adding a fascinating layer of minion management to your gameplay. It is incredibly rewarding to get each new piece of research or new room that not only lets your vampire improve but gives new ways to experience the game’s many mechanics.
I have danced around it, but V Rising is even more exciting and rewarding when you actually dive in with other people. You can choose to travel the world alone or join forces with other players in co-op or PvP modes. Teaming up with friends to tackle challenges and build a shared castle is a blast, and the game’s PvP encounters are intense and unpredictable. The ability to raid other players’ castles adds an element of risk and reward to the multiplayer experience. Going as a team can help you not only expand your area of control but also let players pool resources to get ahead and take on more challenging areas with a bit of a safety net.
V Rising is an impressive game overall, but even the most polished experiences are not without their gripes, and honestly, that issue rests with the game’s tutorial. While it does a fine job teaching the basic mechanics of the game due to its relatively sparse nature, I can imagine it leaving some players struggling to grasp specific mechanics early on. There are a lot of concepts to grapple with when diving into V Rising, and you will be bound to miss aspects that become vital to late-game play. With no easy area to check out game mechanics, it is far too easy to get lost.
As I mentioned earlier, the controller support feels a bit cumbersome while there. There are a lot of things to do in V Rising, and it should not feel like a chore to pull off with a controller. I was playing on a pre-release build, and some of these areas may be smoothed out by the time it finally hits other platforms like the PlayStation 5, but as it stands now, it can be a bit tedious with the mouse and keyboard feeling much more natural, especially for more complex aspects like base building.
However, these issues are minor compared to the game’s many triumphs. V Rising is a game that knows what it wants to be and executes its vision with confidence and flair. It’s a love letter to the vampire mythos, filled with references and homages to classic literature and pop culture. From the Dracula-inspired castles to the Anne Rice-esque atmosphere, V Rising is a game that revels in its vampire roots and invites players to do the same. Oh, and let’s not forget, there is Castlevania DLC; what more could you ask for?
V Rising is a remarkable outing that breathes new life into the survival genre. Its unique blend of vampiric fantasy, skill-based combat, and deep crafting and base-building mechanics create an experience that is as addictive as it is immersive. With gorgeous visuals, a haunting soundtrack, and a wealth of content, V Rising is a game that will grab hold of you and never let go. If you’re a fan of survival games, action-RPGs, or just love the idea of being an undisputed vampire lord, V Rising is a must-play.
