V Rising is a survival vampire game stylised as a combination of Ark: Survival Evolved, Diablo, and several vampire-centric titles. Developed by Stunlock Studios, the people who also created Battlerite, V Rising is one of a few titles they are working on, though others such as Project 0 are currently on hold. Entering into Early Access like so many other games of its style, V Rising has had another boost in fame due to YouTubers and Streamers broadcasting it to a wider audience outside of its rather lacking marketing.
The Blood of my Father
The story of V Rising is almost as simple as most other Early Access resource-gathering survival games, such as Ark. You awaken in your crypt with a vague memory and little power, your goal is to gain more power and lord over the denizens of your new locale. This comes in the form of acquiring and crafting new weapons, armour, and necklaces to drinking V Blood, which hides within those who hold Draculaβs power.
Currently, there are around 37 bosses to face and drink dry in V Rising, with plenty of preparation time required between chunks of them. Playing in a private server in a team of 3 with increased carrying capacity I was able to complete the game in around 35 hours, making it pretty much 1 hour per boss if you stick with base rules with the same number of helpers. We also made use of plenty of servants for resource gathering during our playtime.
V Rising is heavily set up as a cooperative or invader-style game, if youβre on your own the bosses are quite spongey and annoying to deal with, on the other hand, gathering resources is a chore with the limited inventory space and stack sizes. The reliance on gear for your power getting invaded and losing your stuff is also pretty much a reset button on your progress outside of the new skills gained from V Blood.
For those wanting a single-player experience, I suggest editing the server settings a lot to find the sweet spot to find enjoyment in the game. Unless you enjoy grinding and long progression streaks. Alongside that thought, those wanting a deep story will be left severely wanting, as the beginning is all youβll get for a story outside of the single paragraphs that explain each boss.
Powers of the Night
Gaining power in V Rising is directly tied to the equipment you use, there are no skill upgrades or levels to attain. Your gear translates into your gear power, noting what types of challenges you can or cannot take on. Anything marked with a skull is far above your pay grade and you should probably run or get help. However, your access to gear is gated behind certain bosses and their rewards, many granting you new workstations or blueprints to craft better items.
Outside of gear increasing your powers you gain new skills to use in combat from every V Blood you defeat. These range from orbs of blood that hurt enemies or heal allies and heal you for a portion of what you deal with either, to large areas of the ice to slow or even freeze your enemies in place. The skills of V Rising are what determine your βclassβ the most, with plenty designed for the typical damage, tank, healer, and support roles. Currently, all the armour just grants movement and attack speed.
To make sure your items are all safe, and you have somewhere to go to when your gear needs repairing, you will also be making your own base in the game. These castles can range from 50 to 250 tiles that you own and build upon and can be damaged by other players. Each base has a castle heart that heals the base over time and is also where another player can use keys to destroy or take over. Monsters donβt really assault your base, itβs more for ease of use or PvP, which does feel like a missed opportunity at times with all the vampire hunters prowling the map.
A Night to Remember
The music of V Rising is mostly a forgettable part of the game, almost every boss shares the same music and most exploration feels like we just have slight ambience to follow us on our journey. I would have preferred a wider OST, the current one only having 14 tracks, though the devs are kind enough to release the soundtrack as a free DLC so I can only complain so much.
On the other side, the graphical style of the game is quite pleasing to the eye with its meld between cartoony and colourful environments and characters. With large trees that block the sun, the shadows of V Rising play a big part in its atmosphere and gameplay. Spell effects are gorgeous with some pretty good sound effects at times, outside of some higher-pitch variants. I didnβt find any real issue with the graphics side of things.
Since V Rising is designed to be played in groups the difficulty will widely vary based on your clan sizes. You can adjust a lot of settings in the server to alter how your character and the enemies size up against one another but if youβre playing on default the game is quite challenging when alone. Outside of PvE content, having to face down other vampires who want to steal your stuff in PvP comes with the cost of losing absolutely everything outside of skills and having to do it all again without much faster progression.
The game does become a slog towards the mid-end game, with bosses turning into bullet-hell arenas, spawning waves of mobs to dish out pain, or going airborne to negate your channelled skills. It feels a lot like the two halves of the game were developed by two separate teams at times, as the style seems to shift quite heavily, though early game bosses do have some portion of bullet-hell and area-based traps.
Overall, V Rising has an amazing start as an Early Access title. It isnβt complete, at least with any sort of story in mind, as defeating the final boss lands you no ending cutscene, dialogue, or note that youβre finished aside from no new quest popping up. New land is teased on the map, with dev diaries promising new biomes and gear to continue our enjoyment of the title. I canβt wait to see how the game has developed in its estimated 12-month EA segment and return to the land of vampires.
Grab your copy on Steam here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1604030/V_Rising/
Developer: Stunlock Studios
Publisher: Stunlock Studios
Did you enjoy reading our preview of a game before the game gets its final release and its final version? if yes, click here to find more early previews.
You must be logged in to post a comment.