V Rising is arguably turning out to be one of the best survival games on the market. Created by Stunlock Studios, the early access title has players take on the role of their very own vampire as they make a name for themselves. This involves terrorizing the local populace of their resources, setting up a castle, and taking on the game's V Blood Carriers to unlock new powers, structures, and crafting recipes.
There are a lot of gameplay elements in V Rising that take cues from other survival and crafting games. Players start the game with almost nothing, so they have to work their way up by crafting the simplest weapons, items, and gear. V Rising starts outs slow, but with enough materials and a good knowledge of the combat system, players will eventually work their way up the game's many progression trees. Both the midgame and endgame content are best experienced by the players themselves, but right from the get-go, Stunlock Studios does its best to make players feel that they are playing as vampires.
The Night Belongs To The Vampires
As players leave the character select screen, they emerge from their coffins into the darkness of night. In stark contrast to other survival games that make players loathe sundown, V Rising teaches players to love the night, as this is where they can move around freely to explore the world. V Rising's nights start at 6 pm and last until 10 am, which gives aspiring vampires 14 hours of shrouded darkness to pillage, fight, and drink the blood of anyone who stands in their way.
Drinking blood replaces traditional food and hunger meters. It lets players not only heal and use their powers, but it also provides certain boons depending on which blood type is consumed and how potent it is. Drinking the blood of a worker, for instance, grants an increase to the number of resources gathered, while snacking on the local wildlife gives ups a player's movement speed. These buffs increase depending on how high the percentage of blood the victim has and if a Blood Moon is present. Depending on what activities players have for a certain night, they can either scour a local settlement or keep a few humans locked up in their castle, so they can change their blood type to suit their needs.
It's Morbin' Time
It wouldn't be a vampire game without vampire powers, and the ones in V Rising are interesting, to say the least. Weapon skills are pretty straightforward and allow players to pound, slash, and stab their opponents with punchy inputs that combo well with their spells. Most spells aren't standard vampire fare, as the blood, frost, chaos, unholy, and illusion magics feel like any old magic attacks found in a fantasy game. While weapons skills are obtained by creating better weapons, spells can be learned by defeating specific V Blood Carriers - V Rising's bosses.
Where V Rising distinguishes itself however is with the vampire powers that take direct inspiration from fantasy lore. From the start of the game, players have access to Blood Mend (an ability that allows them to heal themselves as long as they have blood coursing through their veins) and Expose Vein (which lets cooperators share their blood and blood type). They eventually gain access to more vampiric powers like Dominating Presence (a power that grants vampires the ability to seduce humans and bring them back to the castle for enslavement) and multiple forms which allow them to shapeshift not just into a bat, but a wolf, bear, rat, and even human as well. Not all the skills and powers are directly inspired by vampire lore, but they collectively make players feel powerful and otherworldly as they go about their business.
Power Comes At A Cost
Of course, being a vampire comes with its own set of disadvantages. Players can't survive in the sun for long, as they will take continuous damage. This forces them to move between the game's many shaded areas (which are created by objects) to safely travel during the daytime. Garlic is also a deterrent to progression, as prolonged exposure can weaken players' attacks and increases the damage they take. Not only that, but enemies who use holy magic and artifacts and places with holy relics can damage players regardless of the time of day.
Finally, silver of any shape or form - whether it be coins, ore, or ingots - continuously damages players while in their inventory. The more silver a vampire carries, the more damage they take. There are some big drawbacks to being a vampire, but if players tread carefully and prepare the right countermeasures (most debuffs can be mitigated by a potion or two), they can overcome these and become even stronger than before.
V Rising is still in early access, but it gets the vampire elements just right. Its gameplay loop has players spending most of the day crafting items, building their castle, and scheming, and the majority of the night terrorizing nearby settlements, fighting V Blood Carriers, and gathering resources. Stunlock Studios has already proved that a vampire survival game is feasible and fun, now it just has to fully deliver on the experience.
V Rising is available in Early Access on PC.