V Rising – where did he get those nice floor lamps? (Stunlock Studios)
After years in early access, the hit vampire simulator finally arises from its grave, but does it have the necessary bite to attract new fans?
Many video games work along fairly simple lines, fulfilling obvious fantasises such as being a race car driver or playing soldiers. Being a vampire isn’t quite so common, but it does come up fairly regularly, in various different ways. Combining playing as a vampire with a survival game and a complex base-builder sim is a very specific combination but it clearly works, because V Rising has been a huge success in early access, and now it’s finally got to version 1.0.
We can only assume the idea occurred to developer Stunlock Studios while playing Castlevania (with which the game already has an official crossover pending) and wondering who Dracula got to do the internal decorating for his giant castle. If V Rising is anything to go by, he had to do most of if it himself, collecting the necessary resources and defend against both human do-gooders and rival vampires.
V Rising was always a fun idea, but it started off pretty clunky, and with far too much ore smelting and not enough neck biting, so the main question for this full release is whether it has now reached its full potential, or whether that is still yet to come.
You start each game as a newly born vampire, with all the obvious disadvantages of your breed: an insatiable need for blood and an extreme aversion to sunlight and garlic bread. So while you need to regularly feed on non-player characters you real priority is building a castle and then reinforcing it to defend yourself against both computer-controlled enemies and, in multiplayer, other players.
Although it’s undoubtedly best as a multiplayer game you can play V Rising on your own and indeed even when you are in a game with others you can go quite some time between seeing them, as you’re all off on your own, shoring up your castle and battling bosses.
The combat works something like a Diablo style dungeon crawler, which is beginning to become almost as much of an indie cliché as roguelikes and Metroidvanias, but the action is weighty and precise, with a wide range of different weapons to collect or forge. Everything being based on cooldowns feels a little too much like an MMO though, as it’s relatively easy to leave yourself without any moves for a few seconds, which feels very artificial.
Each of the 50+ bosses you defeat unlocks something new, from new resources or crafting recipes to cool new vampire powers. Your abilities are also defined by exactly what blood you drink, which has both a quality and type specific to whoever you decant it from. Blood types work something like character classes, allowing for equivalents of tanks, rogues, and healer types – that can use spilt blood to restore themselves in battle.
As you might imagine, there’s a day and night cycle, with the former causing damage whenever you’re in direct sunlight. You can remain active during the day, but it means staying inside or keeping to the shadows – which is difficult to do when you’ve got a vampire hunter breathing down your neck.
The game’s open world environment now contains five very distinct areas, each of which can house their own castle. Although wood and stone is all very important, a castle is established by first planting a castle heart, which will decay, along with the rest of the castle, if it is not constantly fed blood essence. Keep it well maintained and you can create a huge, multi-floored castle full of traps and pointless but amusing cosmetic items (but strangely no dungeons, as everything is above ground).
However, because it’s a persistent game you have to keep logging in to keep it alive for most of the multiplayer modes, or it’ll relatively quickly starve to death and inevitability be taken over by a rival. If you choose to play with other people then there are lots of options though, many of which are designed to avoid turning the game into a simple deathmatch brawl. You can play co-op or competitive, in teams or not, and with varying rules about the loot you can claim.
The game is highly customisable and many options were added as a result of the v1.0 full release, although the biggest single addition is Rift Incursions, which are timed events with their own set of enemies, which drop items that are used to craft more powerful versions of the existing weapons.
V Rising – vampires are very big on interior decorating (Stunlock Studios)
V Rising’s success is a surprise in some ways, as it’s a fairly unusual mix of gameplay elements and you would’ve thought the number of people that enjoyed all of them, and were also drawn to the slightly cartoonish vampire aesthetic, were relatively limited. But apparently not. The high degree of customisation, which literally lets you play the game however you want, is no doubt the key to the game’s success and in that sense it is well deserved.
Unless you’re completely in love with the castle-building element though the single-player can seem a bit dry, as none of the individual elements are quite as good as the games they’re borrowing from. The combat isn’t as good as Diablo, the boss battles aren’t as good as Dark Souls, and the base-buildings isn’t as good as, erm… The Sims.
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It does get pretty close though and the overall package can be very entertaining, especially, we found, in co-op, where you can define the parameters exactly as you want and have fun with your friends as a sort of vampire-themed Minecraft (surprisingly, despite the setting, the game isn’t very gory or violent).
We’re sure V Rising will continue to improve over the years but even if this isn’t its final form it emerges from early access in better shape than ever, and we already can’t wait to get our teeth into the console version and the Castlevania DLC.
V Rising review summary
In Short: A peculiar but well-conceived concept that brings together multiple disparate gameplay elements, to create a highly customisable, but occasionally somewhat shallow, vampire sim.
Pros: Solid combat and role-playing elements, married to complex survival gameplay and some engrossing base-building. Highly customisable and with great artwork and presentation.
Cons: None of the individual elements are particularly original or exceptional, especially the slightly underdeveloped combat. Single-player experience can feel a bit empty. No dungeons for your castle.
Score: 7/10
Formats: PC (reviewed) and PlayStation 5
Price: £29.50
Publisher: Stunlock Studios
Developer: Stunlock Studios
Release Date: 8th May 2024 (PS5 TBC 2024)
Age Rating: 12
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