V Rising (2024)

This is a game that is fun to play, but absolutely plagued by unfun decisions. It is a game that simultaneously feels like it wants to be an MMO and yet it doesn't. One thing I'll note its that I ultimately played on a dedicated server that I controlled, and I used a lot of settings that were recommended for a true co-op play experience. This matters, because I'm absolutely sure I undermined other people's legit gripes through settings. So just keep that in mind.

After about 60 hours (probably 2 of which was me trying to get the server running correctly) I ultimately did not finish the game. I estimate we could have wrapped it in another 10 or so, purely dedicated to hunting down the remaining bosses, but the gameplay loop at this point was getting tedious. Ultimately, the game for me is a solid 3/5. Worth the money and fun, but I don't even recommend finishing it if it gets tedious for you.

Pros

• The systems of the game, for the most part, worked very well together. Combat, crafting, and home building were mostly fun and interesting. At least in the early to mid game.
• Enjoyed the theme of the game. I liked being a vampire on the lose rebuilding my power.
• Enjoyed the boss-centric kill list, where bosses were at least somewhat varied.
• Enjoyed the prison and blood system mostly.
• Enjoyed castle building... again mostly.
• I liked collecting thralls and sending them on timed missions, even if the system felt undercooked.

Cons

• The entire game is balanced around your character being slow. Very, very, oh so very, painfully slow. Much like an older person in a large house bemoans walking to the other side of it, so will you when you realize that your treasury and crafting rooms are on opposite sides of the castle.
• Enemies seem to be stronger, faster, and better than you all around. Don't want to die, dodge! Except dodging too is slow.
• Okay, I won't dodge, I'll heal! Bwahahaha, just kidding. Healing sucks, and is slow.
• Fine, I just won't get hit. Well enjoy slowly running and dodging the game's ability to suddenly become the slowest bullet hell while you feverishly tap attack spells as they recharge.... Slowly.
• Well, now I have a steed and a fast wolf transformation spell. I'm fast...er! That is, until you meet the ranged group of enemies which have all been to Marine sniper training and immediately dismount you and congratulations. Back to SLOW!
• Did I mention the game is slow? Gotta run around and deposit loot? Whoa, slow down there. Wouldn't want you to be too fast in your own house. That's right, you're slow, even at home because the game wants to included PvP. I didn't do PvP or base raiding. Which doesn't feel like it would be fun, but it's tacked on in there!
• The biggest con this game has, is being balanced around being Slow. It makes every aspect of the game painful. Crafting is slow (I fixed this mostly with settings), collecting resources is slow, building your base is slow, moving around is slow.
• The second biggest con is sunlight. Sunlight is an arbitrary mechanic that we aptly renamed "mandatory crafting time". The game missed out hugely here by not including a reason to risk being out in the sun. This makes it tedious, makes players stand around a lot, and doesn't really add anything, except a small dosage of theme to the game. I, along with reddit, would recommend turning off daylight hours. Nothing worse than getting on with a friend to fight bosses and having to take a sunlight break every few boss fights.
• I don't know if it's true, but it felt like the sun was following, and if you stood still too long, it did seem to unnaturally pierce whatever shade was protecting you to hit you. Lightning in the later game also seems to track your character. This is immensely frustrating. I died a couple of times because I would look away from the screen for 15 seconds to address my children's questions or help them with someone or go to the rest room ffs only to come back and realize that lighting hit me, set me on fire, and a wayward ray of sunlight finished me off. No standing around allowed.
• Leveling and advancement being completely tied to gear level was a unique idea that I think falls flat. It makes fighting anyone except bosses kind of unrewarding. It introduces soft lock gates to the game too. Although I enjoyed that it kept me and my buddy in line for the most part, regardless of who had more time to play in our "non-boss hunting" time. It also made fighting even more work in the late game. Which was work enough, because you're SLOW!
• Also, there needs to be better item storage. I loved the idea of category specific containers placed in a vault that allowed crafters to easily grab from. But, it made refining more of a lift. My recommendation here is a thematic warehouse style for storage and those beautiful resource specific containers would go in their thematic rooms with their own thematic floor and they would let you pull from the warehouse containers while not actually "storing" items.
• Blood percents are annoyingly random on enemies. And since gear and blood percent are the chief drivers of thralls, my early game %100 was better than most other late game finds barring the ability that reduced difficulty in given areas.
• The game waits too long to introduce the blood potions system. Since quality is so random, it often felt like just holding onto the highest percent you find was too good for most of the game. And by the time I was effectively able to carry worker blood, it was rare that I was out doing mining/logging hauls. Combining blood in the late game is an amazing mechanic, but by then the gameplay loop didn't grip me enough to keep me going and doing it a lot. And again, the absolutely drag in finding, imprisoning, converting, and doing blood potions created a tedious loop.
• Blood itself becomes tedious to maintain in the late game. I turned off decay on the server, but tried to keep up with it for the most part. Was still frustrating.

Conclusions

I don't think the game has an easy fix to elevate it from a short fun experience to an epic game of games. It needs overhauls to all of those systems that I said worked well together mostly some of which could hurt the game's uniqueness. How do you both, reward players and advance players who spend time fighting extra mobs, but also prevent run-away leveling? How do you make certain gameplay mechanics less tedious, without making them overly easy?

It's a balancing act that is challenging. I think they can do it, but I'm not in charge (nor do I want to be) of development, and as a gamer, all I can do is complain about things I don't like, while still supporting the game overall. It's a recommend from me if survival, crafting, combat, and theme are all things you're interested in. But I wouldn't call it a genre defining game, and I certainly understand waiting for a deep sale to pick it up. If we ever see a Vrising 2, I'd be excited to see what evolves.

You know this was coming. Survival games are usually my bread and butter, mostly because it's nice to play with friend and all but V Rising is an experience I'd recommend even if you are playing alone.

Recently (8th of May 2024) the game got its full release with its finalized roster of bosses and a plethora of new improvements, QoL changed and, most of all, new drip and new weapons. And boy, this is game is Early Access done right.

V Rising is a classic top-down view (with varying camera zooms) Survival Game about vampires and their ascent to power with charming simplified graphics that look simply gorgeous to look at and won't have your computer scrambling for power anytime soon.

The gist of the game is simple: you wake up, roused by 'V Blood' - Dracula's own power and you set out to slowly gain more and more power as you wander in Valdoran, a city where Dracula himself has made its own domain as do plenty of other V Bloods.

Your main goal is to create a castle, gather resources and consume other powerful V Bloods in order to accrue your power. Craft better weapons as you go forward and, eventually, take down Dracula himself.

The combat is easy, comes in varying forms and with every taste accounted for: you want to be a tank? Here's a whole set for tanking and a whole subset of different skills that synergize with tanking. Rogue? Same. Fighter, caster, ranged. Everything. Pistols, great swords, swords, whips (my weapon of choice), double sickles, lance, reaper sickle.

Every V Blood, depending on their 'element affinity' unlocks a spell slot in their respective category (I believe the only exception is the Tailor lady) and spells can be slotted anyway you want for a maximum of two main spells and a 'ultimate' spell. Each spell can be enhanced with differing tiers of jewels that empower and sometimes offer new bonuses such as leeching, heal on hit, heal on cast and so on and so forth.

Building is so rewarding: the building pieces don't cost much, they click together beautifully and make for works of art even if you do not own any DLC - it isn't only rewarding but every 'specialized' room you build with its own flooring and a roof gets % increase to production speed and less resource cost to produce.

I just don't know what else to say, really. Everything feels so good. I hope they do make more content for the game.