V Rising | DJcube

Experience a Vampire Survival Action RPG adventure like no other.

NA release: 9th May 2024
EU release: 9th May 2024
JP release: 9th May 2024
Developer: Stunlock Studios
Publisher: Stunlock Studios
Gaming Age Review: 7.5/10
Platforms: PC, PS5
Version Played: PC

V Rising is a crafting and survival game where you get to be a vampire, building your own castles and eventually forming your own skeleton armies. It’s catered for online play, with other vampires able to raid your castles, but you can also host a custom server from within the game – which can be used for peer-to-peer online, LAN play or even solo play. Which means that, unlike many online games like this, you’ll still be able to play it in the far future. The custom servers also allow you to help with the resource gathering grind.

You start as a vampire waking up from a long slumber, weak with very few abilities and equipment. It’s a top down perspective with controls similar to a dual stick shooter – one to move, one to aim around you, which lets you aim spells and projectiles. You’ll quickly get some basic weapons, magic and a dash in order to combat enemies – which consists of pretty much everything on the map – monsters, humans and all. Other than a couple of merchants, there’s nobody you talk to in the game.

Be prepared for a lot of grinding, you’ll need to smash up trees and rocks, raid many camps for resources and then convert it all into different resources. You’ll spend an immense amount of time doing this, slowly building up your castle over a long period of time. If you like managing crafting and resources like this, then you’ll enjoy it, but it’s not for me, which is why I’m glad the server settings can reduce this a lot.

For your castle, you can create rooms out of blocks of flooring and walls, with the roof being added once you fully complete a room. Placing a stairs allows you to build upwards, and you can create some very large structures. Among your castle you’ll have multiple structures for processing resources, crafting items, storage chests and all sorts. With a bit of a faff, you can create neat designs. When playing with others, you also need to think of castle defence, but there’s no enemies that will hunt down your castle.

There’s no traditional levelling up, with your power being tied to your “gear level” – a combined total level of your equipment. To get better equipment, you’ll need to upgrade your castle and hunt down “V Blood”, which is only found in special, elite characters that you need to track down, effectively the bosses of the game. These are more unique enemies, with their own special moves. Some are inside specific strongholds, while others roam the map.

In terms of Castlevania DLC, this is efficiently just some cosmetic items in the form of castle customisation and a few costumes. One thing I like is that in-game the build equipment is labelled as “Symphony” rather than blatant “Castlevania” branding (so it makes sense in-universe), although the costumes are named after characters like Alucard and Shanoa. One nice thing about the costumes is that you can place it in a “visual only” slot so you can still use other armour. That said, if this stuff was already in the game under a different name, I would have never guessed that it was related to Castlevania. The one unmistakable thing is the beautiful rendition of Bloody Tears you can set to play in your castle.

Roaming around the map as a high-level V Blood carrier is Simon Belmont – who was added to the base game even without the Castlevania DLC. He’s a very tough opponent (especially if you bump into him before you’re ready), using his whip, cross and holy water to defeat you. Killing him will let you craft a powerful whip (not the Vampire Killer). Bosses like this also respawn if you want to fight them again.

As a vampire, you have to deal with a few disadvantages. The game has a day/night cycle and the sun will kill you. During the day, you’ll need to stick to the shadows or else you’ll burst into flames. It’s manageable, but you have to be wary of the shadows moving as the sun makes its way across the sky. The ideal method is to deal with crafting during the day, and going out and hunting during the night. You’ll also need to keep your blood topped up by feeding on creatures, with different types giving you a different bonus.

Despite all this, I never quite felt like I was a vampire. The combat and crafting is all rather generic and it feels like a game full of busywork with very little substance, with pretty much no story or lore to guide you along. It ends up feeling more like a job than a game to play to have fun. The bosses at least get better towards the end, with more interesting arenas and attacks, but you’re probably worn out by then.

Fun

Overall, V Rising is quite a fun package with great progression, but is held back by how extremely grindy it can be. The combat feels good (albeit can be stale with limited movesets) with the selection of skills and spells you unlock with each boss defeat, the world feels great to explore even while keeping to the shade during the day, and the building feels right at home with some modern city-builders.
Braden Czerwinski, Gaming Age

Remake or remaster?

The updates to make it work offline are great.

Official Ways to get the game

Bail or Jail is available on Steam and the PlayStation store.