If you enjoy crafting-heavy action RPGs then I have quite the unconventional game for you with the vampiric antics of V Rising.

│ Remember to support your favourite streamers and content creators for all the entertainment that they provide. 🎬

What is V Rising?

There's so much to V Rising that I don't even know where to start. Well, it's an action RPG where you control your own vampire who's on a mission to reclaim the land from humans and build a mighty stronghold. At the start, it kind of reminded me of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain with its dark tone and setting. However, once I started crafting and building things, that notion quickly subsided. I'll dive into each facet of its gameplay soon but I just wanted to start this review by giving you a general overview. Oh, and it's an online game if you want it to be so whether you prefer to play solo, cooperatively, or against other players then you can do so freely with plenty of options at your disposal and it's a ton of fun. In fact, the amount of options allows you to play however you wish even in solo play which is great. 👍 v1d30chumz 107-167-122-21

Explore

First off, exploring in V Rising is very unconventional. Considering you play as a vampire and there's a day/night cycle, you have to hide from the sunlight so traversal during daytime can be incredibly tricky. I actually found it a lot of fun to dash between shadows as I carefully took out enemies while waiting for the sun to go down. The game world itself is substantially sized with plenty of distinct areas and encampments that are always fun to raze. As you run around, you can drop pins on your map which draws an intuitive path on the mini-map and if you want to fight the next boss, you simply select it then a red streak will occasionally point you in their direction which is like the Sites of Grace in Elden Ring. All of these mechanics make exploration a treat, especially as you collect materials along your travels. 🧭

Craft

That's right; there's a lot of resource collecting in V Rising and you do so in order to craft things such as refined materials, equipment, consumables, and building supplies. This brings me to my first negative point because managing your inventory can be a real pain in the tuchus, especially considering how many materials you'll end up getting and how small your inventory is. Leaving things behind never feels good and building a series of chests to store things becomes cumbersome very quickly. Thankfully, you can pour your resources into refinement machines which blend multiple items into one and doing so will free up some space while also allowing you to craft better stuff. My favourite moments is when I could craft better weapons and armour as watching my stats rise is always a satisfying moment. 🛡️

Battle

Combat in V Rising is fairly standard for an overhead action RPG in that you have a basic attack with your currently equipped weapon (which you can change on the fly) as well as an assortment of skills and spells with cooldown that you can utilise to reach faraway foes, affect large groups, or evade. Once you start beating bosses, you'll also begin to unlock new spells and even be able to transform into a wolf to get around faster. When fighting enemies, you can feed on them once you deplete their HP enough which essentially acts as a new character class depending on the enemy type and you get stat bonuses according to the blood's potency, too. All of these intricate systems work exceptionally well together but sometimes, the graphics stutter which makes combat lose its flow from time to time. ⚔️

Build

A core aspect of V Rising's gameplay is building your castle which is actually my least favourite part. I don't mind crafting (even with the clunky inventory in place) but building felt excessive and tedious to me although I imagine many gamers will embrace it. Yes, it's rewarding to create workbenches and facilities that open-up crafting opportunities but micromanaging placing floors, walls, staircases, and stuff isn't my cup of tea. I won't knock the game for this, though, because plenty of folks will enjoy it but I will say that I imagine most players will find at least 1 of the aspects in play to be less than stellar. Speaking of which, I find the whole gameplay loop to be rather unoriginal having already played games like DYSMANTLE and Welcome to ParadiZe although the combat is indeed a highlight here. 🏰

I found V Rising to be quite fun and with its many gameplay elements, options, and multiplayer modes; you'll likely find a lot to love here.