V Rising Review (PlayStation 5)

For this V Rising review, we awaken as a weakened vampire after centuries of slumber. Hunt for blood in nearby settlements to regain your strength while hiding from the scorching sun to survive. Explore a vast open world together with friends or hunt solo as you pillage villages, raid bandit camps, and traverse the territories of supernatural beasts. Rebuild your castle and convert humans into loyal servants in a quest to raise your vampire empire. Make allies online and wage war against other players in a world of conflict.

V Rising Review Pros:

  • Decent dark Gothic graphics.
  • 4.94GB Download size.
  • ARPG survival gameplay.
  • Two ways to play – online, and private.
  • Graphics settings – brightness slider, v-sync, motion blur, depth of field, blood effects enabled, and screenshake.
  • Two controller presets, Invert axis, and sensitivity sliders.
  • Game types – PvP, PvE, full-on PvP, and duo PvP.
  • Maximum of four vampires in a party.
  • Three difficulties for a server – relaxed, normal, and brutal.
  • Private games allow you to tweak all elements of the game from how loot spawns to how much EXP you earn, if PvP is allowed, starting gear, starting resources, and even what level you start on, and how fast items and buildings can decay.
  • Character creator – skin color, male/female, face type, eye color, hairstyle, hair color, features, accessories, and name. Does have a randomize button for those less creative and one for the name.
  • Opening tutorial section with on-screen prompts and pop-ups showing the button icons.
  • Uses the touchpad and splits in half to have two inputs.
  • You see enemy health bars and names.
  • The tutorial is a set of rotating quests that have a claim button upon completion, the best part is you can play the game and ignore or take part in the tutorial tasks.
  • The building is a huge part of the game, the base heart is placed and then you place boundaries (unlocks the land to be used by you) and within these, you can craft and build walls, doors, coffins (respawn point), and many other options.
  • Farming resources is done via hacking down trees, smashing rocks, and so forth. using the correct tool yields more resources and is quicker.
  • Handy mechanic whereby when you try to cast an ability or attack but it’s on cool down, the game will tell you how long you have left in real-time.
  • Sunlight for a vampire is deadly and that is most certainly the case here, the day is your enemy and night is your friend. Use the shadows to stay alive during the day.
  • Loot and resources can drop from enemies.
  • You can choose what to loot from corpses, chests, etc, or press the loot all button.
  • Basic crafting of low-tier loot and gear can be done through the menu.
  • Healing can be done by feeding off animals and monsters, using blood vials, and using your own blood.
  • Death is dependent on the mode you are playing as there is a drop in everything on death, drop a percentage and drop very minimal. Revisiting your body will allow you to loot it back.
  • The locations are as gorgeous and add a ton of atmosphere and life to a game all about the undead.
  • On-screen prompts for picking up materials and resources.
  • It’s a living world if you are online, you can see and interact with other players, resources like trees and rocks will grow back, enemies respawn, etc.
  • It’s a blend of survival, base building, and Diablo.
  • Enemies will have skill levels shown above their heads alongside their health bar.
  • The sunbeam will take a short while to hit you so you have time to quickly dodge and get back to the shadows.
  • Hauntingly brilliant soundtrack.
  • Big boss battles.
  • The right stick is for aiming attacks and magic attacks which makes fighting packs of enemies easier.
  • Enemies and bosses can fight each other.
  • Damage and healing numbers show.
  • The camera can be zoomed in or moved around in terms of pitch.
  • Autorun button.
  • When attacking trees, rocks, etc you get a pop-up of the materials you are gathering.
  • Gain new powers and transformations.
  • A handy unstuck button.
  • You can lower a creature/human health and then drain the blood from them which can give you buffs.
  • Different tools make farming easier like axes for trees and picks or axes for stone. By easier I mean it gives you more resources/materials per hit as you can earn resources hitting things with anything.
  • Mist brazers let you block the sun out in a small area.
  • Chests built into your home allow you to Store items.
  • Death means you drop everything you had but mark it on the map so you can go and get it back.
  • Makes use of every button and combination of buttons.
  • At the start of the game, you get to choose your starting place for building your castle.
  • You have a counter button to negate damage or send attacks back.
  • Crafting anything when you have empty slots will put it on your bar or auto-equip the item.
  • Follows the formula of building new things like sawmills and workbenches allowing you to build bigger and better structures, refine materials, and more.
  • Anything in the game that involves time is real-time.
  • The game world is quite destructible as you can smash down walls, and clear spaces out.
  • Obvious but it has full day-night cycles.
  • Full clan support.
  • The map fills in as you explore and adds in places of interest etc.
  • You can add your own marker on the map and it will then draw a route for you and show an icon in the game to follow.
  • Radical menus for emotes and vampire powers.
  • The building is so deep and allows you to build these massive sprawling castles with multiple floors, grand furniture, and amazing Gothic-looking architecture.
  • Handy hot is where you can equip items, tools, and weapons and assign shortcuts to them.
  • The text in the game is large and easy to read as you play.
  • Find fast travel teleport spots on the map.
  • So atmospheric.

V Rising Review Cons:

  • A very daunting set of on-screen menus.
  • For the camera, you have to hold down the L2 button and use the right stick, which takes a lot to get used to.
  • Cannot remap controls.
  • The opening of the game does little in terms of telling you the basics of the game or how a lot of the mechanics work.
  • Just having to decide what style of game to play can be a huge obstacle with minimum information and no clue on how the game even plays initially.
  • Slow starter.
  • Doesn’t have a streamer mode option.
  • You don’t always get tutorial pop-ups to help.
  • The game doesn’t actually pause even in private servers.
  • Lack of dedicated accessibility options.
  • Having to manually press a button to pick up resources is a pain as you will be doing it a lot.
  • Movement can sometimes go a bit sluggish like there is a delay in registering.
  • Combat takes some getting used to.
  • When online the game doesn’t actually pause, more an FYI.
  • Being a dark game, it’s easy to miss enemies/interactions, etc.
  • When creating a male character sometimes the graphics blow out causing a weird glow and making it impossible to create or know what you are creating character.
  • The first few hours are the roughest part of the whole game.
  • It always feels like you need a guide or YouTube video open as you play because you never feel like you know anything or everything at one point.

Related Post: Sin Slayers Review (Steam)

V Rising:

Official website.

Developer: Stunlock Studios

Publisher: Stunlock Studios

Store Links –

PlayStation

  • 9/10
    Graphics - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Sound - 9/10
  • 8/10
    Accessibility - 8/10
  • 9/10
    Length - 9/10
  • 10/10
    Fun Factor - 10/10
9/10

Summary

V Rising is a game that offers a unique blend of survival, base building, and Diablo-like gameplay. It stands out with its dark Gothic graphics and a hauntingly brilliant soundtrack that adds to the atmospheric experience. The game has a decent download size of 4.94GB and offers two ways to play – online and private.

The game provides a variety of settings to customize your experience, including brightness slider, v-sync, motion blur, depth of field, blood effects, and screenshake. It also offers two controller presets, inverted axis, and sensitivity sliders. The game types include PvP, PvE, full-on PvP, and duo PvP, with a maximum of four vampires in a party. There are three difficulties for a server – relaxed, normal, and brutal.

One of the highlights of V Rising is its extensive character creator and building mechanics. The character creator includes options for skin color, gender, face type, eye color, hairstyle, hair color, features, accessories, and name. The building aspect is a significant part of the game, allowing you to craft and build walls, doors, coffins (respawn point), and many other options within your claimed land.

The game also shines in its resource farming mechanics, using the correct tool yields more resources and is quicker. The combat system is engaging, with the right stick used for aiming attacks and magic attacks, making fighting packs of enemies easier. The game also features big boss battles and allows enemies and bosses to fight each other.

However, V Rising is not without its flaws. The game’s opening does little in terms of explaining the basics or how many of the mechanics work. The first few hours can be rough, and it often feels like you need a guide or YouTube video open as you play. The game’s controls cannot be remapped, and the camera controls can take some getting used to. The game also lacks dedicated accessibility options and a streamer mode option.

Overall, V Rising is a game that offers a unique blend of gameplay elements, with its dark Gothic graphics, atmospheric soundtrack, and extensive building mechanics being its standout features. However, its lack of clear tutorials, complex controls, and the need for external guides can make the initial hours of gameplay challenging. Despite these flaws, V Rising offers a unique and immersive gaming experience that is worth exploring for fans of survival and base-building games. This is hands down one of the most definitive Vampire games on the market today.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!