Whatever genre of game it may be – survival, RPG, even roguelikes can fall into this category – there’s a key difference between having your players go from under-powered to aptly-equipped and aptly-equipped to someone who can finally start enjoying the game they’ve already invested sizable lengths of time in. Call it a question of taste and personal preference as to how weak or vulnerable one is willing to feel, but part of the reason why many survival games (least from a personal standpoint) feel both off-putting and antagonistically-designed is their misunderstanding on how powerless a player should feel. More importantly, how vital it is to keep tabs on those very metrics for survival. Beyond just a numeric value or percentage constantly ticking down at the corner of one’s screen.
While it may not be the first game to figuratively pause and question why such mechanics have to be this way,V Risingis very much the kind of game whose survival sandbox-esque implementation are a by-product of treating player progression as the latter of those two aforementioned design principles. That the player isn’t weak for vulnerabilities and weaknesses' sake, but that they’re competent enough in their skills that the grand objective of all this is not simply to keep going, but to rise to the challenge in the pursuit of that ultimate and most absolute of power, above everyone and everything else.
False Start, False Alarm
An easy way in the vampiric power fantasy premise might have allowed for developer Stunlock Studios, it would’ve been so easy forV Risingto be yet another game dictated by meters. Meters that somehow find a way to drop to empty annoyingly fast,in a game that no doubt would have been intentionally scarce in resources by design. Survival was never meant to be easy after all. Built to keep players engaged, rather than entertained. But lo and behold, Stunlock Studios haven’t just stopped at crafting a game that avoids these pitfalls – employing survival sandbox aspects more as a supportive tool.
But in combination with its base-building (or in this case lair-building), its Action RPG-styled loot grind. And best of all, a smart way of implementing one’s status as a vampire through moment-to-moment decision-making, Stunlock have delivered an experience that all players – proponents and opponents of either genres alike – can come to love. Speaking as someone who admittedly has turned their nose up at most – if not all – survival pitches,V Risingis one I’ve so quickly come to admire and similarly found difficult to put down.
An accomplishment when taken as its total sum, but an accomplishment garnering even more an impressive feat when you take into consideration that so far as its early parts, the first couple of hours more specifically,V Risingdoesn’t get off on the right foot. Sure, there’s an argument to be had that most survival premises are naturally inclined to have players fumble in the dark to start. Figure a few things out, work out where the line between success and failure is drawn – a bit of trial-and-error, nothing entirely out of the ordinary.
V Rising: Starter Guide
The starter guide to becoming the best vampire lord in all the land.
But it’s only because the opening segment is both so loose in its guidance, yet at the same time doing that familiar thing of dumping so many mechanics, systems and key details to take note of, you couldn’t be blamed for quickly presumingV Risingis another case of overburdened responsibilities. Establish a base, keep said base functioning. Run it, maintain it, upgrade it not because you want to, but because you have to. And amidst all this, go out and hunt for resources to keep one’s health – or in the game’s case, blood pool on top – in check.
And sure, the gradual checking off of objectives does initially make the process seem like the game is falling into that former category of previous: things start off bad and you’re only committing the time necessary just to make them moretolerable, just notenjoyable. But eventually, that worry of some malaise settling over quickly dissipates. Learning as you do that beyond the scavange for resources and chasing of that next crucial Gear Score level – vital as they are –V Rising’s more crucial and thus interesting decisions are the show-stealer.
Blood for the Blood God
An obvious candidate this might sound, by farV Rising’s most interesting gameplay mechanic is the manner your character goes about the acquisition of blood. Done so by attacking enemies of a wide variety of classes – animals, hostile humans and even some mutant, abnormal foes alike – all with their own blood purity level. Yet herein lies the crucial decision-making: the higher the purity, the greater the buff one gains upon successful acquisition. For example, draining the blood of a hostile with 10% purity compared to one with, say, 80% purity could determine whether your character receives a greater bump to one’s strength, speed, resistance to sunlight or any number of traits. Said buffs lasting so long as that purity of blood is maintained.
The moment you swap it out for another creatures' blood, those buffs of prior are removed – replaced by the purity percentage and corresponding unlocked buffs alongside. As such, it provides an interesting dilemma that persists over the course of the run-time. A conundrum made somewhat more complex given that blood also serves as your resource pool in order to recover lost health. What this does then is offer an interesting twist on survival’s most egregious of systems: meters. How far are you willing to go to hold onto those gathered buffs, at a potential cost of recoverable health?
Dawn of The Next Day
Yet your status as a vampire extends further, with natural weakness to things like sunlight making daytime exploration a more treacherous act to partake in. Visible shadows and shaded areas offering temporary safe zones your character can hop in and out of, just to survive. The fact that the day-night cycle actively alters the positioning of shade based on the time of day only adds to the risk moving about during the day brings and of the level of adaptability players must employ, regardless of whether the areas trudged are entirely new or otherwise. It’s not impossible to succeed and accomplish given tasks without the protection of night, but again – much like the blood and buff balancing – it’s an area players must ask for themselves how willing they are to put themselves at greater risk.
What this then ultimately does is put the factors of survival back in the player’s own hands, rather than that of the game’s. Following as you do the gradual incline up the primary objective: a tier-like ordering of boss-styled foes to hunt down. Described as in possession of what is dubbed “V Blood,” successfully defeating these enemies gives you access to a wealth of additional spell types, skills and in the case of animal-like bosses, abilities that can help you traverse the world better. And while additional rewards like new cosmetics or furniture types for your lair aren’t as critical an addition,V Rising’s seldom feels like its rewards are lacking whenever that next key milestone is met.
Each new rung on that figurative ladder – gradually increasing one’s Gear Score, so as to be aptly-equipped to take on the next higher-leveled foe – rarely feels tedious. Sure, not all boss fights are designed or orchestrated as well as others – some encounters suffering from a frustrating reliance on additional mob enemies or projectile spam to inflate the run-time. But for the most part, even players less than obsessed with the allure of the best gear (and more importantly, the best numbers attached) can triumph, even during the day-time stretches. Better still, players can fine-tune the conditions of their game – including a choice between three difficulty settings – meaning that whatever kind of investment you want from this type of game,V Risingis more than modest with what it offers.
Not Entirely Lost in Translation
To its credit, when it comes to the building side of the core loop,V Risinghas more or less translated the flexibility of its controls from that of PC to a console platform. Admittedly, a few subtler bits of handling aren’t perfect by any stretch; the way objects snap into position upon placement, while mostly succeeding at what they’re intending, can on occasion lead to those playing on PS5 painstakingly correcting themselves. Analog-stick controls not quite replicating the feel of a traditional mouse.
Likewise, the mapping of the many menus and menus inside menus – specifically when it comes to hopping in and out of modes of interaction – while not deal-breaking by any means, are cumbersome. Even after countless hours invested, remembering to hit one button then another all while making sure NOT to press a certain button just for one command is a little tedious. A not-so-fond reminder that as well as the bulk of the experience remains in console format, not all ofV Rising’s originally PC-native design flows as smoothly here.
Closing Comments:
Even with its slightly unintuitive interface and occasionally-tedious boss encounters,V Risingdoes what so many survival-sandbox and loot-based RPGs alike get horribly wrong from the word go: having the base gameplay start from a point of enjoyment. While the task to build one’s self up and survive the ongoing perils remain crucial to one’s progression, it’s thanks to the game’s reframing of key genre pillars like gear score and meters to manage that make the experience far from the slog it may initially imply. While its introduction may lead many to suspect the same mounting tedium is coming, a host of well-integrated mechanics alongside that consistent balancing of the risks one may be willing to take makeV Rising– and now, its subsequent release onto PS5 – a noteworthy accomplishment.
Version Reviewed: PlayStation 5
In Stunlock Studios’ V Rising, players take on the role of a vampire rising from his slumber. Survival is key as players explore V Rising’s open world where they can discover villages, craft items, combat fantastical creatures and bandits, and find other secrets to aid them on their journey.
