If you are seeking a game that lets you rule the night, you may want to look into V Rising, an open world survival game recently released by Sunlock Studios after nearly two years in Early Access. Set in Vardoran, a harsh land filled with ferocious beasts and hardened humans, you play the part of a classic vampire. Recently awakened from a long slumber and frail from excessive thirst, you begin the game by leaving your crypt behind to seek blood and glory.

Once you venture out into the world, you can choose where to build your castle from numerous locations spread across the map. At low levels, it may be difficult to access some of these places due to the number of high-level enemies lurking about, but you can relocate your castle after you've built it (though you will need to reconstruct it from the pieces you've built), so you don't need to worry too much about your starting location if you're playing casually.

From there, the typical game loop would be to gather resources, build up your castle and equipment, hunt down and fight bosses to unlock more abilities and crafting options, repeat. V Rising can be played solo or in networked multiplayer, with options for co-op and PvP. With over 50 unique bosses available to fight in addition to other combat events and opportunities for exploration, there is a lot of variety available for fans of survival games.

Vampiric Values

The world of V Rising goes hard into the vampire theme, basing the game mechanics on traditional vampire lore. Carrying silver coins will drain your health, garlic will debuff you, and the sun will burn you to ash. You can gain resistances for all of these (plus fire and holy), allowing your power as a vampire to grow. As you defeat enemies and gain more vampiric skills, you'll be able to convert thralls to do your bidding and shapeshift into a variety of forms, including wolf and bat.

The sun effects stand out the most, since daytime will prohibit your movement. However, you needn't stay in your coffin until sunset. You can still go about collecting resources and fighting as long as you stay in the shade. You can dash from shadow to shadow, but any prolonged exposure is pretty much guaranteed to kill you.

One other important bit of vampire lore is the blood. You need to feed in order to survive. Your blood will deplete just by being up and about, and you'll lose health fast if it reaches zero. The quality of blood is also important, with purer blood giving great buffs to your stats that will make combat much easier. Of course, with such benefits from high-quality blood, picky eaters will want to keep a good supply on hand by capturing pets to keep the best blood on tap.

Appealing Aesthetics

The graphics in this game are gorgeous, with detailed components to use in building and decorating your castle on top of a variety of natural settings spread across the different regions of the map. There are some interesting visual effects, such as the steadily increasing intensity of light as the sun is about to fry you to death and the misty atmosphere seen while mid-flight. It provides a lot to appreciate for those who enjoy top-down or isometric games. However, with such excellent graphics, I regularly found myself wanting to lower the angle further and zoom in more to better view all the beautiful scenery around me. The view can feel a bit limited at times, and those who want a deeper angle won't be able to find it without seeking mods. 

The background music does a great job of adding to the atmosphere with its soft, classical composition, which seems quite appropriate for a vampire game. The sound effects go well with the actions, and the voice acting for the occasional lines of dialogue is also strong. 

Each of the bosses have been given a unique theme and look to them, with their own style of attacks and related effects. This makes for some interesting combat—if you're coming in at the right level for it. When you're overpowered, combat can end too soon, and things can get a bit tough if you're underpowered. Fortunately, since your level is tied to your gear, you can raise or lower your level between battles in order to get the most out of a boss, and the battles can be repeated if you want to try again.

A Cornucopia of Customization

Customization is a key strength of V Rising. There are plenty of options for designing your character's basic appearance (which can also be changed once in game) and, though each gear set has its own fixed look, there are several sets available to craft, with color schemes that can be altered to suit your aesthetic. Each time you unlock a spell, there is a selection to choose from which you can then choose to add to your hotbar, along with a variety of weapons and items, allowing for a lot of options in how you want to make your build. Castle construction is smooth, with walls that snap onto the flooring and lots of decorations to unlock as you play, so you can get creative with your base building and personalize your space.

The game settings themselves are where the customization really shines. When creating a game, you can choose between standard Relaxed, Normal, and Brutal settings, each of which can be further adjusted according to your playstyle. This means that you can choose how rare or abundant resources will be, how challenging you want your combat, the length of time it takes to build things, how long a day lasts (including how much of that day includes sunlight), and the level of PvP you want to allow. If you want, you can even start the game at a high level with all abilities unlocked, or at a middling level with only some of the abilities unlocked.

If you don't want to host your own game, you can search for an existing one using filtered search functions to locate a server with the kind of settings you're looking for. Getting the balance right can greatly affect the gameplay, so it's important to make sure a game is going to have the right settings for you.

Quick Reference

V Rising is a base-building open-world survival game with a vampiric theme.
Best played on a server with settings that suit your playstyle.

Strengths:
• The experience of being a classic vampire.
• Gameplay that can be enjoyed in solo or multiplayer.
• Customization options to suit your play preferences.

Weaknesses:
• Can be tedious or feel repetitive with the wrong settings.
• Being locked to an isometric view may lead some players to seek mods.