Advertisement

I have complicated feelings about modern vampire history. Violence is cheap. There are plenty of delicious people. And skyscrapers provide adequate protection from the sun. The sanctity of human life means little to creatures that kill humans over a simple meal. It can feel powerful to be so far removed from the life-and-death considerations of mere mortals, but such environments can also feel deeply alienating. Luckily the new survival game V rising solves my main criticism with properties like Vampire: The Masquerade– that the creatures of the night, the so-called underdogs, are too powerful. To be an oppressed minority, the player must fight and enter V rising, you most definitely do. Base building survival game does not hold back when it comes to killing you by exposure, starvation or angry wildlife. It deviates from the ordinary VtM-style model of vampires as a player-centric power fantasy.
V rising, that has been tearing up the Steam charts for the past few weeks, is billed as a multiplayer vampire action survival game, but you can also play it in single player mode. According to its Steam page, you can build sprawling castles, battle holy warriors, and pillage villages. And if you watch the videos, the main attractions are the gorgeous locks and flashy magic attacks. Which I wouldn’t know because I’m still a fragile new vampire just grinding by recipes and mining copper for gear. Contrary to what you see in the flashy promotional videos, you won’t put the brakes on your rivals right away. You start with next to nothing and have to scrounge your way up in terms of both power and resources. Most of the game – at least in the beginning – revolves around killing enemies for their bones, scraps of paper in their pockets, and their firstborn child. Okay, maybe not the last.
V rising‘s Real-time combat is fast-paced and chaotic, but the other half of V rising is a careful inventory management game. If I want to live in my own dwelling without being burned alive during the day, I must throw bones into the mist pan that protects me from the sun. If I want a roof over my head, I have to constantly feed my fortress with blood. I can collect the blood by slaughtering my victims, or I can build a rat farm to lure unsuspecting rodents into my apartment. If all of those logistical choices and supply management don’t sound appealing to you, you might want to give this survival game a pass. But the game felt rewarding to me because of the crafting, not anyway.
Maybe someday I’ll get to that point V rising feels like a power fantasy. Right now the game takes every opportunity to remind me that vampires are mortal and that I must fight for every second of my life. Surviving the fantasy lands of Vardoran feels like an achievement because gathering supplies as a vampire is really difficult. You can venture away from your stronghold to gather more valuable materials, but there’s a catch: if you’re carrying any resources, you can’t use fast travel points. And if you get shot by a sentient tree or attacked by a wayward bandit, drop your entire inventory at this point. Every piece of copper, roll of cloth, and whetstone I collect can feel like a small miracle. Nothing is cheap, basic or disposable. You are a vampire, but the game forces you to also be a worker. Over time I began to feel that my character was a natural part of the environment rather than an encroaching outsider.
G/O Media may receive a commission
30-day free trial
Homer Learn & Grow program
Stimulate your children’s minds
Your little ones are glued to the screen and that’s a reality we have to accept. But what if they could learn and grow while watching videos and playing games? Build a foundation for learning with this free trial.
There are ways to automate the work, e.g. B. luring rats into your lair for extra blood, or lifting skeletons out of the grave so you can grind their bones into crafting dust. However, some important resources can only be obtained by raiding bandits or killing mini-bosses. That means surrendering to the sun. I often rushed back from a successful bandit heist, only to be caught by daylight. But instead of just being vaguely ashamed of my night’s sleep like I do in real life, my vampire would catch fire almost immediately.
Despite its lethality, Sunlight is my favorite mechanic V rising. The only way to avoid being burned alive is to wait patiently until dark (boring) or climb to the nearest tree or pillar for shade. At first I figured I could just hang around a tree and wait a few hours in-game for the sun to set. nope My character caught fire and I realized the shadows were moving just like they do in real life. It also meant I had to be careful during the day when it came to chopping down trees or quarrying rocks to avoid robbing me of life-saving shade. I was constantly looking for cover, but I enjoyed this touch of realism from the designers. It made the world feel terrifying and alive instead of just plundering a pretty setting for me.
The combat feels smooth and it is technically It is possible to defeat every enemy you encounter using careful dodging and ranged attacks. In practice, the real enemy is time. Taking out an enemy’s defenses isn’t always the best option when you only have about six hours until sunrise. If it’s taking you too long to get to a faraway boss hideout, you’ll often have to return home before sunset or camp next to a cliff for a few hours.
One thing to note about the early game is that it relies very little on scripted storytelling outside of the interface text. You are placed in the world and have to understand the systems with almost no tutorials. Death is your main teacher. If you enjoyed that elden ring, then that’s probably not a problem. I find that the most interesting stories are the situations I stumbled upon by accident. Once I was badly injured by a carnivorous plant. Finally, to avoid the sunlight while my health was failing, I built my first home base next to a deadly Treant. Having mostly watched it bash wild animals, I had no idea it was one of the early game’s strongest enemies. Another time, during my third showdown with a bandit who had killed me twice before, I was ambushed by a vampire hunter. And I can’t forget the time I was able to harvest 800 pieces of wood at once because I accidentally ran into a necromancer that gas-bombed the entire forest (don’t ask) while trying to kill me. V risingThe world of is filled with opportunity and danger that can kill you in wonderfully unpredictable ways, or bring you luck when you least expect it.
Despite the inconvenience V rising manages to deal fairly with his challenges. You either learn to play conservatively or you die very quickly. And no matter how good you are at its combat system, your victories mean nothing if you can’t safely return everything you’ve gathered to base. And that’s a fascinating formula caught the attention of a million players. V rising does not offer players a world where we are gods. It gives us a hatchet and tells us to get to work.