I’d heard aboutV Risingfrom many of my co-workers, but never got around to trying it out during its early access period. Right before its full launch in May 2024, I bought it at a discount, but it was only recently, just over a year later, that I actually sat down to play it. Turns out, everyone was right: it’s fun. Who could’ve guessed? Obviously not me.
However, the biggest thing that impresses me about it as a fan of survival games, is how this survival game doesn’t actuallyfeellike a survival game - and we need more survival games like that.
How many times can you say ‘survival game’ in a single sentence?
Cool Vampire Stuff First, Survival Mechanics Second
I’m not saying every survival game needs to be a vampire game. I’m also notnotsaying that, but that’s not the point; the point is that V Rising doesn’t feel like it’s presenting a survival game where you’re a vampire, but a vampire game with survival mechanics. Still with me?
It feels more like an RPG than anything, with blood-collecting-based progression for skills, abilities, and stronger foes offering more powerful blood. The game also takes an isometric view of the world, akin to other notable RPGs likeDiabloorDivinity: Original Sin. It’s only when you progress a little further that you find the survival crafting elements, with materials for building your castle and gear required. You also have to stay out of the sunlight if you want to avoid burning, which in of itself is a brilliant mechanicaboutsurvival, and especially stylistic in this top-down perspective as you shadow the, well, shadows, of clouds.
I Love Survival Games, And That’s Why I Want More That ‘Aren’t’
No Man’s Skyfeels like a science fiction exploration game;Subnauticafeels like a deep-sea horror game;The Altersfeels like a narrative-driven sci-fi tale. Still, each of them also feels like a survival game in equal measure, with their own directions and specialisations. And they’re all fantastic, no doubt about that.
At the same time, on the other end of the spectrum,Elden Ringhas material-based crafting;Red Dead Redemption 2has hunger and temperature; Bethesda games likeSkyrim,Fallout 4, andStarfieldall have options to enable harsh survival elements. But none of these gamesaresurvival games, so those elements feel entirely additional.
V Rising, however, just doesn’t feel like a survival game in an obvious way, nor like the survival elements are sprinkled atop the experience. It feels like the survival is there, at the core, underneath the whole foundation of the game, but it’s been built upon in a unique way.
You forget it’s a survival game because it’s unequivocally a vampire ARPG, but it never once shies away from the survival genre as a whole. Though I waited over a year to actually give this one a try, I’m glad I did, as it’s suddenly one of the most notable survival games I’ve played, smartly disguising itself ot a point where it no longer reaches the cliches of the genre.
