V Rising

V Rising is set in an open world, split into 5 biomes, where the player controls a recently awakened vampire. The player gathers materials, makes and upgrades their equipment, and builds a castle that acts as their home. To unlock access to more advanced materials and equipment, players must defeat bosses found throughout the world. To survive, players must meet needs and avoid hazards specific to vampires, such as regularly consuming blood and avoiding the sun.[1]

Players consume blood from enemy non-playable characters (NPCs) by performing a specific action once the NPC is near death. Every NPC is assigned a particular category of blood based on their faction, and a Blood Quality, which is randomly assigned when an NPC spawns. Blood categories grant the player particular benefits, functioning similarly to character classes. Blood Quality determines the potency and range of the benefits.[2]

V Rising features a day-and-night cycle. Once the player is in direct contact with sunlight for longer than a few seconds, they will begin to take damage. It will only stop when the player steps into a shadow, enters a roofed area, or dies. Garlic functions similarly, except it applies a negative status effect that gets worse the longer the player is exposed. The status effect increases the damage the player takes and decreases the damage the player deals.[3]

All 5 biomes have claimable areas where players can build castles. Claiming an area is achieved by placing an item known as a Castle Heart. Once placed, it must be supplied with an in-game currency called Blood Essence, otherwise it will decay. A decaying Castle Heart will result in structures being vulnerable to attackers and crafting stations no longer working. In order for a structure built by the player to be classified as a castle, which grants a roof to protect against the sun, the walls must be stone and any kind of flooring must be placed.[4] Players are able to freely move objects within the borders of their claimed area (with some exceptions), including storage containers and crafting stations, even if they have items in them.[5] With the release of the Secrets of Gloomrot update, players are able to add multiple levels to their castles, with a technical maximum of 6 floors.[6]

V Rising game sessions are hosted on servers that are either player versus environment (PvE) or player versus player (PvP). For PvP, there are 3 variations: standard, full loot, and duo. Standard introduces typical PvP mechanics, such as attacking castles and players being able to fight and loot one another. Full loot is similar to standard with player equipment, which is what determines player progression,[1] also being able to be taken. Furthermore, enemy castles can be fully destroyed, requiring their owners to start over. Duo is similar to standard with the only difference being factions cannot exceed 2 members.[7][8]

V Rising is developed by Stunlock Studios in the Unity game engine.[9] On release an ongoing internet connection was required to play, but a hot fix removed the requirement allowing play while offline.[10] On May 17, 2023, the first major update titled Secrets of Gloomrot was released on Steam.[11] It introduced the ability to create multi-level castles, added items called "jewels" that augmented spells, introduced a "domination" mechanic for horses allowing them to be summoned by the player at will, among other changes.[6]

IGN's early access review found that the crafting aspects of the game were time-consuming, but that the boss design and action role-playing combat were excellent.[1]

• Official website