Out of all the mythological creatures out there, vampires are by far one of the most desirable. Of course, since the very first years of gaming, bloodsuckers have been a fertile source of material for developers. There have been many amazing vampire games such as the Legacy of Kain series, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines (despite its issues) and more recently the excellent Vampyr. 

A few years ago the indie world was set on fire by a humble open-world survival game called Valheim. This success was down to refreshing game systems, engaging construction mechanics and a beautifully elemental aesthetic. It also used the game's boss fights as a gateway to progression and the key to acquiring new technology. The game I want to talk about today is one that many have compared to Valheim, as the boss-hunting backbone seems to track this formula.

Bloody Amazing

V Rising is an action survival game that runs in a rotating isometric viewpoint. This title is from Swedish indie developer Stunlock Studios and for me came out of nowhere. You move your character around with WASD and shift the view by holding the right mouse button. In this way, it immediately reminded me of Weird West, which is no bad thing. Like the aforementioned Western, the environments are designed to elevate gameplay beyond what you might normally expect from this genre. 

The first port of call is to create your vampire and as you will see, the developers have gone for a more stylised approach. Within the choices on body type, hairstyle and so on there is a decent amount of choice on hand. With a name attached, you rise from your wooden coffin, weakened yet hungry for the road to redemption. Left click is your basic attack, which are your razor-sharp claws before you acquire a weapon. From here the tutorial will guide you towards your first basic skills such as a magical projectile, blood shield and dash. Even early on, these skills are nuanced with extra tricks if you play them right; such as dash making your next attack more powerful. 

The amount of attack slots open is fairly lean at first and this means as you unlock new skills you must make some tough choices. However, as you gain new tiers of weapons, each class also gains a first and then a second unique attack. Smart use of these skills and weapons will be vital for taking on certain enemies, like acquiring a scythe that does more damage to the undead. The combat is one of the stand-out elements in V Rising as it is fast, well designed and leaves your heart racing. Due to the awesome ragdoll physics, the bodies of your enemies will do some pretty spectacular gymnastics as you dispatch them. In fact, the game world in general looks incredible as trees are felled and rocks are obliterated by the awesome destructive abilities these creatures have. 

Hunter Gatherer

Right from the off you are set loose on the brittle environment around you. Almost everything will crumble into core resources under the incessant whacking of your vampiric attacks. Trees, rocks, grass, walls, fences… every bloody thing seems to hide stuff to hoover up. Your initial weapons and armor can be crafted on the fly which gets things moving quickly. You will also learn that many systems make sense here, like axes being better for chopping trees and consuming worker blood will buff your overall gathering; but more on the red stuff later.

One of my favourite things about V Rising is how alive the world feels and how the creatures within it behave. It seems like such a basic thing to get right and yet so many developers get it wrong or just don't have the time. Here you will see wolves attacking deer, bears attacking wolves and so on. Also, rival factions will not tolerate each other’s presence when roaming the many lanes. It is interesting that while in wolf form you will be ignored by the wild wolves and this also works with the rats. Often you will come across piles of resources from a recent fight. Even the boss characters will lay into each other if they happen to cross paths, which can be advantageous for the wise vampire hiding in the shadows. The game world itself is covered in thoughtful details, from small creatures scurrying through the bushes, changing weather to the sumptuous interior locations.

In the final version of Vardoran there are eight regions and each one has many unique locations containing specific resources. One of the things that will stand out after a few hours of play is how well-designed the resource gathering loop is. So many lower tier items can be funnelled into the higher tier crafting recipes which means you should never throw anything away. The basic materials like rock, stone, animal hides etc will be gathered from pretty much anywhere in the game world. You may also want to gather cotton from a local farm or grave dust from a cemetery. Of course, the locals will never react well to seeing a vampire sizing up their crops (and necks). It is another excellent sign of how many different reactions you get from unarmed villagers: some beg for their lives and some pick up a pitchfork. Very soon your inventory will be bulging with a litany of items and it is here you will be promoted to drop your castle heart in a suitable location.

Location Location Location

What self-respecting Vampire would consider themselves true undead Royalty without his or her towering castle brood in? This citadel is one of the main aspects of the game and among other things, offers stalwart refuge from the blistering sun. Your first settlement will have wooden walls and as you drop new structures down it will in all likelihood be a bit haphazard. A sawmill here, a foundry there and soon you will be processing your raw materials into the stuff of dreams. As soon as you get a solid castle wall and floor in place a roof will magically appear over your head; a somewhat reassuring mechanic for someone who bursts into flames in the sun. 

The building system is nowhere near as complex or free-form as games like Valheim and initially seems a little limited. However, as you unlock new books (blueprints) the amount of choice you have is very impressive. A castle heart can be plonked down on any of the free land areas in the game and this will be your vampiric base of operations: just make sure you keep feeding it blood essence. Soon you will realise that specific floor types boost certain structures, the forge room for example will be where you smelt ore down and craft new weapons. On top of the functional side of things, there are also a surprising amount of cosmetic options from glowing fireplaces, to opulent red leather chairs and so much more. It is a shame that the developers have resisted the calls from early-access gamers for a ‘build from storage’ mechanic. As it stands, you can end up like a squirrel on LSD looking for that one essential ingredient you put somewhere for safekeeping.

One way that vampires often protect themselves while they sleep in the daylight hours is by taking on a familiar or servant. As I will cover, you can place any human in a trance in order to imprison them for a good supply of blood. However, if you have made an empty coffin you can also convert them to become a fully functioning flunkey. Once the conversion process is complete these minions will defend your castle against all hostile forces, including other players not in your clan. I think it is a shame that, outside of PVP, nothing ever really attacks your castle. I would love it if local villagers would occasionally take umbrage with your nightly feedings and march on your abode with flaming torches in hand. This would give you a reason to sure up the defences and get those stone golems patrolling the moat!

As with many systems in V Rising, the minion management is also well fleshed out with the option to send them on missions to places you have uncovered in the game world. This makes gathering certain resources like sulfur and iron less of a grind. You can kit them out in whatever gear you wish and there are even traits that will allow higher success in certain places. I mean, it makes total sense if you want to infiltrate a holy monastery, why not convert one of the local priests to your cause? 

Big Boss

I would say the strongest comparison to Valheim comes from the similar technology progression system. In both games finding and defeating boss characters is integral to the acquisition of new powers and tools. In the final version of the game, there are fifty-seven of these boss encounters that can be tracked down with the scent of their blood. As you craft new armour and weapons, your respective gear score will go up. This in turn will allow you to track and confront these potent adversaries. 

I love how much variation there is in these fights, from the simple Alpha Wolf to some really well-designed bullet hell confrontations. These fights often take place in the open world and it is incredible to see these catastrophic forces level entire forests. As you finish feasting on your beaten quarry a shockwave erupts, reminiscent of when the predator sets off his spiteful self-destruct device. Of course, the real prize is the skills, structures and abilities that unlock with each one you defeat.  

I like how some of these boss fights have had some creative thought put in, such as a powerful werewolf transforming into human form in the daytime. The Putrid rat is also found in a very unexpected place which may surprise some players. The attacks they will use are all bespoke and situational, which helps give each fight a memorable place in the journey to the final fight. As you progress toward the last few encounters you will need to put everything you have learned to the test as they are formidable challenges.

Sanguineous Shenanigans 

As you might imagine, blood will flow into many aspects of the gameplay systems and again, Stunlock has done a great job here. At the bottom of the screen you see your blood pool swishing around and you will want to keep this topped up whenever possible. As you hover over animals and humans alike, you will see a percentage and this indicates the quality of blood they have. Once you have reduced that entity's health down to a low level you can gorge on their blood. The higher the percentage is, the more buffs you will unlock while that blood courses through your veins. The best part is that there are different types of blood and they all offer a different set of buffs depending on your requirements.

I love how many different options you have open to you in this liquid economy. For example, if a fellow vampire is running low on the red stuff you can open a vein and let them feed on you. You can also feed on cattle, wild deer and many other creatures you come across and animal blood also comes with its own benefits. It is also wise to keep a few rats in your pocket when caught in a pinch. You can even construct prisons within your castle to regularly nibble on people with high-quality blood, as long as you can keep them alive and sane.

Sun Block

As any vampire hunter will know, the one universal nosferatu nobbler is sunlight (we don’t talk about those sparkly vampires here). V Rising might have my favourite sunlight simulation ever. In the cool night air, you will be safe to explore, but as the morning mist fades the real-time day/night cycle will push that yellow orb of death high into the sky. You can still leave the cool safety of your castle during daylight hours, but you must then avoid any direct beams of sunlight and remain in the shadows. What is really awesome about this system is that shadows are very accurately rendered and move in real time. 

I’ve been in situations when moving across open farmland, hiding in rat form to take advantage of the thin shadows cast by fence posts. In one boss fight, we were fairly well covered until the final shockwave felled all surrounding trees: which left us all getting crispy with no shade in sight. I’ve even had situations where I’ve gone afk for a few minutes in my castle, only to come back to a smouldering pile of ash as the afternoon sun was now casting long corridors of death through the open windows. There are other dangers out in the world for you to be mindful of, such as bushels of garlic, silver and the wrathful judgment of holy powers. Each will knacker you over time and it is unwise to raid human farms without quaffing a few resistance elixirs. 

While on the subject of accurate world systems, I also love how well-implemented line of sight is in V Rising. Basically, if your character can't see an enemy, you can’t see them either. As you run through the forest this will become obvious as woodland creatures flit in and out of view. I’ve been in situations where I’ve thought I’d escaped a mob of angry soldiers, only to run right into them as I rounded a corner. 

The Problem with Vampires

So as the short but sweet cutscene ends you are presented with your first choice, the type of game you wish to play. Stunlock Studios have done a great job here providing space for both PVP folks and those who just want to plod through the game as a solo PVE jaunt. On my first game, I jumped into a PVP server with a few friends and we immediately formed a four-man guild. The standard limit for each server is around forty people which right now seems about right. As you go about your business you will come across other players and the castles they have erected.

So far I have been ignored, attacked and even spoken to once with the VOIP (player voices when in range) feature. When you do get killed on a PVP server the resources you drop are open for looting, after a long gathering session this can be devastating. Your castles can also be attacked and raided by other players at certain phases in the day. So when making a character on a PVP server just be aware of what you are signing up for. There is even a hardcore PVP server where all your gear can be stolen after death and your entire castle can be wiped out: not for the faint of heart. 

The majority of my time so far has been on a private PVE server. This allowed us to change a few of the game parameters, such as making the guild size ten which lets all our community join in. We also removed the restrictions on carrying resources through way gates, which makes life a hell of a lot easier. While the PVP aspect of the game is certainly very popular with live streamers, there is more than enough PVE content in the game to keep you going for weeks. 

Is it PC?

Launching into early access can be both a blessing and a curse. You do get an influx of cash to keep development ticking over, but the pressure is then on to keep momentum going. Games like Valheim, Baldur's Gate 3 and now V Rising show exactly how to produce a game in early access. Each update has added new content, features and zones; all the while refining the better ideas to perfection. Performance has also now reached the stage where it will run on pretty much any rig with a few tweaks. While the game does run pretty well on Steam Deck, this game is largely designed for mouse and keyboard so bear that in mind. 

V Rising is one of those games that isn't showing off cutting-edge graphical techniques, but it uses what it has got incredibly well. When zoomed right in, assets can look a little bare bones but even then there is an admirable amount of detail poured into the world. Once you start to take an interest in decorating your castle you can achieve some pretty lush results, with paintings, sculptures and so much more. The in-game lighting is also well delivered from the low orange glow of a cottage hearth to the myriad spell effects popping off like fireworks.

As there really isn't much in the way of story beats, dialogue is mostly situational and comes from NPCs reacting to your actions. So while we don't get any Shakespearean monologues, the voice lines that are in the game are brilliant and punchy. Each enemy, villager and boss have a range of verbals to throw at you from insults, cries of fear and descriptions of what they are going to do to you respectively. The in-game music is also well delivered and adds a good amount of gothic ambience to the game. It is also reactive to what is happening on screen, as you might expect. Just a word of warning, one of the more relaxing tunes will get into your head and stay there for hours!

Summary 

With the final version of the game, we have also received a truckload of new content including new spells, weapons and of course the end-game bosses. There are also new dynamic events which I won't spoil, but do add even more reason to leave your castle in search of new necks to sink your fangs into. The new zone is also very well thought out and as it is devoid of sunlight, will no doubt see much of the PVP action. 

I could gush about how amazing V Rising is all day. It has taken so much of the established vampire lore out there and honoured it perfectly. They have also captured what makes being a vampire such an interesting existence both in terms of power and fragility. With such a well-made game it is hard not to hope the developers keep producing content and there has been talk of at least one expansion. I have now bought the game twice for myself and my son including all the available DLC. At this price point and with what you get I cannot recommend this game enough.