As vampires, you need to consume blood to survive - but each individual enemy has a specific blood type, which each has its own stats. There are other little touches that go a long way to adding vampire flavor, like weaknesses to garlic (which players can circumvent with craftable potions).īut V Rising’s most compelling gameplay systems are V Blood and Blood. It added to the Gothic aesthetic and immersive tension, and caused me to more carefully contemplate how I would approach certain challenges (like bosses) within sometimes tight time constraints. It’s a great use of what would otherwise be an inconsequential environmental detail in any other game. I enjoyed having to sulk in the shadows as the sun crossed over the sky while making my first, and somewhat poor, attempt at building my own castle. Speaking of: The sun was perhaps one of the greatest inconveniences to me during the early hours of the game. These tantalizing bits of drama and intrigue kept V Rising feeling fresh, as fellow players dictated the flow of the game outside of the immersive vampire mechanics that developer Stunlock Studios laid as a foundation. I witnessed power struggles in which members were ostracized and alliances torn apart. One German role-playing server I joined sorted players into distinct covens governed by individual vampire lords, and in some cases, entire councils. This has facilitated the growth of a slew of role-playing servers in various languages some server owners have crafted entirely unique world rules. But V Rising’s interlocking systems give rise to player-generated emergent stories. The written narrative is relatively sparse, as interactions with NPCs are reduced to cowering or single lines of spoken dialogue. At the beginning of the game, you’re thrust into the world as a sole survivor, your coffin hidden away deep within the recesses of a forgotten cave - your objective is to claw your way back to power. V Rising is a hybrid survival-action game that draws deep inspiration from the Gothic lens of vampire fiction. We relish in the light of the moon, eager and hungry for blood. In an instant we’ve transformed, running as a pack of wolves through the dense forests outside our stone castle walls. Once we have decided upon our mark - in this case, Tristan, a vampire hunter that plagued our early forays into Farbane - we waste no time. We rise from our stone coffins to gather in the main hall of our shared castle. The sun sets, and like clockwork my coven comes alive.
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