V Rising, we tried the beta of the vampire survival of Stunlock Studios
V Rising
Survival are subtle games: their loop seems slow and tedious at first, but the curious mix of collecting materials and fighting for survival takes very little to become a routine capable of gluing a player to the screen for hours. Of course, this happens mainly in quality exponents of the genre, usually extraordinarily flexible sandboxes or simply able to stand out from the crowd due to some unique feature, yet the "drug" element is an integral part of almost every game of this type and it is plausibly for this reason that today their potential users are millionsObviously, in an increasingly popular and easily adaptable field to online, competition is not lacking and standing out requires not only good technical skills, but also a fair amount of creativity. The Stunlock Studios - a team that has been active for several years now - have therefore opted to give a markedly darker tone to their new child: they have called him V Rising and have decided to put the players in the shoes of ruthless vampires eager to restore their dominion over the world. entire human race.
The revision of survival in a "vampire" key is undoubtedly an interesting starting point, however the Stunlocks were not limited to this ... we are still talking about the team that created Battlerite and Bloodline Champions - competent, but unfortunate competitive online titles with a top-down view - and therefore of a group of specialists in combat mechanics with decades of practice behind them. V Rising therefore does not limit itself to proposing a marginal variation of the classic survival loop and puts in place systems that are much more refined than the average when it comes to clashes and progression. All, of course, to be played with a comfortable bird's eye view.
We have been testing the V Rising beta for a few days and today we are ready to offer you our preliminary analysis.
We take back everything that belonged to Dracula
V Rising: no one prevents you from dedicating many square meters to a very pompous throne room worthy of Vlad Tepes. Nobody V Rising starts, like most games of its genre, with a rather skimpy tutorial: a mix of objectives that lead the player to experiment with the crafting system, push him to build a first shelter and slowly teach him to recover resources. essential to complete all the first steps. After the introductory cemetery, you will be immediately abandoned in a large map full of vegetation and various types of outposts, normally populated by humans or various beasts ready to attack you on sight. And, let me tell you, all this aggression is very justified: as a vampire, your alter ego is an incredibly powerful predator, capable of brutalizing almost anyone and sucking the blood of his enemies and then exploiting him in various ways (mainly by healing himself. ), so much so that his nature as an assassin is closely linked to the progression of the game.Unlike most of the other survival games, which are mainly exploratory, in V Rising the advancement and your equipment range from hand in hand with how many living (or undead) creatures you decide to exterminate. Your headquarters and all the "workbenches" in fact are activated by a core that consumes vital essences, and in addition to this the title also features bosses similar to the popular Valheim, which must be gradually found and eliminated to unlock further tools, or mystical powers that can be equipped at will (for a maximum of two active powers at a time, in addition to an ultimate ability, a dodge and a weapon technique).
V Rising: At some point even the sun will no longer be a threat to you. Let alone this poor fellow armed with a sword. And no, if you're wondering, these bosses are too useful to be considered optional. In fact, your primary objective in V Rising is the construction of a majestic Gothic castle - indeed quite intuitive to set up, at least if you aim for simplicity - and to have easily available many of the materials necessary for the creation of everything you will often have your own need the production benches unlockable by killing this or that elite opponent.
If that wasn't enough, some of these bosses also offer alternative forms, such as a transformation into a rat or a wolf, with the latter being very important for moving quickly around the map in the early stages (where no mounts are available) .
There will be only one left. The one with the sharpest canines.
V Rising: Er, hello puppy, how are you? This formula forces you to constantly move, guided by a comfortable blood altar where you can select the objectives, and it works great due to a simple, but well thought out combat system, taken from the previous games of the house. The vampires that populate each server (maximum 40, it would seem) still have at their disposal magic bullets, poisonous mines, dodging with explosive clones and a whole series of other abilities divided by elements, which closely resemble the powers seen in Battlerite. Almost every spell is to be directed manually or has a precise area, and many are useful defensive barriers or abilities that can temporarily stun enemies, the routine of any competitive arena title, in short.This mix of possibilities it is related to the bosses, of course, given their complex move sets and the general danger of the same, but also in the fact that the game contains PVP servers, where vampires can reunite in clans or try to exterminate each other, complete with possibility of destroying or conquering the castles of others (as long as you build expensive mystical keys) and to rob anyone who is killed of all the inventory. In short, already in the PVE V Rising servers tends to be a markedly more tense and competitive survival than the norm, where it can happen to compete for the elimination of a specific zone boss before the next respawn, but in the absence of non-aggression rules the things get really chaotic and brutal, for the enjoyment of those who love constant competition. The path chosen for the development of vampires and for the combat described above, however, makes everything markedly more fun and solid than the vast majority of the competition, an element that cannot be underestimated in the long term.
V Rising: the humans are useful blood bags, or excellent minions It's hard to say if everything will work flawlessly at launch, but we have to admit we were impressed by the solidity of the beta. The crafting of the game is already very rich, the bosses have amazed us with their variety, the available powers are varied and worthily balanced, and in general V Rising seems to have very few weaknesses for a fan of this type of games. To want to nitpick, we noticed some spikes in difficulty at certain times (mainly between level 30 and 36), an all too fast day night cycle (annoying to say the least if you consider that the sun can damage you during the day. if you do not move in the shadows) and a somewhat poor management of the teleporters scattered around the map (rare and unusable if you are transporting materials). Overall though, the Stunlocks seem to have a potential winner on their hands. Who knows if they will even manage to conquer a large and passionate community.
V Rising has impressed us, distinguishing itself in an already saturated genre thanks to a greater emphasis on combat, to potential-rich PVP servers for those who love competition, and a general solidity already more than worthy of praise during the beta. Considering the competition it is difficult to say at the moment whether it can really conquer a worthy community, but there are undoubtedly granite foundations if you make a comparison with a good part of the competition.
