V Rising 1.0 Launch Review: A Comprehensive Overview of the Vampire Survival Game

when V Rising first entered Early Access back in May 2022 I really enjoyed the game it took the standard formula of

open world survival crafting and added two things I didn't know I wanted vampires and MOA inspired skill-based

action combat the vampire theming wasn't just cosmetic but seen in many of the game systems you could shape shift into

various creatures like a wolf for increased move speed or a rat to blend into the environment you were required

to suck blood on a regular basis almost working like a thirst meter but depending on the creature you took it

from would be granted different Buffs direct exposure to sunlight for too long it caused you to burst into flames you

slept in a coffin inside your very own Vampire Castle and instead of having basic Elemental Magic resistances the

game had resistances for sun fire garlic holy and silver all things vampires are known to be averse to and as shown in

those examples so much of the world the creatures you fought the locations you'd visit the items and flavor of it all

hold clear inspiration from various bits of vampire folklore and media from over the years also on top of all of that

combat was fantastic the game was developed by stunlock Studios whose prior titles bloodline Champions and

battle right both featured skill-based PVP Centric action gameplay for both of those games combat was at the Forefront

and was very good with v Rising they took that Foundation fine-tuned improved it and put it in a multiplayer open

world which may or may not have PVP depending on how you choose to play or what server you select when you play the

game all of that combined with the survival elements the Gathering crafting Base building exploration and

progression tide to boss hunting made for a package I found very entertaining like I said I really liked V rising at

the time but the game wasn't finished when I first played in May 2022 Early Access had just begun and we were told

to expect some time before everything was all done so after I had my fun with it I put the game down for another day

well that time is today vck ing is officially launching its 1.0 version on May the 8th the game has come a long way

receiving numerous updates over these past 2 years much of which we'll be taking a look at here today stonelock

Studios is sponsoring this video they gave me a special early look at the final version of the game and with that

I spent the past week playing through everything seeing all of the content the improvements the additions that have

come so let's take a look at V Rising 1.0 if you've not played V Rising before I'd like to give you a basic overview of

How It's all structured so what sort of a game is this well open world Multiplayer Survival crafting

skill-based action combat boss hunts and PVP should you choose those are all the buckets that I think V Rising fits

nicely into but let's do an overview of the gameplay Loop and progression through the game what what's it going to

be like playing V Rising so you start in typical Survival game fashion with nothing but this time with the Vampire

twist you wake up rising from a coffin inside of a crypt you then move into a graveyard clearing skeletons and ghouls

opening tombs and smashing ears as you collect resources to craft the first basic tier of weapons tools and armor

heading into a nearby Forest you're then asked to hunt the living at this point that's going to mean deer Wolves and the

occasional unlucky Bandit and Beyond killing them for their drops you're also in search of blood every living creature

and NPC in the game can be drained filling up your blood a thirst meter like equivalent and also granting a buff

so there are numerous blood types each come with their own perks one of my favorite Brute Grant you basic attack

life leech increased attack speed and healing received movement speed and attack damage these bonuses are divided

into five tiers depending on the quality of the blood you drain which is represented by a percentage value the

stronger the blood the higher the tier you unlock and the better those bonuses are so you're in the forest you're

fighting you're sucking blood you're collecting drops you're chopping trees and smashing rocks eventually you'll

collect enough resources to construct your first base picking from any of the numerous plots scattered all around the

map you will first claim a territory which is done by placing down a castle heart once that's up you fill it with

blood which acts like an upkeep timer after that you'll start placing foundations and walls and the starter

crafting stations of a sawmill and simple workbench and then with that Foundation you can now make the next

level of gear and weapons but you're probably going to need some more materials in order to do that so heading

back out into the Wilderness exploring the surrounding area you're going to come across all sorts of locations in

the forest you'll see Banda encampments cemeteries logging camps wolf and bear dens copper mines and cories various

points of interest in which you will find plenty of enemies to fight a variety of enemy types creatures NPCs

from different factions filling different roles a lot of the standard sort of RPG archetypes with melee and

range and casters and then thematically you'll have different variations of all of these and also you're going to be

finding items and resources in fact every location in the game will have a specific uh set of items that have a

higher chance to drop and you can actually see that by Mouse over it on the map and it also makes logical sense

so like the you'll get grav dust and Bones from the cemeteries you'll get extra leather and hide from Trapper

camps and or and ingots will of course be in higher abundance when you're in mines and cories like many survival

crafting games much of the gameplay Loop consist of this back and forth you leave your base you fight enemies you gather

items this lets you continue building up your base placing down new crafting stations making gear and consumables

making yourself stronger and then heading out again but at the same time while you're doing this whole Loop you

will also be tracking down the game's various bosses as of this 1.0 build there are currently 57 bosses in the

game these start out pretty simple avoid the basic attack Dodge the lunge don't stand in the fire but over time boss

fights get way more varied and complex especially towards the mid to late game you're going to be dealing with some

proper challenging encounters and interesting mechanics between the bosses themselves the variety of spells you

have at your disposal and the fact that you can swap between weapons on the fly these fights have been real fun and

engaging experiences I mean just as is I think the combat in this game is fantastic which probably comes as no

surprise giving the main focus in both of their prior games was fighting so in V Rising if it's fighting big groups of

enemies small groups or even one or two it's a good time in fact half of the time I would be out roaming the road

towards some objective like heading towards a boss fight looking to farm some resource but I would end up

dismounting in route if I saw any enemies just so I could get some more fighting in because I just find it that

enjoyable combat just feels good in this game but beyond being a good time killing a boss in particular grants

access to many progression related unlocks stuff like new travel forms new crafting and refining stations new

weapons and armor types and a majority I would say at least 90% of the bosses also Grant a spell point for one of the

game's six schools of magic so outside of the weapons that you use which each have their own attack patterns

capabilities and their own abilities as well like actual skills tied to the weapons you also have four active slots

to fill with spells you'll select from skills of the various magic schools that include blood chaos Unholy illusion

Frost and storm each school has their own theming of course but also Unique Mechanics and effects tied to them and a

total of eight skills for you to unlock and you get those skills by tracking down and killing the bosses so some

bosses will be found in set locations inhabiting a particular point of Interest others will roam around in fact

on many occasions we will have come across bosses accidentally while out in the wilderness clearing camps or farming

for materials sometimes these Random Encounters work out well we kill the boss and we get the rewards other times

not so much and we're taken by surprise and they absolutely smash us especially if they outow us basically in their gear

level but once you're within a certain gear score range you can actually track down specific bosses pulling up what's

called The V blood menu will give you a list of every boss in the game and shows you which one you can currently track

Now tracking a boss will show you its General location relative to where you are so it'll say for example the boss is

east of you very far away and then as you move closer heading east it'll adjust the distance and Direction on top

of that there is also this scent trail of sorts that will pop up every 10 seconds pointing you to their location

in relation to where you are standing you can also see on this menu the rewards each boss unlocks so for the

most part these will also be thematically tied so for example one of the first bosses you'll track down is

Keely the Frost Archer the rewards for killing her one Frost spell point and unlocked access to the Tannery leather

traveler's wrap and empty water skin which all kind of Mak sense if you're killing a Frost Archer you're getting a

frost point and you're getting like archery leather equivalent progression unlocks right so while you're playing

and you're gearing up and you're doing the farming Gathering crafting and you're building up your base you also

want to regularly check what bosses are near your item level and then depending on the rewards that after you will pick

a boss to track down and hunt so maybe early on you decide you really want to get a boost to your spell power ring and

you want an an Unholy point so you can start trying out a summoner build in which case you will be end up tracking

gors swine the ravager which was the case for me like I wanted to try this summon skeleton builds I wanted the

better spell power ring so gors swine was one of my early choices when it came to what bosses am I hunting towards next

but yeah that's kind of the whole process really as mentioned there are 57 bosses in this one 0 build and tracking

and killing them really makes up the main overall Arc of progression through the game with the exploration the camp

clearing and all the survival crafting stuff kind of supporting and propping up that Arc but yes your goal ultimately is

to work your way up to the final boss which you do by starting at the bottom moving up the chain killing bosses and

getting more powerful as a result thanks to you learning new skills and unlocking the ability to make better gear in fact

the bosses are even sectioned into different Acts that represent your progression through the game which

should look something like this you start off like I said with nothing inside of the graveyard you can make

your basic and start a gear you then go do your base you track down and kill the first few bosses this unlocks the next

new tier of weapons gear and base stuff you build what you can you go out you farm for resources for the rest you come

back you craft your new set of gear plus any weapons that you might want to use instead of like you don't have to make

all the weapons you just make the weapons you like actively using right that's all you have to farm for and then

now that you're powered up your item level is increased you have better and stronger gear you head back out to hunt

the next couple of bosses unlocking more new stuff for you to work towards along with new abilities for you to try and

you do this loop as you move through the axe clearing the bosses and then traveling into the the additional zones

in the game so act one has 15 bosses in it and those are scattered out through the starting region of fair Bane woods

and this is the foresty area like I said it's full of Wildlife deer and wolves and bears there's Bandits and Bandit

camps and there's a ton of cemeteries a few mines and cories and things like that and then as you go to the final

boss you'll eventually move into act two although it's not restricted nothing's stopping you from going into the other

acts other than the fact that the enemies there will be stronger than you and they won't take as much damage they

will kill you much faster so you're sort of restricted in that there is a clear power ladder for you to climb and if

you're not at the point to go into those areas those enemies are just going to be way too daunting of a task but yes you

start in act one you work your way up as you go to act two this is going to move you towards the region of Dunley

farmlands this is made up as expected by the name of farms of various crop types and a lot of this will play into the

crafting as well there's also tons of militia camps you'll see start to see large NPC Villages and towns you'll find

keeps and monasteries and then you keep progressing doing that same Loop and you move into Acts 3 and four and here you

will start to explore places like the cursed Forest a heavily wooded region just north Northeast of Dunley farmlands

this spot is full of witches spiders mosquitoes and a fog that grows thicker and thicker the longer you're in it

until eventually you actually lose access to your map your mini map and your total map you lose all navigation

tools whatsoever eventually there is some gear unlocks that you can get to negate this but the very F first few

times you come across it I mean at least for me I'll speak it was really really cool it's a cool mechanic that they

added into this one particular Zone you'll also start traveling to the Silverlight Hills Home of V risings holy

Warriors paladins priests sunbringer and all sorts of light infused characters and enemies for you to engage with it's

a mountainous region it's also full of harpies sacred mines Army outposts and a massive town called bright haven broken

up into four quadrants and loaded with NPCs enemies vendors and loot this is like the main home of the humans in this

world basically they're all kind of centered around this town of bright Haven and that's also like I said where

all of like the holy Warriors got big old imposing paladins and and dangerous priests and sunbringer and all sorts of

like yeah light infused creatures that uh vampires don't really get along with so much and then beyond that as you move

through ax3 and into A4 you're going to start to go to the new regions of Gloom rot and the rings of morium so Gloom rot

was added last year this is like a steampunky area infused with lightning and pollution a mechanical heavy Zone as

well it's full of enemies super unique to that region carrying flamethrowers and Tesla guns highlighting these

massive like Victorian style machineries uh some of which will actually track you with laser beams which are quite deadly

the area is also home to many mutated Abominations emerging from radiated pools as you walk by and then the ruins

of morium is a desolate region and the seat of Dracula's estate here you will find well not much in terms of landscape

as the entire thing is kind of like a snowy Ash land but it is inhabited by the newest enemy faction added to the

game the draculin these are Dracula they come with their very own blood type and unique look to them it's also where the

newly added endgame world event takes place which I'll touch on in a moment but yeah this is this is basically how

the game works like you do the survival crafting stuff right but then you're fighting bosses up the chain unlocking

new things progressing in power which let you push further into the world explore the new zones and then fight the

new bosses further progressing you in power as you work all the way up and up and up to move into Gloom rot to move

into the ruins of morium and to start to engage in the end game endgame systems as you work towards your way to fight

the final boss Dracula himself and as is like this this portion of the game even just playing with a friend or playing

solo I enjoy I have found this core progression through the game quite enjoyable like I love the world of V

Rising I like its theming and the setting the combat is super satisfying so just playing the game to go through

this progression do the survival crafting stuff spend some time fighting and taking on the challenging boss

fights all this PVE side of the game game has been a blast it's what I loved about the game when it first came out

and it's continued to be something that I enjoy and there's just so much more of it here now today but then there's also

like this whole other side to V rising and that is a rather hardcore skill-based PVP so when you first boot

up the game you're given the choice of selecting what server you want to play on and these come in different types

basically split into two between PVE focused and PVP focused now should you choose a PVP server by default that

experience is going to be everything that we just discussed but then on top of that it's got open world PVP so while

you're out exploring doing survival crafting stuff working towards those boss fights there's going to be other

players in the world and you can fight them and kill them at any point and if you kill another player or if you die

that your stuff in your inventory can be looted it's like again hardcore full loot PVP there's also a system of Base

rating so you've got your castle that you build up well during certain times a day or depending on the server it might

be unrestricted clans of vampires can attack each other's castle and then if they successfully break into the castle

they can steal all of the stuff that they find inside so for people who like PVP adding this twist to the game's

entire progression and exploration I mean it can easily double triple quadruple the amount of time and

entertainment you get from the game if PVP is something that you like it is definitely the case that playing on a

PVP server in V Rising there's going to be a lot to enjoy here in addition and I just like like I just enjoy just the PVE

side of the game so the PVP again had adds like a whole another layer to it there's also a ton of variable options

if if what I just described of the PVP sounds too hardcore for you there's a lot of space in between because the game

servers consist of all manner of variety and settings that you can choose from when you set one up so yes there's like

PVE servers and then PVP there's also dual PVP servers if you don't want to play against large Clans and they have

toggles and sliders for literally everything like on the PVE side there are different multipliers and options

for changing how Equipment Works the Traders the crafting systems building and progression the timer the amount of

resources that you get you can basically make everything easier uh and more Bountiful resources or harder and more

restricted faster build times instantaneous build times or longer build times whenever a player sets up a

server they can just choose what they want and there will be official servers as well as player run dedicated servers

on top of that and then specific to the PVP side you can choose if it's going to be total PvP with full world and base

rating like full open world PVP and full base rating all the time or you could do limited PVP where so maybe it's just the

open world PVP but there's no base rating you can also choose when and how often both open PVP and Castle rating

occur you can change the number stats and timers of things you can decide whether it is full loot or not like you

can play on a PVP server that isn't full loot you can just do the PVP but not risk losing your stuff and not risk

having your base attacked they've got those options there depending on what sort of PVE or PVP experience you're

looking for you can probably find a server that fits for you now I know that at least personally I tend to just like

playing these games as like the default experience that the developer intends so I will like play on an official server

with an official baseline rule set but I know a lot of people like these ability to tweak and do all this stuff and it's

really amazing that that option those options are here I did mention that we've had some updates there was a Gloom

Rod update and then there's 1.0 well beyond adding those two new regions that I mentioned earlier there was also a ton

of improvements uh with both of these updates so last year in 2023 when they released Gloom Rod they brought about a

world revamp which brought EXP expansions and improvements to a lot of the existing biomes and then it added

that new region of Gloom rots that I mentioned is like that steampunky Victorian lightning infused they also

introduced weather hazards such as areas that have these choking Mist deadly lightning storms and Gale winds they

added trading hubs which was really cool at these locations scattered all around the zones in in in every part of the

game in every Zone there are set locations where there NPCs that you can trade with you exchange coin that you

collect to these NPC merchants and they're going to sell resources consumables but the most valuable thing

is they sell recipe books that are needed to learn some of the special higher tier versions of weapons and gear

sets that come complete with set bonuses as well tailoring to different play Styles you want to be caser focused you

want to be melee focused you want to be crit focused you want to be speed Focus you want extra Health they're going to

be sets As you move through the progression tier you find these books they drop there's also ways to get them

at crafting stations but yes they're then also sold from these trading Hub NPCs Gloom rot brought about building

updates allowing for the building of multi-level castles you can go up many vertical stairs essentially it added 13

new bosses and 30 new basic enemy types it also improved Magic by introducing the new storm magic school and it

introduced uh two new weapons the great swword and dual pistols as well as legendaries which are just better

versions of the base weapons oh I just got to say from my most recent play experience great sword it's a it's a

really awesome weapon at least on the PVE side I really enjoyed using it and then with 1.0 they've got another big

round of updates so like we said they added that new Zone the ruins of morium that's where you find Dracula's Legion

there's that new enemy type the draculin the vampire Dracula themed creatures they roam around that zone you're also

going to find them in parts of the world roaming around and they added as one of the enemy bosses the legendary vampire

Hunter Simon Belmont of Castlevania Fame he is an enemy that you as a vampire can fight in this game which is really cool

they introduced new world events which is specifically tied to the late and endgame portion of the game these

conflict zones will pop up in morium and they work on a timer there's different tiers of y but you go there you clear

some enemies and it basically opens up a boss fight at these shards and then once you kill the boss you get a ton of loot

you also get access to this exclusive resource which is used to unlock passives uh passives in each one of the

magic schools that provide some pretty massive really cool Buffs but then also that resource can be used at specific

trading hubs in the new Zone using that conflict Zone resource can get some of those really the top tier endgame items

in the game that's where you can buy the recipe books the blueprints for those they added cargo Travelers you will find

Caravans carrying valuable Goods on major roads just going throughout the game in every one of the zones you

attack the Caravan you break it open and then basically at that point you just get to pick up loot sometimes you'll see

some enemies pop out of the Caravan as well when you happen to break it down they improve the magic system making it

more versatile than before as you can now unlock spells in whatever order suits your play style which is how I've

described it thus far but prior to that you unlock spells in a specific order now with the spell point system they

basically let you choose what you unlock when they also added the new weapons of bows and whips they added new unique

weapons and the ancestral upgrade system for more powerful weapons they introduced the new shape-shifting spider

form that let you bury underground to hide from enemies new tier of armor and Equipment they added Castle relocation

system for moving your plot and this is massive in the past if you put a castle somewhere it just stayed there and

unless you broke it apart and built a new one elsewhere well with Castle relocation it lets you do this

seamlessly instead of having to manually break down a whole base and then take all those resources and carry it over

you can just place down a relocation Fountain and then from there it knows all of the stuff in your last base and

it let you move all of it over without actually having to manually carry all the resources back and forth it is

absolutely huge they've added higher tier stations that M provide massively increased crafting speeds which is

really great and there has just been like a metric ton of UI and ux and just overall quality of life improvements to

the game so the bag system is way more streamlined and offers just straight up inventory space which is a real nice

change you can unlock spell points like we said instead of spells coming in a particular order letting you choose your

play style now instead of being dictated it based on where you are in the progression chain a lot of streamlining

to the crafting for example you no longer need water to make potions they kind of just they streamlined stuff they

made it more simple a storage as well is infinitely better there are more specific storages for materials Alchemy

plants Etc and instead of getting like having to set up all of your individual chest and just manually carry stuff over

you can place down a specific Alchemy bookshelf and transfer everything in your inventory that's related to Alchemy

will automatically transfer into it and same thing goes for every other category things like materials and gear and

tailoring like they they've did a really great job with inventory based management here it's awesome new

stations craft way faster tons of UI improvements across the board they even added Gamepad support as the game will

be coming to console later in the year and a new Achievement System on top of that so yeah as mentioned at the top uh

suffice it to say V Rising has gotten a lot of really great updates already as it was the core base Early Access

version of the game from two years ago I had a fun time playing and now it's just that but a whole lot better and I think

the funniest part is is that I've really not even Dove at all into the PVP side of things I did a little bit of PVP in

the Early Access launch in this preview of the 1.0 build that I've been playing over the past uh week and a half or so

now we there was no PVP server available for the preview version that we had so we were just playing on a PV server and

even that like I've been I've played like 60 or 70 hours in the past week or so and I just I like even just the PVE

stuff I'm enjoying so the whole extra layer PVP adding just well everything that PVP adds so if you like the PVP

stuff that's a whole another side of it and once the 1.0 launch officially happens I'm going to jump in hop on a

new server and I I would like to try the PVP stuff I might do the limited like Solo or duo with just depends really but

yeah I don't know man the game's really cool the definitely the big check marks for me on the like side of thing are the

combat I mean hands down like I said stunlock Studios their prior games I really liked them battle right and

bloodline Champions like I really enjoyed both those games and the combat was The Shining Star they were like

Arena combat Focus games and that can be a little sweaty for me especially in my old age but I still thoroughly enjoyed

playing those as as long as I didn't climb the ranks too high and start getting my butt whooped 90% of the time

but playing those games was really fun I mean I even liked the Battle Royale that they put out so yeah I mean I just the

combat in stunlocks games to me has always been topnotch and ryzen carries that over and frankly in a lot of ways

is better and more appealing to me at least because I like it in this open world setting I like it in the shared

multiplayer space I like it with these survival crafting stuff just so much about that in this world feels really

good boss design is Stellar they've continued to add more and more interesting bosses in particular once

you start to get to Mid and late game these boss fights the mechanics they have it's super fun super interesting

really enjoyable especially the first time through and the game's progression the item and gear progression the base

progression I've really liked I also want to add one problem for me with a lot of survival crafting games is like

uh non-stop grinding needed to even build the most basic base but it's really like you can spend like 20

minutes of grinding resources in this game and make like a massive Castle already so I think they're pretty

liberal here and with the server options you can tweak it so that it's even crazier so you hit one tree and you get

like 10 billion wood and and then you hit a rock and you get like 10 billion Stone and then you're making a massive

castle with like 5 minutes of grinding so there's a lot of options as well with the tweaks and and changes that you can

adjust when you're setting up a server when it comes to feedback I mean generally I like this uh I like this

game but I would say that I think the end game for PVE players does seem pretty limited outside of grinding for

Legendary Weapons after you do that boss climb and you work your way up and you make your way to the last boss and

you're getting that last tier of gear and weapons well then that's basically it there's really not much repeatable

endgame stuff to do after that and I think even though if that's not what this game is trying to be I think if

they provided some some sort of a I guess we'll just call it infinite grind for the p portion of the player base who

would like to continue to do that I think that could be a nice addition now that said this is a seasonal game they

do seasonal resets and server resets and wipes and all of that stuff it's just part of the experience with the game

that they've built here and then also I added PVP is clearly if you like PVP that is going to keep you coming back

time and time again um but still for the PVE side of things for the people who might just want to go through once I

think some something to do after you reach that final tier of weapons and gear I mean I guess what else is there

to to do right but because the combat's so enjoyable but if people who don't like PVP it would be cool if there were

something that that could kind of keep them going from that point forward like an infinite dungeon or something just

throwing ideas out there I don't know but anyways as it is I really like V rising and now again this is a sponsor

video but really it was just about raising awareness for this 1.0 build um I have that video that I made of the

Early Access build from two years ago with me just gushing about the game and this is now two years later and the game

is just even that much better so yeah I it's it was a no-brainer for me when stl's like hey you want to cover V risen

1.0 I'm like the game is sick yes absolutely and yes I can now confirm after playing for the past week and a

half the game is sick or or just don't even take my word for it go check out the Steam Reviews the game has been like

overwhelmingly positive for as long as I can remember uh people really like V Rising I am one of those people thank

you for checking out the video as we take a look at the updated V Rising 1.0 launch you can check it out links below

if you want to learn more about the game that's it for today though thanks for watching guys I'll see you