V Rising

V Rising is a 2024 action role-playing survival game developed by Stunlock Studios and published by Level Infinite. It was first released in early access for Windows in May 2022 before officially releasing two years later, with a PlayStation 5 version under development. Within a week, it had surpassed one million sales.

Gameplay
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.

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.

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.

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. 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. 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.

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, 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.

Development
V Rising is developed by Stunlock Studios in the Unity game engine. On release an ongoing internet connection was required to play, but a hot fix removed the requirement allowing play while offline. On May 17, 2023, the first major update titled Secrets of Gloomrot was released on Steam. 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.

Version 1.0 was released on May 8 2024 ending the game's Early Access period. This version included new bosses, biomes, and additional cosmetic items as well as the completion of the main story line. However, the developers state this will not end the game's development. The full release of the Windows version included optional paid downloadable content based on the Castlevania series, with the protagonist able to dress up as various characters in the series and battle Simon Belmont in an optional boss fight.

A PlayStation 5 version was announced for release on June 11 2024.

Critical response
IGN's early access review thought that the crafting aspects of the game were time-consuming, but praised the boss design and action role-playing combat.

Sales
Following its early access, V Rising sold over 500,000 copies in the first three days, 1 million copies after the first week, and 1.5 million after the second. By January 2023, the game had sold three million copies.