V Rising is a massive survival game that demands the player to jump through the orthodox hoops of this genre. From slowly collecting resources to getting abilities through much tedium, this whole genre relies on this type of drip-fed mechanics. With such a design, the game favors PVP or co-op settings to alleviate the pressure of mundane actions and split it amongst other players or compete with others to race to the top.
In a nutshell, V Rising is very much playable as a single-player game but the game favors a team effort for longer playing sessions otherwise it gets quite boring alone.
We will be approaching this article and the game strictly from a single-player perspective so do keep that in mind when reading along.
V Rising As A Single-player Game
If you like to experience games as a solo player and the gothic-vampire setting of V Rising has caught your attention then this article will try to answer your questions of whether this game is even playable as a single-player game and is it even worth approaching it like so.
So what is V Rising? It is a PvP and PvE survival/builder/action RPG. Here you build your castle, fight other players who can raid your castle and steal all the gathered loot, you try to stay away from the sun, fight monsters, gather resources, and unlock more powers by hunting specific enemies and that is essentially it.
Unfortunately, no significant story, questing, or lore is present which is a major letdown in the PvE aspect. Without proper cohesion, through quests, lore, and story the game ends up as a sandbox experience that quickly becomes boring over time.
Too much repetition without enough change and progress. Granted this might change upon full release as the game is only available in early access right now. There aren’t any significant PvE/story plans announced as of yet from the developers but we are hoping more is to come, even though the PvP aspect is the game’s biggest focus.
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Private Game/Server
For solo players, the game offers a private server where many of the settings can be modified. A great initiative by the developers for letting us create the game we want for ourselves. The minute details that can be tweaked such as needed crafting resources, how much materials we get through farming, loot frequency, difficulty, starting gear, and much more. This level of control is quite extensive and amazing.
Mechanics
The game has amazing combat and castle-building mechanics. Combat is dynamic enough and not bad at all with enough detail to keep coming back for more. The dynamic combat in the isometric action RPG genre is reminiscent of games like Diablo and Path of Exile though less detailed than these. Combat utilizes lots of movement and quick ability usage. Fights against tougher enemies/bosses last a while which is great as it requires a more hands-on approach at all times.
A mechanic that grabs the attention is the different blood types depending on a creature you just fed on. Each blood type grants different buffs and better blood quality results in better-upgraded perks. Quality ranges from 1 to 100% with 100% being really rare. This rarity scale is a bit of a letdown as too many enemies will only be a couple of numbers apart and it will get even harder to spot those that might upgrade your blood type perks. Tiered blood ranging from 1-5 like the perks would have worked much better in this case. Blood can be spent to heal up but each time blood runs out you have to feed again so being careful while carrying a greater blood type is paramount. This adds a tactical layer in a way whether to engage or move away from hostiles that can be avoided to reach your goal.
Fighting tough enemies can be frustrating due to the reset mechanic. Player needs to move all the time to avoid getting hit but that also means moving a bit too far out of range at times will lead to enemy reset along with their health completely restored. A very annoying mechanic that occurs way too frequently.
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Progression
Character progression is shallow when it comes to equipment. Few sets only that are upgraded through crafting to match higher-level map requirements. They might add later on tons of new crafting recipes for different set types that can be acquired but as of now only 2 types of effective armors are present.
There are enough abilities but weapon ones are unlocked later with higher tier upgrades. Due to the nature of combat, meaning how fast and hands-on it is, having 2 weapon skills accompanied by 4 abilities allows for a decent variety of combat. Abilities are slotted based on type – evade, ranged, block, and ultimate. On top of that, there are out-of-combat abilities that let players transform into a wolf, bat, human, and others.
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Castle building is probably the strongest aspect of the game. It is well done and relatively easy to learn, looks really amazing, and has plenty of features and ways to decorate. Castle is powered by the blood which is an appreciated idea. In it, players can build workshops, coffins for servants, castle thrones, refinement facilities, and so on.
Single-player Grievances
From a solo player perspective, V Rising becomes boring quickly. It is fun for an hour or two but then everything becomes too familiar without any notable change. The gameplay loop is essentially the same throughout that being; get resources and get back to the castle to upgrade it, hunt special enemy to unlock new powers, or kill enemies for loot and get back to the castle to stash it. That is it. Not much else going on.
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Without a proper story, quests, characters, and lore there is not much holding the game together if you want to play it as a single-player experience. Fun for a short while but your attention will most likely not stick for too long on V Rising before shifting to another single-player-focused experience.
This game has a strong focus on PvP and Co-op hence the game is designed with these sensibilities at the helm. Though you can experience the game within a solo-player sphere it has a great chance of getting old and monotonous quite fast. If you enjoy such an experience then by all means have fun but if you are more of a single-player adventurer then this might not be your cup of tea or blood!