In V Rising, you’re a budding vampire on a mission to become the ultimate boss of a gothic open world. You get a Diablo-style combat system, the ability to shapeshift into a spider, and an entire castle to parade around in while humming to the moon. I like that premise almost as much as I dislike the fact that V Rising is also a survival game where you have to chop down trees and master a crafting system like a regular turnip farmer.
What can we expect when our interest in a game is almost perfectly balanced by our disinterest? We’re hoping that the developers will treat us to a free-to-play weekend where our possibly unfounded fears can be strategically balanced by the endorphin rush of not having to pay a bloody fortune. That’s exactly what V Rising creators Stunlock have done. The game is available to download and play for free on Steam from now until Monday, September 16th at 5pm UK time or 10am PST.
Here are a few things that intrigue and tempt me about V Rising, based on how it’s been described to me. First, you have to worry about sunlight, a classic vampire weakness that gets brushed under the rug in many Hollywood adaptations—I’m looking at you, Gary Oldman. You’ll have to drink blood regularly, and it gives different benefits depending on the victim, encouraging you to develop a palate rather than just throwing yourself at them and sucking them up indiscriminately. You can summon things like death knights and teleport your castle like in the Castlevania series (at least after you level up).
Still, it’s tough to ignore the survival-game flaw that seems completely at odds with the vampire’s premise. “To become a more powerful bloodsucker, you craft leather pants and copper swords and build up your gear score, a la Destiny,” Edders wrote in our V Rising 1.0 review. “To gain power, you build things until the thing you want to build requires you to build something else. And to build that something else, you need something else.”
That’s not how Dracula did it, Edders! Vampires are supposed to be monstrously corrupt aristocrats! If Dracula wanted recent leather trousers, he’d throw himself around a tanner’s neck and turn him into a ghoul servant. Please, Edders: tell me that’s possible in a game.
If the non-free version interests you, V Rising is currently 30 percent off, and cosmetic DLC (including the Castlevania-themed DLC pack) is 20 percent off through September 24. Find it on CoupleI think I’ll try it myself, but I won’t be sewing any pants.
