V Rising began its journey back in 2022 as an early access game exclusive to PC. Even then, it quickly grew to prominence among survival game enthusiasts, who praised the game for its deep customization, engaging combat, and unique, vampiric premise. Now that V Rising has come to PS5, console players can dive into the game's strengths and weaknesses for themselves.

There aren't many survival games built around a vampire player-character, but V Rising aims to be the definitive title in that niche. It takes place in Vardoran, a land ravaged by an ancient vampire civil war and reeling from the tyranny of Dracula himself, a power-hungry vampire craving total submission from both vampires and humans. Players assume the role of a custom vampire, awakened from a deep slumber and ready to pursue their destiny as an independent champion of their own domain.

But V Rising is rather sparse when it comes to plot. The closest thing to a main campaign is the player's pursuit and defeat of V Bloods, distinct bosses scattered throughout Vardoran. These V Bloods, highly varied and well-designed, sit at the heart of V Rising's gameplay loop—and it's quite a satisfying loop indeed.

V Rising Is a Delightful Cocktail of Combat and Customization

At first glance, V Rising doesn't seem too removed from familiar survival gameplay systems: players farm materials for use as construction components, both for their gear and for their home base. But V Rising makes a few clever, thematically appropriate departures from its contemporaries.

For one thing, the castle-building system, on top of being intuitive, offers concrete gameplay advantages in addition to the expected sense of self-expression. Since players will take damage from sun exposure, there is a mechanical benefit to building a complete structure, as roofs provide shelter from the sun's rays. Vaulted ceilings will automatically appear once players have enclosed a room with castle walls, making the construction process feel even more natural. With these systems, it's remarkably easy to craft aesthetically pleasing, practical bases in the game.

One particularly interesting mechanic is the blood purity/type system, which gives players different buffs based on which NPC they drain of blood. This makes blood-sucking an engaging, useful tool, rather than a chore designed to top-off an obligatory resource.

There's a pervasive sense of synergy in V Rising's crafting mechanics. Players will quickly gain access to different options for refining materials, allowing for the creation of more powerful gear, which in turn makes both combat and resource-farming more efficient and fruitful. As one's castle grows in both size and utility, it's hard not to personalize thanks to the surprisingly vast collection of craftable cosmetics, which is constantly being expanded with the defeat of new V Bloods and the discovery of randomized blueprint drops in the game world. Fighting V Bloods and seeking out building materials is all the more satisfying thanks to the game's combat, which hits far above the survival genre weight class.

V Rising's combat is similar to other action-RPGs like Diablo, but with enough differences that keep it from feeling derivative. Players gain access to basic weapons like swords, axes, and spears early on, but the combat sandbox slowly opens up with the arrival of armaments like crossbows, pistols, and whips. There's also a laundry list of different spells and special abilities across six distinct magic categories:

  • Blood
  • Chaos
  • Unholy
  • Illusion
  • Frost
  • Storm

With the vast majority of V Blood bosses rewarding skill points in these categories, players will quickly amass a wide assortment of unique abilities, including variations on staple moves like dashing and countering. Though the game has a lot in common with action-RPGs, it has virtually nothing resembling strict builds or rigid stat assignments, making it painless and rewarding to experiment with different ability combinations. This flexibility and the rapid pace of new spell unlocks keep V Rising's combat from ever getting dull or repetitive.

New spells arrive at a steady cadence, but the same can't be said for gear, which forms the brunt of V Rising's linear power creep. V Rising determines power by an overall gear score, meaning that no matter how many enemies a player defeats, they won't grow stronger without higher-level weapons and armor. It can take a while to unlock more powerful gear, and then this gear must be crafted with resources that are increasingly difficult to obtain. Defeating V Blood enemies is the most effective way to get new gear, especially early on, but it's not easy to overcome a V Blood when you're underleveled, which can result in a feeling of painfully slow progression, especially when playing solo.

V Rising's steady grind is aided by its exciting combat and exploration, but its pacing issues may intimidate or bore newcomers to the survival RPG genre. Likewise, if a player has a particularly low tolerance for grind-heavy gameplay, V Rising's progression has the potential to lead to some dull moments. Progression can speed up a bit once players unlock the Study, which facilitates faster research of item blueprints, but the game can still hit some slow patches occasionally, especially during the mid-game, as RNG becomes a more important factor in blueprint acquisition.

V Rising Plays Great On PS5, with Some Minor Growing Pains

V Rising's transition to PlayStation is about as smooth as one could ask for. The port runs well, and I experienced only the most negligible framerate stutters and graphical glitches during my playthrough. Online performance was strong for me as well, with no major hiccups on even the most packed servers. Overall, the game looks and performs about as strongly on PS5 as it would on a PC running at max settings.

It isn't without its hiccups, though, the most significant being controller support. The game was built for a keyboard-and-mouse setup, and while the DualSense is serviceable, it can feel a bit clumsy at times. Aiming spells and projectiles with the right stick can be finicky and unreliable, especially without any aim assist or a lock-on feature. Similarly, the button-mapping for special weapon attacks is a little awkward compared to the regular key-bindings on PC, and it's easy to select the wrong option from the radial menu, especially in the heat of combat - something that can be particularly frustrating since the healing ability is accessed through said menu.

Additionally, V Rising's base building doesn't feel nearly as good with a controller, as placing objects with the analog stick is sometimes cumbersome and imprecise. Inventory management with a controller is also a bit slow, but not egregiously so. In general, controller support just doesn't feel like a top priority.

While the above issues are notable, they are by no means dealbreakers. After a few hours, most players will learn the ropes of V Rising's combat, and the DualSense controls won't feel like much of a hindrance. Still, some button remapping options or a lock-on system might have made controller gameplay feel a bit more natural.

Minor issues of pacing and controls aside, V Rising on PS5 is a more than worthy port. Its expressive customization options, unfolding combat mechanics, and flexible build crafting have made it a must-own for PC players, and now the same can be said for PlayStation players. If you're a fan of survival games, action-RPGs, and Gothic horror, you can't do much better than V Rising.

V Rising releases June 11, 2024 for PS5, and the PC version is available now. Game ZXC was provided a PS5 code for this review.