Since V Rising was first announced, it has inevitably drawn comparisons to other major titles in its genre. Most notably, V Rising is often compared to titles like Rust and Valheim, and for good reason, despite being draped in a gothic folklore aesthetic, V Rising feels right at home with other acclaimed survival sandbox titles.
For fans awaiting the next Mistlands release for Valheim, it's hard to beat a better substitute than V Rising. With its boss-focused, combat-driven progression, V Rising is easily the closest major title to Valheim with just enough changes to present an experience that feels completely fresh.
V Rising Is An Adventure Game Mixed With Survival Elements
Like Valheim, V Rising presents as a survival game but players' primary objective while playing is to progress through the story and beat all the bosses. It's worth noting, however, that both games are well-crafted in the respect that players cannot afford to ignore either aspect of the game. In order to adequately progress through V Rising's story, players are inevitably going to have to dump hours into base-crafting and vice-versa. For instance, after players have tackled the Alpha Wolf, V Rising's first boss encounter, they will receive a useful travel form that further facilitates their ability to build a stronghold.
This is where V Rising is most aptly compared to Valheim and not others in the genre. While titles like Rust share a lot of similarities with V Rising as well, only Valheim and a few others offer an obvious linear progression via a boss system. Valheim players moving over to V Rising will experience the same underlying drive to continue that is often missing in more ambiguous survival titles. Players never have to stop and wonder what to do next or where to go; progress begets progress. It's in this combat-driven progression system that the two titles feel most similar.
The Base Is Everything in Valheim and V Rising
V Rising is effective at putting players in the vampire mindset. Just like Valheim drives the desire to build a boat and raid foreign lands, V Rising entices players to raid nearby villages and seek out the nearest vein to feed on. At the end of a long day of fighting though, players in both Valheim and V Rising must return to their all-important base. While it would be easy to tip the scales one way or the other, V Rising and Valheim both perfectly tread the line between forcing players out of their base and pushing players to focus on the stronghold itself. Both titles are built in such a manner that everything a player does is for their base, and everything their base does is for the player to progress, and, ultimately, players must defend their base vehemently in order to protect their progress.
For PvP players in V Rising, just like Valheim, this adds a totally different angle. If a player's base is destroyed by an enemy, it's more or less true that their progression has been entirely wiped out. In a matter of hours, days of effort can be completely eclipsed. While this sounds relatively ruthless, for players seeking a more competitive mode, it's the perfect level of risk. Luckily, V Rising offers two levels of risk in PvP—one where players lose everything and the other where they only lose their carried items—and the majority of servers institute strict regulations on when bases can be attacked. Still, the similarities to Valheim are certainly there. The gut punch of losing a beloved base and the unparalleled thrill of launching an assault on an enemy's base exists in both titles.
V Rising is available in Early Access on PC.