[Game Review] V Rising

Rating: 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍏🍏

✅ Very interesting game loop between building and fighting. I like how the system feels like an open world but not really an open world as progression is very important to this game. There's no real way for players to explore and find new features/materials on their own but to follow the V blood guides. I personally like this linear progression design, as it really hammers on the dev team's ability to play with players' expectations, flow, and mind.

✅ Heavily emphasizes and well-demonstrates ludo-narrative design. Plays very well into the vampire-fantasy, with rebranded systems such as health bar, emote wheels, resource need for blood, blood type, sun burn, garlic, etc. Clearly conveyed one of the game's purposes for players to fully immerse in the vampire world. Especially the sun and shade system, very amazing in that it reminds players of vampires' pain to live in a world with daylight...

✅ Fun combat design, 4 concurrent weapon types + 3 weapon slots + 4 item slots resemble MOBA combat style. Cleverly manages to keep the difficulty around medium while allowing flexibility and INT playstyle around builds and collectible amulets. Interesting way to combine Diablo-like gear building and MOBA playstyles.

✅ According to a friend who loved this game, PvP design and multiplayer server system are epic. Survival, contest for resources, strategically building castles are all fun decisions to make and play.

❌ Limitation of teleport is less applicable and a bit cumbersome for private servers

❌ Mobility a bit annoying, unnecessary, and slow

❌ Boss fights feels a bit anticlimactic and under explained. There's some environment storytelling, but the boss still feel like random targets we just have to take down, without intriguing hooks to spark players' curiosities