One of the most popular Steam games right now is V Rising, a vampiric action-survival role-playing game by Stunlock Studios. The game is tearing up the charts, with some 95,000 people playing it at any given time according to Steam Charts. Most telling, though, is V Rising’s reception on Valve’s PC gaming platform, which is currently “very positive.” That’s true, but buried in those reviews are some deserved praise, fair criticism, and silly comments worthy of highlighting.
V Rising, which launched in Early Access on May 17, is a Diablo-style loot RPG that’s an amalgam of other games. There are base-building mechanics similar to State of Decay. You’ve got survival stuff where you’re scavenging for resources in an open world like Tribes of Midgard. It even shipped with PvE and PvP. But what makes V Rising standout amongst the crowd of similar APRGs is its vampiric setting that mirrors established lore. Like, you’ll get burned if you step out in the sun, but walking in the shadows allows you to move freely even during the daytime. Stuff like this is cool, and the combination of design elements seems to be another selling point.
As noted by Steam user Conker, the game has a “good balance” of mechanics, making V Rising something that’s relatively easy to understand. User GinaTonik echoed this sentiment, calling it a game that can “appeal to a broad genre of players” because of the way it mixes various game elements together. Another user named Lagrie thought the same and said V Rising has “fun solo offline [content] and [is] a blast to play with friends [online].” Hell, folks are apparently so addicted to the game that they haven’t left their house in days! Please don’t do this.
But my favourite V Rising reviews have nothing to do with the game. Players are going around posting “It’s Morbin’ Time,” in reference to the hilarious Morbius memes that recently took the internet by storm thanks to 24/7 Twitch streams of the film. And of course, these are popular reviews, probably because there’s now a mainstream game where you can morb as a vampire. What did I tell yall? Morb’s gonna morb. The meme can’t die.
That’s not to say everyone’s enjoying V Rising. Some folks went in on the game, claiming they’ve experienced crashes that permanently blocked it from relaunching or other server issues that made it unplayable. Most, though, say it’s not a gameplay problem but a progression one. Steam user m-dep, for example, said “75% of the time” is spent tending to resources while alan0n complained that progression is “gated by your personal quest.”
V Rising is a massive success for Stunlock. I mean, it sold more than one million copies two weeks after it dropped. People are either thirsty for more vampire content again or we’ve all been infected with the Morbius gene. Regardless, it seems the vampire is poised to make a glorious, undying return.
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