Shaun M Jooste 
V Rising PS5 Review | Vampire Survival Action RPG Adventure
Welcome to my extensive V Rising PS5 review and guide! Learn more about the story, gameplay, video, and sound, and see why you should buy it.
Operating System: PS5
Application Category: Game
5
Welcome to my V Rising PS5 review! With Stunlock Studios at the helm as developer and publisher, it releases today, 11 June 2024, on PlayStation worldwide. It features you as a recently turned vampire who heads out into the gothic open world, searching for blood while raising a vampire empire.
In my V Rising PS5 review, I’ll cover several aspects before reaching my final verdict. I’ll talk about the story elements, of which there is plenty. You’ll learn about the gameplay mechanics and read how to play the survival action RGP. Finally, I’ll talk a bit about the visuals and sounds, which are astounding.
Want to know more? Read my detailed V Rising PS5 review below! Warning: It’s over 4,000 words long, which is my longest review to date. I just had so much to say about it. If you just want the fine points, head to the final judgements of each section.
Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this product from https://www.keymailer.co. Still, this review is based on my personal experience of the game and is not impacted by the gift.
Story Review | Grow Your Vampire Empire
I’m excited to write about the story elements of my V Rising PS5 review. As a dark fantasy and horror author, there’s an appealing storyline of sorts organised into Acts. You’ll also watch your kingdom expand as you progress into the survival crafting game.
Let’s have a look at my detailed V Rising PS5 review below.
Welcome to the Vampire Life
As you start playing the survival game, you are turned into a vampire. Not knowing what to do, you head out into the world. There’s talk about Dracula, who I loved hearing about. There’s much to learn about being a vampire in a Gothic world, but the humans and creatures aren’t so fond of your presence.
Traversing a Gothic Open World
As you travel, you open the map and discover various locations. Some of these will be hostile, while others hold plenty of resources. During the day, you’ll hide from the horrid effects of sunlight, but the night is your scene to hunt and find any items to help you survive. More specifically, you hunger for blood.
Progression Through Acts
Once you’re settled, you’ll need to unlock new abilities, spells, and crafting tables. Some of the more important ones are available with the story progression. The V Blood campaign has four lengthy Acts with several bosses to clear. At the end of each Act, you’ll have a main boss to clear before you can proceed. These Acts also seem to be connected to different lands in the world of Vardoran.
Various Lands for Your Castles
I want to give this element the most praise in my V Rising PS5 review. As you explore the world, you’ll find pockets of land to clear and build your castle. I’ll cover more of this in the gameplay section. For now, let me just mention that you’ll spend several hours getting resources and building your castles. It’s your home base, where you’re safe from the elements and creatures attempting to kill you.
V Rising Complete Edition Packs
I was fortunate enough to receive the Complete Edition for my V Rising PS5 review. That means I get to tell you a bit about what you’ll receive. Mainly, these are cosmetic packs that help make your vampire and castle look stunning. If you watch my gameplay video above, you’ll see I was quite fond of the Sinister Evolution Pack.
Here’s a taste of what you’ll receive with this version:
- Legacy of Castlevania Premium Pack: Unlock Alucard outfit and appearance from Konami’s popular game series.
- Sinister Evolution Pack: Obtain the Plague Chemist’s outfit, plus plenty of Castle items and skins!
- Dracula’s Relics Pack: Want to live in Dracula’s caste? This pack has Immortal and Royal clothing and skins for walls and other items.
- Founder’s Pack: Eldest Bloodline: For fans of the ancient vampires, you’ll like this pack. It gives you variants of various animal transformations, plenty of gargoyles and ornaments, new vampire accessories, and a wonderful soundtrack for your music box.
One extra point worth noting in my V Rising PS5 review is that these additional packs aren’t initially obvious in the game at first. As you unlock castle items and upgrade your crafting tables, they’ll eventually become available.
Play Alone or with Friends
Now, here’s something I have mixed feelings about. You play online all the time, but you can set your server as private or public. For private servers, you can invite friends to join you in co-op mode. However, public servers are more dangerous. While some players may be friendly, others may want to kill you and destroy your castle in PvP fashion.
For the purposes of my V Rising PS5 review and just calm enjoyment, I played solo on a private server. Maybe if I meet players I actually enjoy playing games with online, I’ll invite them for a session. What’s sorely lacking is a local multiplayer mode with two being able to play on the same screen like Diablo IV. My wife wants to join me on my adventures, but can’t. She’s not happy, as she doesn’t like playing these games alone.
I’m really hoping this is something Stunlock Studios adds in the future. And if they do, you can thank my V Rising PS5 review for that. 😁🤪
How Long to Play V Rising on PS5?
For my V Rising PS5 review, I played roughly 30 hours already. In that time, I completed Act I and started Act II. That’s only because I spent a massive amount of time getting items for my castle and building it. I’ve read online that you can complete the main story in about 40 hours, but I feel that’s quite low. You’ll easily rack in 70 hours for game completion, if not more, especially if you play with others.
Final Thoughts on V Rising PS5 Review Story Elements
The story elements are exhaustive, as you can see from my V Rising PS5 review section above. While there isn’t a system of quests and side quests, you do have a main progressive line to follow. Your main tasks will appear on the top left, and you have bosses to track and clear to reach the endgame. Mostly, it’s about exploring, building, and surviving.
Gameplay Review | Bite, Fight, and Conquer
Right; now for part two of my V Rising PS5 review. I’ll cover features that show how to play the vampire action survival RPG, along with some tips. However, I’ll keep it brief, as I want to make a guide for specific elements in the future. Also, I don’t want to keep you here all day.
Learning How to Play V Rising on PS5
The game does well to show you how to play. There are tooltips which explain what items you need for crafting, and all actions have buttons allocated to them. Every now and again, a message will appear on your screen explaining how to use a new feature you’ve unlocked. Everything else, you’ll need to discover.
Surviving with the Taste of Blood
I might mention this a few times in my V Rising PS5 review, but it should be obvious. As a vampire, you need blood to survive. There’s a blood meter to show you how much you have, but there’s more to it than that. Above it, there’s a health bar. Should your blood deplete, your health will drop, and you’ll die.
Then, you have blood attributes. It depends on whom you feed. If you feed on a Brute when they’re in low health, you’ll unlock Brute attributes. The higher the percentage, the greater the buffs. However, feeding on a different type of blood, like creature or Rogue, will also change your blood type.
Another note to mention in my V Rising PS5 review is about your castle. It feeds on blood essence, which you acquire through killing creatures and humans or crafting. You’ll also obtain tainted and unsullied hearts, the latter of which create Greater Blood Essence. You’ll need these for keeping your castle’s heart alive and other advanced items.
Travelling the Open World: Discoveries and Enemies
There’s a whole wide world out there for you to explore. For the most part, they seem to be linked to the Acts. I only moved into the farmlands for the start of Act II, as I started needing iron. Also, all the bosses of Act I are located in the initial region.
As you explore, you’ll find resources, bandit camps, and plenty of points of interest. It’s helpful to break everything you find in camps, as they provide some useful items you’ll need for your castle or crafting. While playing for my V Rising PS5 review, there was never a dull moment while running across the map. And yes, bosses and creatures respawn at a later stage.
Teleporting and Riding Across the Land
To make your travelling easier, you have two options. One includes mounts, usually in the form of horses. You can have as many as you wish, and you just need to mount them to make them yours. They’ll generally stay where you leave them until you need them again. Later on, you can add some useful items to improve them.
Secondly, you have Waygates. You can either discover them across various locations or build them on your castle grounds. One point of note: you can’t teleport if you have specific resources on you. You’ll either need to drop them or put them in a chest.
Sunlight is Not Your Friend
I’ve mentioned this already in my V Rising PS5 review, but it’s worth mentioning in the gameplay section too. Vampires die in sunlight. When you walk within it, a ray of red light strikes down and burns you until all your health is gone. No amount of blood will save you.
There are two ways that help you during the day. The first is simply running into the shade. There are many trees and rocks you can stand behind, giving you relief from the pain. When at your castle, you can place Mist Braziers with bones to help shade you at all times. Well, until the bones run out, of course.
Secondly, some gear and items increase your resistance to the sun. You’ll still get hurt, but it will take longer to kill you. I recommend increasing this stat as early and as much as possible.
I told you my V Rising PS5 review would also act as a guide…
Resources and Crafting
While riding around and exploring is fun, you’ll eventually need to make gear. To do so, you’ll need to obtain specific resources and make refining and crafting equipment. The higher your level and the more you progress, the more you unlock crafting items. Towards Act IV, you’ll have so much you’re able to craft, you can just have fun building.
Vampire Powers and Spells
While you may now have character levels, you still have vampire powers and spells to unlock. You’ll mainly get these from defeating the various bosses in the Acts. You can check the rewards they provide in the V Blood menu.
Eventually, you’ll have so many powers that you won’t know which ones to choose. Yet, you’ll have to choose either way. The game only provides slot assigning for Dash, two vampire powers, and an Ultimate ability. This is quite low, especially when you consider how many classes of power and spells you can unlock. Also, you can only switch between vampire abilities with the dial that opens on the screen.
This brings an element of strategy. I didn’t list it as a con at the bottom of my V Rising PS5 review, but you’ll need to think on your feet. You can change your spells at any time, but using the right ones during a boss fight matters. I was infuriated with the main boss of Act I killing me all the time until I decided to change to ranged spells. Within moments, he was dead.
Keep this in mind when struggling against enemies. If you think you can live on a specific set of spells throughout the game, think again.
It’s All About Gear Level
I mentioned before in my V Rising PS5 review that you don’t have a character level. It’s all about your gear, meaning your clothes and weapons. As you craft or obtain stronger items, your Gear Level will increase. Enemies and bosses have their levels hovering by their health bars, helping you know if you can take them on. This feature will be your guide throughout the game.
V Blood Enemies and Tracking
My V Rising PS5 review may seem repetitive at times, but there’s another feature of the V Blood Act bosses I want to mention. Since you’re a vampire who loves blood, you can easily track these bosses by following their blood scent. The game even puts it up as a mission and tells you how far or close you are to them. It’s this extra mile by Stunlock Studios that I love.
Effective Combat System
Let me get to the combat system. Unlike Diablo IV, where you simply hack and slash or unleash powers, weapons have different purposes in V Rising for PS5. The sword is good for hacking vegetation, the axe for wood, the maul for stone and ore, the spear for creatures, and the bow for ranged attacks. Also, each weapon has different attack abilities and ultimates. You’ll need to decide which is best for each situation.
Your enemies also have different types of attacks. Rangers have bows, brutes have swords and shields, and there are trappers to keep you in place. The most annoying types of small enemies are the bombers or fire archers, who will make you wish you had more dash points available at times.
I love the combat system. The various weapon uses are intuitive and genius, and they actually make you want to switch between them.
Fantastic Loot System
Let me cover the loot system quickly in my V Rising PS5 review. There are so many resources and items to collect, it’s amazing. What’s even better is how you can store these items. This becomes more important at a later stage when you craft your various workshop rooms in your castle.
You will hear me praise this feature a lot in my V Rising PS5 review video above. In Diablo IV, you have one stash with different tabs to place various items. Yet, you’ll need to sort them out yourself. I used to think this was sufficient until I played V Rising. Here, you actually have different containers and cabinets for various categories. When you click on one of them, your inventory highlights which items can go into the storage unit.
Your Kingdom: Land, Castle, and Minions
Now, let’s get to the fun part of my V Rising PS5 review. I can literally write another lengthy guide on this part alone. I spent so many hours getting resources and building my castle. It’s all I wanted to do for two nights straight.
The first part I love is that you can choose where you want to build. When on your map, you can hover over empty lands to see how they are connected. Sometimes, you’ll have separate land parcels next to each other. Other times, they are connected as one. A quick note: you can relocate your castle and rebuild!
Please watch my V Rising PS5 review video. There’s so much to cover here, and I do so in the video. As an overview, the only limit to building is how many floor platforms you can place. As you upgrade your castle heart, the number increases.
Then you have your minions. You’ll unlock the ability to turn humans into vampires as early as Act I. When they are in low health during a fight, you can quickly dominate them and take them home. Place them in a servant coffin for a few minutes, and they are your vampire slaves. If they die during battle, you can resurrect them.
In my V Rising PS5 review video, you’ll see I mostly left them at home and fought my own battles. Each type of servant has a specific set of attributes, and you can arm them with gear and weapons.
At a later stage, you’ll have a throne. From here, you can give your minions commands. These include hunting for treasures, obtaining resources, and more. I didn’t play long enough for my V Rising PS5 review to discover all that they can do yet.
Connecting Rooms to Crafting
Here’s a very important point when building your castle and something I really enjoy. I don’t recommend placing all your crafting items in one room. When you click on a table or refining machine, you’ll see two types of buffs. If your item is in an enclosed room, it will be more effective and make items quicker. If the whole room has the right flooring, it will cost you less to make items.
This means that you shouldn’t place an alchemy table with workshop machines. Only one of those will give you the benefits from the workshop floor. I’ll let you guess which one.
Saving and Servers
It can’t all be fun and roses in my V Rising PS5 review. You’ll see I listed this as the only con of the game. The game regularly saves, but you’re always online. If your internet cuts off, the game kicks you out. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing solo. The game will end.
Secondly, there have been issues with the game saving to the servers. A message appears to tell you that it failed to save. Now, it will attempt to save every five minutes. If you watched my V Rising PS5 review video, you’ll hear why my heart broke.
I had played for two hours after the first message appeared. This was while building my castle. Since I was new to the game, I hoped the issue would resolve itself and save. I eventually switched off. When I started V Rising the next day, those two hours of work were gone.
Ok, so I need to mention in my V Rising PS5 review that there was a patch not long after that seemed to fix this issue. Yet, it did happen one more time after that. If you learn any lesson from this guide, exit the game and close it the moment that message appears. You won’t lose much, and going back in sort of fixes the problem.
As I said, the latest update seems to have fixed this problem. Still, I wanted to mention it to prevent this from happening to you.
Right. Let’s carry on with my V Rising PS5 review.
V Rising Needs a Bestiary or Lore Book
I’ve listed this as something I want at the end of my V Rising PS5 review, but I want to discuss it here quickly. I love Bestiaries and Lore Books. There are so many items and creatures to discover in the game that it would benefit from this feature.
It could be added to the main menu somewhere next to Spellpowers or V Blood. Ideally, there will be question mark blocks for every discoverable item and creature in the game, which unlock when you find them. And, of course, a PlayStation trophy for getting them all would be nice.
How Easy is it to Play V Rising R on PS5?
There are three difficulty levels in the game. For my V Rising PS5 review, I chose the easiest one of the lot just so I could have enough to write about. If you prefer a more challenging experience, you can increase the level at any point during your gameplay in the Start menu. For me, it was easy to play while also providing enough challenges to keep me busy.
Some bosses can be tricky. My power level was 41 while the Act I final boss was 37. Despite this, he defeated me several times. It was only when I switched to ranged spells that I killed him within moments. So, not all bosses are easy, but you’ll need to think of a new strategy.
Final Thoughts on V Rising PS5 Review Gameplay Elements
As you can see from the gameplay section of my V Rising PS5 review, I have a lot to praise. Yes, there are challenges and some annoyances, but there’s so much to love about the gameplay. You can choose to spend time crafting and building, or go out and fight. With so many gameplay elements, it’s no wonder you spend so many hours playing it.
Audio-Visual Review | Superb Visuals and Sound
This V Rising PS5 review is getting long. I hope you are still with me. I could have made it shorter, but I have so much to share. I’ll try to keep the audio-visual section brief.
Absolutely Outstanding Graphics
The first main point is that the game looks absolutely beautiful. I don’t think the PS4 would have survived. Everything looks gorgeous, and there are so many environments to explore. Your castle looks outstanding when done, but I wish I could see a top-down overall view from above.
Brilliant Visual Interface
Another point I want to cover in my V Rising PS5 review is the visual interface. I love where all the icons are placed. Sure, my cat annoys me when deciding to sleep by my TV where I can’t see some of the icons. Still, the slots, item assignments, and more help to make the game more enjoyable.
Exciting Animations
The screen can get busy at times when you’re battling an army of enemies. Yet, it’s fun to watch. There’s so much happening during combat. I love unleashing powers and attacking flurries, and I do them just for fun, even when not needed. Even the movement and animations of workshop items are enjoyable.
Fantastic Map Tooltips
Another feature mentioned in my V Rising PS5 review video is the map tooltip. When you hover over specific areas, it tells you what it is and which resources you can find there. This is incredibly helpful when you need to craft various items. You don’t have to run around hoping to find them.
Soothing and Exhilarating Music
The music changes depending on what happens in the game. If you’re riding, crafting, or simply admiring the view, you generally have soft, calm songs. When there’s a battle, it changes to something more upbeat. As part of the Complete Edition I received for my V Rising PS5 review, it included a special soundtrack by Aleksandria Migova.
Stunning Voice Acting
I enjoyed the voice acting in V Rising PS5. Not only does your main character talk, but so do your enemies. Stunlock Studios went out of its way to make sure you could hear what everyone has to say. This is a massive benefit when fighting bosses, who say specific phrases when unleashing special abilities.
DualSense Sounds
Another fantastic feature I don’t usually cover is the DualSense sound element. Some actions cause sound to erupt from your controller, especially when feeding. It adds another element to the game that simply enhances it, that you won’t get on PC.
Final Thoughts on V Rising PS5 Review Audio-Visual Elements
There’s usually one section of my reviews that I love above all else. For my V Rising PS5 review, I couldn’t place a single one over the other. Everything is fantastic, and there’s little I don’t like. The visuals and sounds are above expectations, and I praise the developer for all their hard work.
V Rising PS5 Review: Final Verdict
What is there not to like about V Rising? Despite some challenging bosses, V Rising PS5 is the action survival RPG I didn’t know I wanted and am now utterly addicted to. There are so many components I love about the game that it completely outweighs anything I don’t.
Fans of the Diablo series will enjoy how much V Rising adds to this genre, and the Blizzard developers can learn a thing or two from Stunlock Studios. This is an absolutely amazing game! It completely deserves full points. This could easily be our 2024 Game of the Year!
What I would like to see in V Rising PS5
While I’ve given the maximum rating in my V Rising PS5 review, there are some things I would personally like to see going forward. They aren’t vital, but I would enjoy seeing them added.
- Character level system: I love the gear level system, and it works well. Yet, I would still like to see my vampire progress with a character level, which can add some buffs like more resistance to the sun. I want my vampire to feel powerful and grow as we conquer the world, no matter the gears equipped.
- Local multiplayer: From the moment I started the game, my wife asked if it was local multiplayer like Diablo IV. She was keen to join me on the same screen, and we were severely disappointed that this aspect was missing.
- Bestiary/Item/Lore book: I love bestiaries and lore books. Diablo III did it well, but we lost it in Diablo IV. I would spend even more time on V Rising PS5 searching for new items to add to my journal, unlocking them under various categories such as Botany, Bestiary, Resources, and so on.
Is V Rising worth buying on PS5?
Yes, V Rising for the PS5 is absolutely worth buying. It comes at a relatively good price compared to some of the latest console games these days. With the amount of time you’ll spend on the game, and how much there is to do, you’ll get your hours worth. I can’t think of any reason not to buy it.
You can buy your copy of V Rising on PlayStation right here.
What other games are like V Rising on PS5?
If you’re looking for similar games like V Rising on PS5, here are a few you can try out, starting with two I’ve already played.
- Diablo IV
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Darksiders Genesis
- Warhammer Chaosbane
- Titan Quest
What I liked and didn’t like about V Rising Review
Pros:
- Everything!
- Exquisite crafting and RPG elements
- Building a castle and ruling minions
- Story divided into Acts
- Massive exploration of a Gothic world
- Teleportation system
- Incredible loot stash system
- Beautiful graphics and biomes
- Outstanding sounds, especially DualSense ones
- Mounts!
Cons:
- Sometimes server fails to save (very seldom)
Enjoy Our Horror and Thriller Novels and Short Stories!
If you’ve made it this far in my V Rising PS5 review, I applaud you. Should you wish to further enjoy your stay, check out our online bookstore. You can browse my dark fantasy collection, the Celenic Earth Chronicles, which starts with The Windfarer. For a darker story, you can also check out my horror novel, Sacred Vally: Betrayal, inspired by the Silent Hill franchise.
