V Rising doesn't revolutionize survival games — but it has me excited for what’s next

polygon.com:

The sun sets, and like clockwork my coven comes alive. We rise from our stone coffins to gather in the main hall of our shared castle. Once we have decided upon our mark — in this case, Tristan, a vampire hunter that plagued our early forays into Farbane — we waste no time. In an instant we’ve transformed, running as a pack of wolves through the dense forests outside our stone castle walls. We relish in the light of the moon, eager and hungry for blood. We are vampires.

V Rising is a hybrid survival-action game that draws deep inspiration from the Gothic lens of vampire fiction. At the beginning of the game, you’re thrust into the world as a sole survivor, your coffin hidden away deep within the recesses of a forgotten cave — your objective is to claw your way back to power.

The written narrative is relatively sparse, as interactions with NPCs are reduced to cowering or single lines of spoken dialogue. But V Rising’s interlocking systems give rise to player-generated emergent stories. This has facilitated the growth of a slew of role-playing servers in various languages; some server owners have crafted entirely unique world rules. One German role-playing server I joined sorted players into distinct covens governed by individual vampire lords, and in some cases, entire councils. I witnessed power struggles in which members were ostracized and alliances torn apart. These tantalizing bits of drama and intrigue kept V Rising feeling fresh, as fellow players dictated the flow of the game outside of the immersive vampire mechanics that developer Stunlock Studios laid as a foundation.

Speaking of: The sun was perhaps one of the greatest inconveniences to me during the early hours of the game. But I loved it. I enjoyed having to