Vampire survival game V Rising is out now

Swedish developer Stunlock Studios was the team behind arena brawler Battlerite, and has brought some of that style of action to V Rising, making for a rare combination—a survival game with combat that doesn't suck. You know what does suck? Vampires, with the blood-drinking and that. V Rising is a multiplayer survival game where you're a wannabe Count Dracula, chopping down trees and building a castle when you're not dodging daylight and hunting peasants.

V Rising had its Early Access launch today and took off like a frog in a sock. It peaked at 46,593 concurrent players and right now is the number 12 game on Steam. User reviews are sitting at Very Positive, with praise for the technical combat, PvP, difficult boss fights, and dynamic enemies who sometimes turn on each other. My favorite user review simply sums it up as: “Valheim if Valheim was a Goth Girl”.

“The day is finally here, our vampires have been revealed in the moonlight and it's up to the players to discover their secrets,” said Johan Ilves, marketing director at Stunlock Studios. “With a lot of blood, sweat and tears (but mostly blood), we have created the foundations for a truly unique vampire gameplay experience. This Early Access campaign will allow us to fine-tune V Rising and take the final steps in creating a genre-defining gem.”

The aim is for V Rising to leave Early Access “within 12 months”, with the final version having more of basically everything, including enemies, biomes, crafting recipes, weapons, and so on. Hopefully it'll also get controller support along the way, and become playable on the Steam Deck, which it seems like a natural fit for. V Rising is available on Steam.