This game picks up fun elements from other genres such as Soulslike, Survival and even Moba. The game comes up with a successfull combination of genres and it is supported by well-built open world.

BOSS DESIGN: 8.5/10

Killing a boss feels satisfying just like in Soulslike games. Bosses you defeat rewards you with nice skills or new crafting recipes so it helps with avoiding monotonousness even though it feels grindy later on. Bosses are well designed and fighting one another feels fresh enough. The critical issue is boss spawns. Bosses spawn in specific locations and people mostly camp those places to kill other players when fighting bosses. You need to slay each boss for progression because game has a linear progression line and you can't progress if you get killed over and over in the same boss. Even though keep in mind you can always team up with other players or hire higher geared players to help you progress.

WORLD DESIGN: 8.5/10

World design is fine. You have unique lands to discover and different methods of exploration like shapeshifting into a bat and flying through the sky, a wolf to run on four paws or by horse riding on your vampire form. Travelling is fun but still designs of the villages and towns on places you travel to are pretty much the same. Also common enemies in those areas are not very well-built so it gets repetitive mid game except "Silverlight Hills", that place is pretty well designed and you spend a lot of time in here since its and end game grind place.

BUILDING AND CRAFTING: 8/10

When it comes to building there isn't so much you can do. Only two type of building materials exist. Wood and Stone later on. You only upgrade your base to stone once and then it kinda sits there all game. Although designing your base is pretty flexible since you can easily change the location of the walls and furniture. You can expand and come up with different ideas to build and can customize interior design with things like furniture which is fun.

Crafting system is very good except just one flaw which is having to build different crafting stations to access new recipes. It feels like you are playing a "Factory Building" game sometimes. You have to process your gatherings and minerals through crafting stations and furnaces so you can use them to craft new gear. It doesn't seem like a big issue to have few crafting stations on the corner at first but later on you have to use most of your castle as a factory to keep up with crafting which i find damaging to "Vampire Lord living in a prestigious castle image" vibe you get into your playthrough. There is so much junk around if you don't organize it like a factory by seperating rooms and etc. so plan your base design accordingly.

Game also gets grindy due to lack of content near end game I think few more weapon and armor tiers must be added and sprinkled through progression instead of having to grind so much for one tier higher gear. Another issue with gear is Armors don't really have so much effect on your appereance so you can't see the difference when you upgrade your gear into next tier. I assume it would make bigger impact on players if you also have noticable visual changes when you upgrade to better piece of gear.

COMBAT: 9/10
Your armor and weapon level is important for winning battles so grinding is a thing for combat but pvp is mostly based on skill shots and it is well balanced. You won't be able to kill a Gear Level 70 player most of the time as a Level 10 but having gear level difference is not much of a big deal if its around 10-15 levels. I got killed by lower tier gear when i got caught off guard and i also killed so much highly equipped players by ambushing in right time in my 60 hours of complete playthrough.

Weapon designs are good but the lack of content still exist. There isn't so much weapon types available and not so much flexibility when building your character, no alternative skills for weapons are available. You can't be a pure mage or ranger, every player has to be a hybrid build of melee and spellcaster to be effective in pvp and pve combat since you only have 2 Weapon Skill. There are 2 Spell 1 Movement and 1 Ultimate skill slot and you can't put aggresive spells to your movement spell slots if you want to invest into dealing more damage but having less mobility kinda build. It would be much more fun if i had a chance to became a Knight who can't use spells yet still with his high armor and shield be able tank the damage and be usefull for his team on frontlines or a spellcaster with low defense but high damage who lacks protection from his teammates.

There are 7 weapon types you can wield in V Rising:
Swords, Spears, Axes, Reapers, Maces, Slashers and Crossbows and each have 2 additional skills that you get when you upgrade your weapon, it feels nice but you can't change the weapon skills. Weapons currently available are well balanced and well designed, i wish they add more weapon types and alternative weapon skills into the game.

MUSIC 8/10

Music is fine and fits the theme. Helps you feel the atmosphere especially "The Castle Theme" slaps so hard. When you upgrade your wooden walls to Full Stone Castle you really feel the progression and the things you went through. Combat track "We Hunt" feels pretty epic if you hear it for the first time but definitely not after 30 hours of same combat music. The music is generally fine but requires a bit diversity.

OVERALL SCORE 8.4/10

Well designed game with great potential to become masterpiece with some sculpturing.