When Vampire Survivors came out in early access in 2021, I ignored it in favour of other games because I’m an idiot. Even a year later when it released in full I managed to convince myself it wasn’t for me, and it wasn’t until I was sent the Switch version to review that I fell in love with this wonderful new type of video game. Taking on thousands of enemies with only auto firing weapons was a delight, and also ushered in a wave of survivor style games like Brotato and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. My new love in this emerging genre is Wildkeepers Rising, which features fantasy monsters you can recruit to fight alongside you.
When you first start a mission in Wildkeepers Rising you’ll be alone against the hordes though, with only a pathetic sword or bow to try and defend yourself. You’ll be able to beat a few basic baddies and level up a few times this way, but if you want to survive for a full twenty minutes in the wilderness you’ll need a little help. This is where the creatures come in, who are placed across the map in weird floating eggs. When you reach one of them you’ll get the opportunity to choose which guardian beast joins your ranks from a selection of three, and you’ll keep doing that until you have a full set of four helping you stay alive. Choosing the right monsters for the job is important though, as they’re all vastly different.
The first ally I chose to take with me was a huge green bison who hit hard and attracted enemy attacks to keep me healthy. Then I decided to recruit a spider, who was able to lay eggs which hatched into babies that swarmed foes relentlessly. Rounding out the squad was a ranged attacker and a little bouncing blob that pooped out health for the rest of us, and together we were unstoppable. This is only a handful of the guardians avalanche in the early access release of Wildkeepers Rising too, and they all have their uses.
Perhaps the most useful aspect of all these creatures though is their power attack, which is actually something you can control. By pressing the face button assigned to them when a meter fills up you’ll activate these, and they will often be the difference between life and death. The aforementioned bison launches a massive shockwave that blasts monsters back to give you some breathing room for example, whereas my favourite ranged critter did a bizarre dance that stunned surrounding enemies leaving them vulnerable. Being able to actively control when an attack launches in a survivors style game is rather novel, and adds a layer of combat depth I really appreciated it.
Now it wouldn’t be a Survivor game without the ability to level up and get stronger as you fight against the hordes, and in Wildkeepers Rising this is particularly satisfying. Every time you level up you’re given the choice of four upgrades, which could apply to you or one of your guardians. Some of these are basic like a power or health boost, others are more novel like making ranged attacks pierce through enemies or allowing your spider to lay more eggs. You and your four guardians can only level up nine times before you hit the level cap and have to start upgrading your allies, so it’s important to pick the best option each time to ensure you’re all able to pull your weight.
Now generally in a game in this unique genre you’ll be tasked with surviving for a set amount of time to win, but in Wildkeepers Rising that’s not always the case. The game is broken up into missions, with specific goals like destroying a number of enemy bases on the map or saving a new guardian who will be recruitable in future missions. These more focused objectives mean you can’t just hunker down and fight for your life in a lot of missions, which I appreciated more than I expected.
Between missions you’ll be sent back to a hub area, which houses all sorts of important upgrades you can purchase to permanently power up. Twelve base stats can all be raised by spending coloured materials you find out in the wild, and doing this will make you much more of a threat on your next run. There’s also a skill tree full of extra attacks and buffs you’ll unlock for future missions, and a quest board full of milestones you can hit to earn bonus materials. There’s a lot of depth to this game, even in early access.
I’ve put several hours into Wildkeepers Rising so far, and there’s enough content in this early access release for me to play for many more on top of that. The game feels very close to complete here, although with more updates that add new guardians and classes (as well as a finale to the story) I’m sure it’ll be even more impressive when it hits 1.0.
It’s also worth mentioning that this is possibly the best looking survivor game. With hand drawn creatures and characters the world just comes alive, and it’s especially impressive to see this when the screen is crawling with unique monster designs.
Wildkeepers Rising is a hugely entertaining survivor style game, which could steal a whole lot of your free time away even in its early access form. The hook of recruiting creatures to fight for you is just wonderful, and the variety of missions makes for an even more compelling experience. I didn’t think anything would ever tear me away from Vampire Survivors, but there’s a chance Wildkeepers Rising will manage it.
