Wildkeepers Rising Preview - A Bullet Heaven with Helpers

We're in an age of exploration for the bullet heaven genre -- you know, games like Vampire Survivors and Halls of Torment. It's a genre bursting with popularity, so it's to be expected we'd encounter fresh and original spins on this concept. Such is the case with Wildkeepers Rising, an upcoming bullet heaven that's an addicting mix of some of gaming's most popular franchises.

The secret ingredient to the Wildkeepers Rising recipe is monster collecting. Developer Lioncode Games likens it as a potent combo of Pokemon and Vampire Survivors. While you take control of your player character, you'll amass a team of monsters to fight by your side, each with their own unique identity, behaviors, and abilities.

Wildkeepers Rising - A New Take on Vampire Survivors

These thoughts are all based on a hands-off presentation, but I'm definitely excited to actually get my hands on it. Wildkeepers Rising operates like your typical bullet heaven. The player controls a character that aims on its own, and you're supposed to avoid droves of vicious monsters. As you level up, you grow more powerful and choose various upgrades upon leveling up.

This is also where monsters come in, which is likely going to be the main hook for players looking to try out this game. With around 18 total monsters so far and more to come during development, leveling up at certain points allows you to choose a monster to add to your team. These will change the course of battle in various ways, but the main thing I want to emphasize is each monster has a role.

DPS, tank, and support -- the trio of MMORPG roles. This is also how monsters are split in Wildkeepers Rising, meaning you're not focusing on just pure damage. Some are ranged attackers, other are melee tanks. One monster, the Kiraboom, is an exploding cat. It's fast and does a lot of damage, but has to recover after exploding.

Vastly different from the Kiraboom is Glacier, a tanky brute of a monster that charges in and deals ice damage to enemies. And even differing from both of those is Splizz, a spider-like critter that stuns enemies with its mesmerizing tail.

As you might imagine, mixing and matching a team of four monsters, each with their own abilities, upgrades upon level-ups, and even special abilities the player can trigger... well, there's a lot of potential, and perhaps even nuance to the gameplay.

As for the creature collecting aspect, in truth, the commonality between Wildkeepers Rising and Pokemon is a bit flimsy, but that doesn't mean it isn't promising. I was initially a bit disappointed by the fact that you're not actively going out and collecting a plethora of monsters; instead, you have a choice of monsters to use when you level up at certain points, as I mentioned before.

Wildkeepers Rising Has More Than Just the Grind

Here's what I find most intriguing about Wildkeepers Rising: its storyline and world. There's a full campaign in this game, along with multiple characters you can unlock, each with its own story arcs. Levels have objectives, so it's not just survive for 30 minutes and hope for the best.

It also doesn't seem like a game you have to put dozens upon dozens of hours into unless you absolutely want to; in fact, the current plan is to have around 15-20 hours of content. So rather than focusing on an endless loop of dopamine, you have a concise story that should leave you satisfied upon completion.

To facilitate this more story-centric structure, the maps are hand-made and very deliberate. The environments will have various choke points and I assume areas points of interest that are crafted to test the skills of the player. On top of that, you'll find various items around the map, adding another layer to the gameplay on top of your character's ability and your creatures'.

The developers split items into categories: damage, power, game-changers, and wildcards. I want to focus on the latter two, because this is another aspect in which Wildkeepers Rising can set itself apart from the competition. Game-changers are said to give new mechanics like slowing down time. Sure, Vampire Survivors has that, but again, this is all on top of the abilities of your Wildkeeper and their companions.

Wildcards, on the other hand, are described as "completely crazy items" that'll drastically change the game. One example was the ability to clone a guardian, sharing its health pool with the original. That sounds mighty powerful, and definitely has potential to turn the game on its head.

Wildkeepers Rising Preview | Final Thoughts

There are plenty of new bullet heaven games coming out every month, and, well, creature collecting games for that matter. Still, we haven't seen this mix of the two before, so Wildkeepers Rising has a lot of potential to hook players. Everything looks great on paper, but the true test will be to see how it actually plays. Needless to say, I'll be first in line to see if Lioncode Games can deliver!

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Wildkeepers Rising was previewed during a hands-off presentation.