Van Helsing is an entertaining, monster-killing, townsfolk-saving trek through 19th-century Eastern Europe.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing follows the son of Bram Stoker's famous vampire hunter. While the title might be a little overblown, this action role-playing game has an endearing charm, with a well-realized setting, solid combat mechanics, and a terrifically cheeky sense of humor.
As the son of Abraham Van Helsing, you're asked to bring a bit of balance to the "gothic noir" land of Borgovia, a rendition of 19th-century Eastern Europe with just a hint of steam punk. This world stands apart from those in other Western action RPGs like Torchlight or Diablo in that it flirts with more modern visions of classical fantasy. Guns, steam, and an often unclear boundary between science and magic are the meat of Van Helsing's world, and the consistently inventive art direction helps realize the macabre environment.
That doesn't mean, however, that Van Helsing ever takes itself too seriously. Throughout the journey, your primary companion is one Lady Katarina, a ghost rescued by your father before the events of the game. She often offers sarcastic quips to quest givers, and spews snide remarks at the waves of fantastical monsters you meet along the way. It's a refreshing touch, and non-player characters are just as likely to contribute their own bits of subtly anachronistic humor mixed with some valuable nuggets of information, ranging from the locations of unmarked quests to monster weaknesses. As a result, conversations with the locals don't feel like the traditional Western RPG interrogations, and the game benefits, seeming more organic and lively.
The clever writing and world building are wrapped around a tried-and-true core of action RPG mechanics. All of the basics are here: equipment, levels, skill and ability points, and a decent set of map and quest-tracking functions to help you on your adventure. Inventory management, adventure planning, and careful spending of points serve you well. Your weapons are organized in two sets: ranged and melee. While you do have the ability to switch between them on the fly, you can't use both at the same time.
These weapons also have their own skill trees and power-ups, and subsequent selections in one skill tree grant additional bonuses, encouraging specialization. For each weapon set, you can access only two specific skills at any given time, but with two sets you have four skills in total. Some hardcore fans of the genre may lament this design choice, but it helps keep things manageable during some of the larger battles. As a monster slayer, you tussle with some of the more wicked figures of classic fairy tales. Werewolves, demons, and their ilk all marshal their hordes against you.
Many of these monsters are excellently designed and feature visual flairs that you might not expect. It's all gorgeous stylistically. Technically, however, Van Helsing is somewhat clumsy. The interface, for example, while carrying all of the features you need, is a tad clunky. Your target's health bar is placed at the top of the screen, which is an awkward and unusual position. There is an option to show the health of all injured enemies, but activating it leaves you with a bright red block that can be distracting under the best of circumstances and can completely obscure both enemies and the environment under the worst. It's far from a huge issue, but these kinds of small annoyances are notable enough to detract from the overall experience.
If those nitpicks aren't enough to scare you off, you'd do well to pressure some friends to join your gothic adventure. Multiplayer has always been a strong component of these sorts of games, and Van Helsing is no exception. There aren't clearly defined classes in the traditional sense, which does limit character customization to a degree--after all, everyone is playing as Van Helsing--but there's enough variety in the equipment and skill selection that there shouldn't ever be too much overlap. Unfortunately, as it stands right now, convincing friends to play might be the only way you get to experience multiplayer. Even a full week after the official release, finding games is tough, if not impossible most of the time. Thankfully, while nice, multiplayer isn't necessary to enjoy Van Helsing. An average player going through all side quests and extra content should be able to pull a good 20 or so hours from the game. For a budget-priced game, that's not bad.
Lack of community aside, Van Helsing's only real problem is that it doesn't go the extra mile. Nothing is particularly spectacular, but Neocore's latest game is a tight adventure with a few blemishes here and there, and it will keep fans of the genre enthralled for quite a while, especially if they can rustle up some friends to come along for the ride.
If anyone doesn't know, you guys should really try Path of Exile. It's ten times better than D3, and clearly better than Van Helsing. It's in open beta now and completely free, no cash shop bullsh.t etc. Game play changed dramatically, 1300 passive points that u can design as you will, you get your active skills from gems only (drop and quest reward) etc... It's the best ARPG atm, check it out ;)
at first it maybe seems boring or complicated , but it will be so entertaining then... my opinion 7.5 of 10 is fair.
its funny how negative are so many people towards this hidden gem , considering they gave only 9$ for it ...
If you are negative about this game , what then with 59$ of Diablo 3 ?!!
This game is good. Not excellent but not bad either. And for 9$ ... i consider it a must buy/play like i do with Torchlight/2/PoE.
@AzatiS I LOVE this game. It reminds me of what The Witcher could be like if it were turned into an ARPG. Not to mention the interesting tower defense aspects of it...
1 Like Got the game with the 10% off. Enjoyed it like I enjoy every action RPG games around. No comparing needed since it has it's own charm. I can't believe the reviewer didn't give merit on voice acting and music. I swear while I'm playing this game the music reminded me of Sherlock Holmes movie.
Not bad . Yep , WILL play this after I finish downloading RE Revelations and Bioshock Infinite . I love isometric ARPGs .
the game is pretty bad - mostly because of the skills and the horrible lack of diversity. You pretty much are stuck with only 2 skills during the whole game because that's the most efficiant way to survive the higher difficulties -.-
@BlackPhoenixBG You can "assign" two skills (four if counted for both melee and ranged) but you can use too many skills, however if you are smart you would adapt to a specific tactic that requires specific set of skills.
2 Like " For each weapon set, you can access only two specific skills at any given time, but with two sets you have four skills in total."
Of course this sounds like a classic case of dumbing down for consoles cause this is coming to the 360 which of course doesn't have enough buttons to operate more skills.
Its a shame that so many games are crippled because you have just a few buttons available on a gamepad.
Sony and M$ obviously didn't learn from nintendos gamepad and the next gen games will have to be nearly exactly as dumbed down for bad controls like today. Specially for the Xbone , The Ps4 has a touchpad at least.
@edinko i agree with you about action rpg or other games being dumb down in controls for the sake of console port. You got a good example which is DS3 which is almost unplayable with K&M but works well with gamepad. Another is D3 yep this game is dumb down because it had console in mind the minute it was created although they deny it. Not hating on console but hate it when it affects my PC game because of console mechanic!!!
@jansdman @edinko its all about the buttons or better lack of buttons. Only Nintendo learned. PS4 and Xbone will be dumbed down as well. PS4 maybe less cause it has at least he touchpad but the multiplatform games will take the lowest common denominator route which is the old school xbone pad without any innovation what so ever doomed to bad controls as in last gen for more complex games that require lots of inputs and precision
1 Like @edinko Or maybe.. just maybe.. that's how the developers envisioned the game being played? Forcing you to switch skill sets for different tactics? Everyone on the internet thinks they have everything figured out when really they're just waving their junk at traffic.
You obviously have no idea what you are talking about....
If you can't mod the game to change this, stop insinuating the development cycle purposely made something due to a future console release.
@LtReviews @edinko I know completely what I am talking about. In this genre a great example was DUngeon siege 3. Crippled to 6 skills because they had only 3 buttons and 1 trigger free on the pad
@LtReviews @edinko Well I didn't say it as a fact. I said "it sounds like". Lets be honest when a game that traditionally has lot of skills and uses a lot of buttons has just a few - tt certainly at least look so that it is designed around the pretty bad limitations of a controller. I use a 360 pad a lot so I know that it is completely unsuited for games that need a lot of buttons.
You're assuming they've done this out of some sort of necessity. Like the developers behind this game were too inept to make two different control schemes for each game.
Have you considered balance? Such as having to choose a limited amount of skills that each best compliment a certain weapon?
I havent played yet only saw gameplays so I could be wrong, but what exactly is so captive in this game? To me it look rather cheap(and not only price which is good of course), not even taking itself seriously with those silly dialogues and bad voices, no suspension or climax. So aside of usual stats grinding and typical gameplay, how u guys compare this game to others? And is story really good enough compare to concurrence? I am really baffled by such positive comments and ratings. Enemies just stay still till u get close and then rush on you... like no much life and anything spectacular happening, but I like to hear your opinions - thanks in advance.
Yeah for 12 dollars or so after the mini discount on Steam, it's a pretty ggod game. I wish that they would have put it on at least 1 of the consoles though.
No mention in this article of how you can sometimes turn quest items in to different characters and screw yourself out of character stat/skill points for gold instead (the game never tells you there is more then one option)
11 Like What a nice little gem of a game, it's a pity that this sort of games fly under the radar because all the focus is on AAA titles that we've played over and over again.
1 Like I'm interested to know what Gamespot's excuse is for NOT MENTIONING THE MULTI-PLAYER HAS BEEN BROKEN SINCE LAUNCH. It's hard to trust the legitimacy of a review when it ignores something as important as the entire multiplayer feature being so buggy that you can't play longer than 10 minutes without either a crash or a character freezing and having to rejoin. What gives, Gamespot?
I agree .... They did exactly the same thing with Diablo 3.... Diablo 3 as single player was nice .. .but multiplayer was ..tragedy.
They had no problem giving Diablo III an 8.5, even though it also had broken multiplayer.
The only difference is here you aren't FORCED into the broken multiplayer, and you can at least avoid it.
So hard to see why they would turn around and raise their standards for a budget game.
4 Like "Multiplayer has always been a strong component of these sorts of games".Since when? I remember playing Diablo2 for a few nights with friends, but spend months playing single player before that. Sadly, I don't really trust this particualar reviewer when it comes to taste and knowledge
@jhonel83 oh the irony of what you just said, it appears you are the one that lacks knowledge about this since multiplayer was huge in Diablo and Diablo 2 multiplayer is still being played today.
3 Like @Daian, ok I guess I have to admit I was wrong. For me PERSONALLY, the Diablo series was in singleplayer. While I DID try out the multiplayer, I liked the story and role-played in my mind, setting out my own pace for doing things. Those things I couldn't get in multiplayer, where everyone is a a power-leveler and grinds the same boss over and over again. My friends even cheated and duplicated items. That killed all the immersion.
So I still feel the real Diablo is in single player sorry.
@jhonel83 @Daian I completely agree, Diablo IS a single player game. This genre has only cared about real multiplayer mode recently, it was always single player and personally, single player mode in these games will always be a favorite for me. I don't know what your reasons are, but for me, it's because I like the ultimate freedom the single player mode offers, I can go wherever and whenever I want. Not to mention that the the loot will always be mine and only mine.
@jhonel83 Diablo1 "officialy" started it - battle.net exploded because of this. Yes, many people played it single player but a decade+ ago started the co-op dungeon crawler experience.
2 Like This game reminds me of what The Witcher might be if they made it into an ARPG. I like a lot of things about this game, but I LOVE the music!!
Well now, I think I'll be purchasing this game then. Gamer (public) reviews matters alot. After looking at these comments, I'd say I will be enjoying this game alot, Love the helsing lore and ARPG. Thanks everyone! :)
1 Like @alucardswrath indeed, is a great game is u r Diablo fan will love it more, there are lots of soulless games these days but this not, reminds me of 99´ when we were expecting the Diablo II release, sweet days.
@hell_mind @alucardswrath I completely agree! I seriously miss those days. Went to internet cafes with some friends after school and played D2, Starcraft, and Counter Strike, just to go home and play some more. Now...........we are here lol.
I bought this and I am enjoying it. There's no grinding because killed enemies don't respawn. This may be a good thing depending on how you look at it. But overall the game is quite fun.
I dunno haven't been much of a PC-gamer these days but the first action-rpg kinda game I played was Titan Quest in 07 and it blew me away...it was an experience like none I have ever felt before and whenever I see games like these I can't help but to immediately start comparisons with Titan Quest.
Also is it me or are the system requirements for this game surprisingly low for those pretty visuals?
Titan Quest was great hack and slash RPG. The one I played more recently was Torchlight 2.
I made it point of not getting Diablo 3. When it came out it was priced at 60$ and now on sale you can get it for "only" 40$. Are these people for real?
I just bought Van Helsing on steam.
@snova9308 Actually Diablo 3 should have been like Torchlight 2 . TL 2 is real Diablo 3 . I hope they go for higher production values for TL 3 .
I really like the look of this game & given the price Its very appealing. A definite purchase at some point for me.
@Sanguis_Malus I will wait because this is a trilogy and i wish to buy all three at once.
@Sanguis_Malus I would highly recommend Path of Exile then. It's free, humongous, and has some of the best character customization options of any RPG.
@Sanguis_Malus Me too, even though my backlog stretches a mile long. In a year or so, though, I should be able to get it cheap on a Steam sale. I don't think the interface looks clumsy and I don't care about multiplayer, so this looks real promising.
@Hurvl @Sanguis_Malus Same here with the backlog, It keeps growing rather than diminishing. Good old PC gaming eh, sweet deals often.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, there wasn't a bigger name that was available. A game that is really worth 11$
It's Diablo 3, minus the things that make D3 SUCK, with better graphics, and 1/4 the price. Solid, baby!
