Short but Sweet

User Rating: 8 | Van Helsing XBOX
I just finished the game, spending about 6 hours on easy mode, and I have to say I had a pretty good time playing through this one. It reminded me of a "Hunter" game, another game I enjoyed. I'm not saying there was anything spectacular here, but I did find the gameplay somewhat addicting and satisfying. It's kind of a surprise because I played the demo of this when it came out over 2 years ago, and I didn't think it was very good.

With that said, the game does seem somewhat rushed together. The story in the game kind of follows the movie with some minor changes, but I would not have been able to follow it without seeing the movie. You find yourself playing in some of the key movie locations, but it's not very clear what's going on or why you are doing things. There are too many jumps in the story, and the ending seems very rushed. After spending almost 6 hours to get to the big boss location, the final conflict if over rather quickly.

I will complain about the camera - it's just like in the Hunter games, where the camera will decide on it's own when to switch perspectives. A little frustrating, but not as bad as some people are writing.

The graphics and sound were pretty good, the animations were good, the gameplay was satisfying - all in all a good time. As to the short length, I don't think I would want to play this style game too much longer than the 6-7 hours I put into it. A good 1 hour of that was one of the final bosses that just kept kicking my butt.

I think I only paid like $15 for it, so it was definitely worth it, and I might even play it again for kicks since it's letting me start over with all the stuff I collected my first time thru.