The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Review

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is a strong Action RPG that contrasts with notable games in the genre. It takes heavy inspiration from the Torchlight and Diablo series with modifications to fit the game lore. Players assume the role of Van Helsing Junior, son of Abraham, after he receives a call for help from Borgovia. Like his father, Van Helsing is a monster hunter, and Borgovia has been overrun by creatures and mechanical monstrosities. He adorns a wide-brimmed hat and equips pistols and swords to fell monsters throughout the land. He is accompanied by Lady Katarina, a ghostly sidekick, who offers witty retorts and monstrous abilities. Together they aim to restore peace to Borgovia.

Katarina transforms into a monster when there are things to kill

The land of Borgovia is highly detailed and pleasing to the eyes. Players start their adventure within the rolling hills around Markovna. Here, the lush pine trees huddle together and werewolves hide between the foliage. You will also travel through sewers, swamps, rooftops and laboratories. The areas in Borgovia are expansive, but are not randomized. The setting takes advantage of Steampunk design with abstract machines strewn about the landscape and a gothic color palette. Van Helsing can teleport to towns using predictable Ink Gates. The supernatural dimension powering these gates is occasionally used to take players across floating boulders until they find an exit.

Monster-slaying is the focus and the supernatural enemies you face are of good variety and challenge. Rats, slugs and spiders may rush towards you with standard melee attacks. Mechanical soldiers and poison-spitting toads prefer to keep their distance with ranged attacks. One creature will run up towards you, plant a bomb at your feet, and dart away to safety. Monster animations are good, although ragdolls are stiff post mortem. There is a good mix of monster types and plenty of carnage when the action escalates.

You can use either ranged or melee attacks during combat. Damaging enemies at a distance with a pistol and finishing them off with the sword is the most basic move. Due to the proximity of enemy groups, carefully pulling one group towards you is paramount to survival. Some beasts will knock or grapple you into areas that aggravate more monsters than you bargained for. When this happens, the use of health potions or healing skills prevents a premature death.

Between a rock and a Behemoth

Tricks, skills and auras help mitigate the problems when you get into heavy action. Skills are unlocked on a progressive skill-tree and can be reset for a very low fee later in the game. Skills enhance abilities over the standard sword and pistol attacks. Attacks may gain elemental damage at the cost of mana. One sword skill expels lighting that flows into nearby creatures. Auras provide passive bonuses like an increased gold drop rate. One of the best tricks actually pauses time. Once time is halted, you can prepare some damaging skills before time resumes.

Power ups are skill combinations, fueled from Rage, that maximize damage output. You could use a combination to create an exploding bullet which damages a large group of ghouls. Combinations can be set on the fly, with the number keys, or stored to the space bar for uncompromising offensive power. Defeating numerous small enemies, to maintain a high Rage pool, is crucial for offensive power. Combinations allow skill customization and healthy spikes in action. Unfortunately, you spend excessive time looking at the bottom of the screen instead of the beautifully presented action.

Function hot keys let you shuffle between skills during the heat of battle. This is essential to get the most from mana reserves and spell cool-downs. Things can get awkward when you juggle melee, ranged, health, mana, off-hand abilities and combination attacks. You might try to attack with a spell that is in the cool-down phase. The game allows you to get fairly complex with your attacks and only gets awkward when you try too much. Cycling between a few skills and using both attack types was usually enough to chew through enemies.

Quest structure is standard for the genre. Townsfolk need something killed or collected and you are the monster slayer for the job. You might need to find gemstones to place in a statue or escort a ghost back to his dead body. Van Helsing Jnr. will even collect flowers for a pretty lady in return for a magical potion. The quest design feels like the original Diablo, with delightfully hand crafted items placed in your inventory. Unfortunately the quest tempo fades towards the finale, abandoning the tasteful pacing for drudgery.

Oh joy, more electric werewolves

Progression becomes like treading water during the final third of the game. Similar enemy groups, like Electric Werewolves, are spaced evenly throughout bland, open levels. These tightly packed areas are a chore to get through. The game is not hard on normal, but it feels artificially padded near the end. If you prefer to clear a level, bring a snack. Running backwards minimizes danger when taking on enemies, but further exacerbates the feeling of stagnation. These lengthy, padded sections should have been compressed or interlaced with quests and puzzles.

Lady Katarina is a ghostly companion who battles foes, collects items and makes jokes. She was bound to the Van Helsing family years ago when Abraham Van Helsing rescued her. She begrudgingly follows your orders, but enjoys the thrill of combat. You can give her specific orders; like engaging at range or focusing on the target you are attacking. She can even collect gold and items post battle, should you tire of collecting the spoils of war. You can continue to explore the world while she sells unneeded items back in town. Katarina is almost the perfect combination of companion from Diablo and pet from Torchlight.

Katarina has skills, stats and equipment that you will need manage. Many of her skills directly improve your own character’s abilities. Katarina will consume health potions when needed, but she can be dragged out of danger by fleeing the area. When her monstrous form perishes, she returns to a wraithlike state. In this state, she is unable to collect items or engage in any combat. This certainly makes for tougher battles. It is beneficial to keep her alive as much as possible.

Katarina’s other benefit is the comedy she brings to a fairly mundane adventure. She is mute during combat, only speaking when you reach specific locations. She participates in most quest dialogue, offering sly jabs towards Van Helsing or other characters. She insists that ghosts are corporeally impaired and feels left out when you give money to beggars. Quests become memorable when jokes are thrown into the mix. Katarina could have been used more though, especially during rare combat moments. Her personality fades when the monotonous combat takes over. Nevertheless, Katarina is a vital addition to the adventure.

The tower defense missions are fun but they do not last long

Players experience tower defense challenges and visual progression during the campaign. These features are located around the Secret Lair found near the midpoint of the story. This Lair functions as a town hub and story characters will populate it to open up additional quests. Waves of monsters will attempt to breach this Lair at key points during the story. Spike traps, flame towers and monster boxes can be used in conjunction with your own skills to eliminate these waves. These energetic, player-controlled missions are quite enjoyable while they last. It is unfortunate that there are only a handful of waves in total. The Secret Lair barely scratches the surface of some of the neat ideas it begins to implement.

The game is a visual treat, but there are disappointing technical issues. The camera does not always play nice. Detailed foreground objects, like rooftops or stairs, can obstruct view or navigation. One set of narrow stairs was difficult to ascend because of its orientation. The other problem with the isometric camera appears when you encounter huge enemies. Large enemies, like Behemoths, obstruct navigation due to their bigger target size. It is easy to be stuck in heavy traffic when your character attacks monsters instead of running away. These irksome camera issues remerge enough to get you killed.

The AI path-finding also has some noticeable issues. Certain boss monsters can place blocking walls, just like Diablo 3’s Waller modifier, but they may end up trapping themselves. You can then attack from range while they stutter against the wall that was intended to prevent your escape. Regular monsters get caught on corners too, When a group of werewolves comes to your aid near the conclusion, you will need to move at strange angles just to get them down a flight of stairs. These path-finding issues are disappointing given the environments are not randomized.

These stupid champion bosses blocked themselves

Multiplayer adds more problems to the long list or technical troubles. Joining games usually works, but player populations are small. The game frequently crashes when you change levels. Monster status loses sync with other players, so you will see some creatures alive when they have already been killed. The lag is worse than the ping might indicate. Switching between sword and pistol might take seconds and performing special attacks is delayed. You might lose all your assigned skill hotkeys just by joining a game. Only luck would see you play for 20 minutes without issue. This game is just not stable in multiplayer.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is a solid Action RPG with problems. The combat is generally fun, but can be awkward when you have lots of skills to manage. The pacing falters during the later stages of the story as you crawl through endless groups of repetitive monsters. The tower defence missions should have been further developed with customizable waves. These could have been the perfect time-sink instead of the arduous final hours of the story. It is fortunate that the jokes from Lady Katarina help individualize the game. She is almost enough reason to go back and keep playing. If you enjoyed Torchlight or Diablo, there is probably just enough here to impress.