Van Helsing 2004 Review
Beverly Denmark
Budapest-based developer NeocoreGames has outdone itself. The amount of content in The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut is staggering, to say the least. Final Cut combines the entire Van Helsing trilogy, plus all of the downloadable content, into one giant package. The Final Cut also revises the entire experience to make the content more compelling. The three campaigns now flow flawlessly into one another. Fans of action role-playing games such as Diablo will be right at home with Van Helsing. It contains the genre's primary elements, with endless monsters to slay, loot to collect, and quests to complete. If the campaign isn't enough for players, the developers added an endgame that provides an endless amount of quests and daily challenges. When all put together, Final Cut ensures a near-continuous supply of content.
While I enjoyed each of the original games individually, there is something to be said about the experience when all three of them are combined into a single overarching narrative. At the 20-hour point, I had just reached the third part of the campaign, just to give you a sense of the lengthy narrative in Final Cut. The cohesive nature of all three campaigns deserves praise. It's also possible to go back and complete quests you might have missed. Also, the revised class system ensures that the six playable classes span the entire narrative, along with their sprawling class trees with hundreds of skills to unlock.
Another highlight is the underlying quest to save the land of Borgovia. While the world in the first campaign isn't anything drastically different from other action RPGs (with forests and underground caverns), the settings grow more and more fantastical. Players will travel to a variety of locales ranging from snow-covered mountains to rain-drenched swamps. In the second and third campaigns, players travel more frequently to obscure locations that are a result of twisted science and dark ink magic. It's never a dull experience to explore new places in Borgovia. Around every corner, new monsters and loot awaits.
For players that that have completed the campaign, or want to switch things up, you can switch to the Scenarios mode that functions as an endgame content hub. There you'll be given a variety of quests and challenges that range both in difficulty and special conditions. Some quests, for example, might require them to be completed without dying, while others have time limits. One quest in particular transformed my character into a chicken when I strayed outside certain areas of the map. These quests change daily or can be manually reset using an endgame currency. Either way, players are continually given new quests to complete. My only complaint is that some of the challenges feel unfair in regards to their failure conditions. Plus you'll have to get used to the recycled environments.
With a new level cap of 100 and plenty of endgame quests, players will find a near-endless amount of entertainment in Final Cut. Even after my review, I'm still returning to it, seeing what new challenges wait for me every day. I'm also replaying the campaign with each of the six character classes. Each is unique when it comes to skills and loot. But be careful. Hours of your day will slip away while exploring the land of Borgovia.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut is an outstanding action role-playing game. It sets itself apart. The significant amount of content, and the entertainment value, makes for a game that will eat away hours. With a near-endless supply of quests to complete, monsters to slay, and loot to collect, the adventure to Borgovia shouldn't be missed.
I've been writing for Gaming Nexus since 2011 and focus primarily on PC games and hardware. I'm a strong advocate of independent developers and am always seeking the next genre-breaking and unique game releases. My favorite game genres are strategy, role-playing, and simulation, or any games that feature open worlds and survival elements.
Hey unknown, each to their own and as I said in the review it was very talky... it is perhaps the difficulty of highlighting a small section of the novel - it is not counterbalanced by other sections. Nevertheless I rather appreciated their efforts but can see why others would not
This one felt more like one of the old "movie(s) of the week" they used to show here in the States. That aside, I found it to be a very well done film. The reduction or expungence of characters, morphing or blending of actions and timelines, and absence of a more physical manifestation of D did not hurt the production as much as I thought it might.
There did seem to be an acceleration of pace towards the end, as if the producers felt a time crunch and wanted to wrap it up ASAP. The ending also seemed, to me, to leave the door open for a possible sequel. Hopefully, more consideration will be made if indeed they attempt one, and characterization and more presence of the antagonist will be part of the story.
Thanks for the recommendation, and as always, take care.
Billy
See, in this alternate-history steampunk action game, our hero Abraham Van Helsing's good father (Abraham, Sr.?) not only helped to destroy Dracula, but also set in motion a peace treaty with the vampires of the world, in which they'll keep their nefarious deeds to a minimum. It's an agreement that seems to mimic Neocore's uneasy treaty with their own vampire: Blizzard's Diablo series.
While some might see Van Helsing as a simple me-too action-role-playing game (ARPG) experience, Neocore charges ahead and manages to impress with this solid title. It's stuffed with the requisite ARPG goodness needed to satisfy (baddies, style, loot, and abilities) but also a rough charm, a playful tone, and a few neat twists in a very cost-effective package that beats back any over-comparisons to its progenitor.
Play-wise, Van Helsing hits all the right notes. The steampunk setting is a great place for a title of this type and helps to differentiate it quickly. Though there's plenty of magic, swords, and monsters, the game takes place in more typical, non-fantasy locales around the backwoods of the fictitious European country, Borgova. In other words, it's less dungeons, more labs, streets, and forests.
As a "rescued" (?) ghost who's conscripted to serve, Katarina fills the role of the Diablo follower or the Torchlight pet. She fights alongside the player throughout, constantly quipping with, complaining to, or pining for the gruff Van Helsing. In this way, she also helps to give the game a fair amount of levity. Truly, the game's writing comes to life when Katarina opens her mouth. Where Van Helsing could have been a typically dreary fight-fest, writer Viktor Juhasz made sure that Katarina could bring constant doses of lightness to the proceedings, thereby bettering the whole game.
Her addition is not simply cosmetic, however: Katarina may be used as a melee fighter, a ranged attacker, or simply as defensive buffer in combat. Neocore also had the great idea to make her behavior extremely customizable. She has her own inventory for copious amounts of loot, and she can be customized to pick up only the items the player wishes her to.
At the time of this writing, the game's multiplayer component is very difficult to enjoy. I experienced connection lag and freezing, and it seems to be a complaint that's popping up a lot in the game's forums. Neocore is well aware of these issues. Aside from that, my other complaints are fairly small, but one worth mentioning is the Forge System.
Basically, Van Helsing's Forge System combines unwanted weapons and armor into new, random, and (possibly) more powerful pieces. I spent a few hours on just this feature alone, scoring a few marginally better items. I ended up growing tired of it about halfway through the game, though. After putting so much time into forging, I rarely got results that were substantially better than what I put in, thereby negating the hours invested. The luck factor should be cranked up a notch here.
As an action-role-playing game, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing does not disappoint, especially for anyone starved for more of this particular sub-genre. It may hew closely to some established forms, but it brings some freshness to the table and stands solidly on its own two feet. The best thing to recommend it, however, is its excellent price point. For $15, you can't beat this package. There may not be any vampires to battle, but that just means there's no sucking going on, either. Rating: 7.0 out of 10.
Parents: This game has not been reviewed by the ESRB, but contains constant violence. Blood is not overly abundant, but there are plenty of instances of monsters exploding into bits. The game contains little objectionable language or sexuality.
Today we are going to review an action role playing game called Van Helsing the Final Cut, this game is by now, taken offline. Meaning, there is only offline play for this game. This game was originally three different games but in this version, they have been pasted together while making some neat changes. However, due to this game being cut in three, I am not going to write a story section for this game. Simply put, you are going to travel to Borgovia and kill monsters!
It has been a long time since I played this game, all I knew, was that it was an action role playing game. And that I have several max level characters. This game always had a lot of fun easter eggs. There is also a boatload of loot find while a ghost is following you around. This ghost would be your companion and could also be modified for combat, or just passive buffs! For more information, I went to the Steam Page!
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There is a lot that this game has to offer you, I already put in over 200 hours before even thinking about reviewing that game, mind you, that was over five years ago. So, for this review, I needed to do some research into my old characters and the gameplay mechanics. Needless to say, if you want to hack up some monster while gathering insane amounts of loot, this might be the game for you!