The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing Review

Stalking the shadow of Diablo III and other ARPG’s is the latest title to join the ever expanding Steam arsenal, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. Promising epic adventures in the gothic-noir themed world of the iconic vampire hunter, Van Helsing, is The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing loot worthy of a slot in your bag or is it just vendor trash taking up valuable space?

I never really followed the development of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing and I wasn’t overly impressed by the launch trailer so it’s safe to say my expectations for my enjoyment of this game were low. I do enjoy the odd ARPG title but I often expect them to lack any serious depth and don’t involve much more outside of just looting and spamming a single ability. Although on this occasion, I was happy to be proven wrong.

The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing Review

Character creation is a little lackluster as you’re playing a character already defined by decades of background story and lore, although players are able to choose a variety of difficulties including a Diablo style Hardcore Mode. Each mode increases the difficulty of combat but in return provides far greater rewards and drop potential. I wasn’t able to find the time to complete every difficulty level but there doesn’t appear to be any story or mechanic changes so it’s based on user preference and you won’t miss out if you choose one of the lower difficulties.

Without further ado let’s dive into the core of any ARPG, the combat. If you’re a veteran of the genre you probably won’t notice much at first glance as it borrows kiting and combat elements from most games in the genre, but look a little deeper and you’ll uncover a wealth of depth with features I’ve never come across before. Players can choose to use either a melee weapon or ranged weapon and can switch freely at any time during combat, but each weapon type also has unique perks. Both types have 3 further buffs to their attacks based on Rage, an essence that is accumulated through killing enemies. As this Rage increases players are able to invest points into a specific ability for a single attack. For example, you can quickly pump points into the AoE added effect for increased area damage or you can opt to select a more single-target orientated ability that adds as low and more damage. This forces players to utilize quick thinking and their ability to adapt, changing the status quo of the ARPG that usually involves mindless button mashing.

Improving the combat further is a host of other unique features and mechanics, all of which combine to present one of the most appealing features of the game. Players get complete freedom to level both their main character and their AI companion via stats and abilities. Stats can be distributed freely through 4 different characters, allowing players to specialize in a certain role such as a tank or range DPS. There are also ability trees, three in total, that feature Melee, Ranged and Trick/Aura abilities. Players can invest heavily into a single tree or branch out and specialize in any combination of the 3. Finally there’s Perk’s and Aura’s that offer both passive and active abilities that include extra damage, heals, stopping time and more.

As if that wasn’t enough the game continues to impress throughout with an exciting array of unique content such as the ability to scrap items to a Blacksmith with the potential of a far more expensive item, adding Essence to weapons and armor to increase their potential and more.

The game utilizes the combat in a variety of ways, ensuring players are enthralled every step of the way. Unlike other ARPG titles The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing throws players into the deep end almost instantly. There’s never an easy fight and you can literally get bombarded by 20-30 enemies at once. Again the game manages to avoid the monotonous stereotype by adding unique enemies within the pack, laying out buffs and acting as the primary target in the group.

Completing this package is dozens of quests, excellent voice-overs and a variety of typical ARPG features but refined and tweaked to near perfection.