The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

From Isometric Camera: A very atmospheric, dark-fantasy/steampunk action RPG. A Van Helsing game. As a result of my love and appreciation for the genre, the game offers us quite a bit of multitasking: fight, get injured, cast spells, deal critical damage, loot, talk to Katarina, enchant your gear, help people through side quests, disrupt your enemies’ preparations, and marvel at the captivating visuals of a mechanized world, complete with incredible voice acting and an OST. Our main goal in the game is to follow in our father’s footsteps by hunting monsters and helping people, while fighting against the creatures, beings, and (spoiler) professors that are harming the city. If you like this genre, give it a try while it’s on sale—it’s worth it. If you take on side quests, grind, and play through the game from start to finish, it’ll take about 20 hours. I completed everything in 18 hours. I went for a few achievements, and that wrapped up the game for me. I built a hunter-class character focused on rifles, and I can say it was incredibly worth it. I enjoyed playing this game so much that I played until 4 a.m. and now I’m moving on to the sequel. Story: 7.5/10 Graphics: 9.5/1…

If you like Grim Dawn or Diablo you'll find this similar but with many refreshing additions and interesting features. Definitely worth giving it a try.

I wished there was a possibility to give mixed rating. This game is doing some things right, I liked both Katarina and Van Helsing, the dialogue between them is funny, the game throws at you some jokes in form of cultural references and overall the game has a good vibe. I also liked the tower defense mini game where you protect your secret lair against waves of monsters. I wished the story mode would use that mini game more often. For me the typical problem with games of this genre is that beating the story campaign will not give me enough XP to build the character I want and the post story content is just too repetitive so I drop it. Unfortunately it is the same problem here. In addition to that, I do not think the combat here is all that good. The enemies feel unbalanced, some use attacks that you can not doge and the loot is not all that interesting either. However it is a game that allows you to turn off your brain and kill a bunch of monsters with just minor annoyances here and there which might be good enough for a lot of people and I did not dislike it either, it is just hard to recommend.

I am not a huge veteran of the genre so I am not too critical of the iteration. As I understand it, there's now a Final Cut that includes the trilogy & revamps gameplay. I bought the trilogy before I was aware. The first few chapters were quite fun and diverse in terms of setting and enemies. The last chapter(s) got very repetitive. It felt like the last 1/3 of the game was simply way too drawn out. The defense mini-game was fun, but albeit the waves were too long and repetitive as well. Overall I was happy with the game as I paid $2. I may or may not return to finish the series but I need a break given how grindy the remaining hours felt.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is a 2013 ARPG by the studio that later made Warhammer Inquisitor Martyr and Prophecy. You play as the eponymous Van Helsing, (frequently mistaken for your more illustrious father Abraham of the original Dracula novel) in the middle of typical rambunctious steampunk adventures with your ghostly companion Lady Katarina. The campaign is surprisingly short, comprising 3 chapters: the wilderness around the rural village Markovna, the East side of city Borgova (capital of Borgovia), and the West side. There is post-campaign content - “scenario” maps with monsters above level 30, and “neverending story” where monsters keep on scaling - but I didn’t play them. Your character power comes from points you put into 4 attributes (Body, Dexterity, Willpower, and Luck), each affecting a couple of stats (for example Body improves life, defence, and melee damage); 4 tabs of skills (melee, ranged, “tricks” active spell abilities, and passive auras), each containing small trees of half a dozen skills with a few modifier powerups each; “perks” granting minor specialized stat boosts (eg Agile gives you Dexterity and dodge chance, Collector gives you another I…

One of my favourite ARPGs that gives you a likeable character and an engaging world to play in. The comedy is geek-tastic and the tongue-in-cheek atmosphere hits just the right balance to keep it from feeling like a parody. Absolutely worth your money and your time if you enjoy the arpg genre.