The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II is an action-RPG that pits players in fierce battles against familiar supernatural foes. The game also enables players to partake in a tower-defense mini-game within Van Helsing’s upgradable Lair to ward off evil that attempt to overrun the base by way of force.
In the second game of the series, Van Helsing, the famous monster-hunter returns to save the day again with the help of his charming, ghostly companion, Lady Katarina. The gothic metropolis of weird science is on the brink of destruction as chaos rules the streets and a new enemy plots revenge. It’s time to enter the dark side of Borgova and the forbidden wilderness, but beware: you are not the only one behind a mask... There is a faceless man with magical powers hunting the streets of Borgova, helping the battle against the armies of Weird Science. But what is he exactly? Monster or victim? The former test subject of the mad professors, or “Prisoner Seven”, as the Resistance fighters call him, is a secret in himself, but Van Helsing needs his help before his new arch-enemy, the powerful General Harker destroys everything he was fighting for…
One of the most incredible things about The
Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II is how many amusing pop culture references it manages to cram
into an action RPGwithout quite overdoing it. Some are fairly subtle, such as the
sight of encircled lambdas glowing on dungeon walls; others slap you across the
face with their directness, as in the hunt for one Private Bryan. (“What's so
important about him,” Van Helsing's ghost companion Lady Katarina asks. “Does
he have a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead?”) The gags are unrelenting, but
somehow this rarely detracts from the experience; in a game starring a
broadsword-wielding professor from the Victorian era, the comedy enriches it.
Enriched is the key word here. Van Helsing II
sees developer NeoCore correcting many of the defects of last year's Incredible
Adventures, a scrappy but flawed game that was generally lost in the middle of
what turned out to be an isometric action RPG renaissance of sorts (see Torchlight 2, Path of Exile, and
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls). The sequel maintains the best parts: Van Helsing
still trots about the lovingly rendered cobblestones of the steampunk wonderland
of Borgovia, accompanied by the buxom banshee Lady Katarina, and he's still
preoccupied with killing baddies and picking their corpses for sweet loot. Even
the original's nods to tower defense strategy remain in the form of missions
that require you to defend Van Helsing and his spiffy hat from the forces of
new chief baddie General Harker.
Most action RPGs pay minimal attention to
story; Van Helsing II turns this convention on its head by delivering a tale
that's worthy of attention despite its simplicity. It's at its best when it's
communicated through the always-entertaining banter between Van Helsing and
Lady Katarina, who flirt and bicker among steampunk cities and wooded mountain
paths with all the charm of an old married couple. It's silly stuff, but the
duo and their respective voice actors bring a dash of personality that's all
too absent in this genre.
More often than not, their chatter centers on
the trustworthiness of Prisoner Seven, a foreboding fellow who looks like a
geist from World of Warcraft but brings Van Helsing word
It's a smart move, not least because it lets
you get a feel for the three classes and their melee and ranged incarnations
before you commit to them. One of the great failings of the first game is its
insistence that you limit yourself to the Van Helsing's archetypical
"hunter" class; Van Helsing II remedies that by shipping with the
magey Thaumaturge or the gadget-focused Arcane Mechanic. Even Katerina enjoys
more utility now; in Van Helsing II, you can set her role and guide her skill
progression more effectively. New skills and situational hotkeyed
"tricks" complement the enjoyable two-ability combat, which lets you
switch out weapon sets in a second and power up attacks by building resources
and executing combos.
Truth be told, I wasn't enjoying myself much
until I jumped in with one of the pre-made veteran characters. Currently the
balance is all over the place, and you'll go from fighting against perfectly
manageable swarms to fighting foes who kill you so fast that you don't even
have time to see the screen flicker red. Even the veteran characters don't fare
so well; their main advantage seems to lie in their superior starting gear
rather than durability. Thankfully NeoCore lets you change the difficulty at
any time you choose, but this presents its own complications in that Van
Helsing II also extends it to the hardcore mode with its permanent deaths,
which seems to defeat the purpose of having a hardcode mode at all.
The Incredible Adventures of
Van Helsing II - Gameplay Trailer
Iron out the kinks in the balance, and Van
Helsing II has all the elements of a respectable ARPG, and it employs a few
other tricks to help distinguish it. For example, you have the option to send
out special agents on timed missions for loot and experience, much like the
combat companions in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Van Helsing can even grow his
own pet chimera, which comes in handy as a summonable combat minion or yet
another NPC to send off for gold or special potions. The tower defense elements
again add some variety to the slaughter, as they bid our broad-brimmed hero to
drop whatever he's doing and come back to fend off hordes attacking his lair
with traps and related devices. It seems a shame that losing generates no real
consequence, but it's likely a concession to action RPG players who want
little to do with tower defense. (On some levels, I'm one of them). You don't
even have to fight them; you can send off your minions to handle them if you
choose.
A four-player cooperative mode and a PvP area
round out the current features, but I found the former distressingly prone to
crashes whenever another player showed up. (NeoCore's been rolling out fixes
for more manageable issues on almost a daily basis.) Pity, since I suspect that
being able to count on having another player on hand would have alleviated some
of the imbalance issues listed above.
THE VERDICT
The
Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II represents a considerable improvement over its predecessor,
although its focus consists primarily of augmenting the core action RPG
experience rather than changing it. Balance issues and multiplayer bugs remain,
but there's enough variety found in its tower defense scenarios and three
classes to warrant donning the legendary monster hunter's hat either again or
for the very first time.
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