The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut (2015) (PC) (NeoCoreGames)
0For such a mechanically limited genre, the sheer number of action RPGs being published these days is somewhat baffling...or perhaps entirely predictable, given the relative simplicity of the gameplay design. Several years after the release of Diablo II there were still only a handful of widely available competitors, but these days every mid-sized deveveloper (not to mention Korean F2P sweatshop) seems to have a brand new isometric click-fest up its sleeve. Since 2013 NeoCoreGames has been spamming the Steam library with The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing games (not to be confused with Victor Vran, by the way), but in hindsight it's perhaps more correct to think of the three separate releases as episodic installments of a single game. Supporting this interpretation is the fact that this Final Cut version conveniently combines everything from Van Helsing 1-3 into one seamless(-ish) package, while also revamping and extending the character class system introduced in VH3 to encompass the entire trilogy.
I bought VH1-3 individually but never played anything past the starting areas of VH1, so Final Cut seemed like the perfect opportunity to check out if the world's most famous Hungarian ARPG has anything worthwile to offer. Given that just about the only thing I remember about the first game was the dual melee/ranged attack system of the titular protagonist, I was somewhat confused by the new class system (which simultaneously seems more varied and more restrictive than the "Jack of all Trades" approach from the original release). After having had a few Hardcore test characters wiped out I settled into the Protector role (Hard difficulty, non-Hardcore) and began to appreciate its straightforward hack'n slash and AoE abilities.
The world of Van Helsing has a predictably Gothic style to it which isn't particularly memorable (and as deliberately campy as any Cradle of Filth album cover), but the oppressive cityscape of Borgova comes with a (admittedly similarily clichéd) Steampunk twist which spices things up a bit. The environments and graphical effects look quite good and some clever background work makes the scenes feel satisfyingly three-dimensional despite the isometric playing field. There is more dialogue and voice acting in NeoCore's particular ARPG formula than you'd find in most other entries in this gameplay-focused subgenre, but none of it has been particularly interesting so far. The moody, apprehensive musical score is for the most part more compelling than the "witty" banter between Van Helsing and his ghostly sidekick Katarina or the Gary Oldman vampire lookalikes schewing at the scenery.
I don't know if I will stick with the game past this weekend, but while the reimagined adventures of Bram Stoker's vampire killer might not exactly qualify as "incredible", they're at the very least "quite alright". I guess that wouldn't make for a very good video game title, though...