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Whilst out on a mission, you will come across characters that will ask for your aid. You can choose to help or not. If you do pick up quests along the way, they can be completed along side the main campaign or revisit a level to complete them afterwards. When I completed the first mission I returned to my Lair. I tried to give a man a weapon to upgrade but I wasn’t sure what else I had to do to get him to finish it off. It wasn’t obvious and that is a problem with this game, or maybe it’s just the noob in me that makes unable to fully understand what I’m required to do. The game leaves me feeling like it was made for those who already played the first two in the series and therefore would have a clue what to do. Saying that, the game should make more effort for those like myself who are playing the game for the first time.
I continued to wander around the Lair and found I had a Chimera beast that I could send out to complete its own missions. Effectively, the Chimera would go missing for a period of time and while I was out, I’d get a message to say it had returned, and for me to check out the rewards it had reaped for me, if it completed a mission successfully. Wandering around some more, I found I could send a General and soldiers out on timed missions to in a similar vein to Assassins Creed Brotherhood, where you would send out your assassins to complete missions, levelling them up with each success.
If you get tired of playing alone, you can play 4-player co-op online. You can also play PcP if that floats your boat. Being a co-op game, as always I’d love to see it arrive with some fettling on the Wii U with local 2-player co-op, perhaps as a Nintendo’s store release. I own How to Survive on PC (remember that un-played Steam collection) and Wii U, but I’ve only ever played the latter version as I was looking to play a local co-op game on Wii U to make use of its pad. Apparently, Van Helsing was previously on Xbox 360 as well as PC so perhaps a Wii U version wouldn’t be totally out of the question. A 2-player local co-op version for the Wii U, rather than the 4 player online of PC, would help with the Wii U’s lack of grunt. (I’ve given this some thought). I can live in hope. As for the co-op mode on PC, I selected the option and it sent me to the Lair to await more players, I presume. Nothing happened so I went back to single player. Maybe I missed something again, but like I said I’m a noob and this game isn’t noob friendly.
As I played though, the games simple charms drew me in helped by interesting NPCs, the games storytelling, monsters that vary hugely depending on location and even vary within each location too. What initially felt like a chore to play became more compelling. Strange, as the gameplay itself seemed to involve nothing more than facing a number of enemies repeatedly shooting at them from a distance and backing off as they got closer then return to shooting them again. This ‘retreat’ style of attack would sometimes lead you to stumble across more enemies resulting in all hell breaking loose as you become swamped from all sides. Sometimes this will result in you had biting off more than you can chew. If you died at this point you are given the option to respawn from where you were or from the last check point or your lair. The first 2 options will cost gold to respawn and returning to your Lair is gratis.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III Classes – Elementalist & Protector – NeocoreGames
The music deserves a mention, as it is suitably atmospheric and fitting with the cyber steampunk theme. The characters’ voice acting, with their banter going back and forth, also helps draw you in to the story. The sounds of the guns and elemental spells combined with the howls, screams, growls and mutterings of the various beasts, monster and entities all contribute to the game’s atmosphere. The voice acting of the NPC characters has a humorous slant to it, too, which adds to the game’s charisma.
For all its faults, I actually quite enjoyed The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III. So much so, I even went to purchase the previous two that I’d seen on sale on Steam, only to find I’d missed the sale. So I added them to my wish list with the intention to pick them up when back on sale. That’s right Van Helsing 3 made me a convert, and I want to play the whole series in the correct order.
If, like me, you’ve never played this type of game before then the menus can be daunting. I’m sure there could be better ways of laying them out, but work through them and you will be rewarded with a fun game with a beautiful detailed world, magical characters and a screen full of pyrotechnics when taking on the evil denizens.
If you’re like me and you’ve looked at the standard bearer, Diablo, and considered dabbling and thought bugger that I’m not paying that sort of money for what some would consider old school graphics and gameplay, then you could do far worse than cutting your teeth on the Van Helsing. There is less up front to outlay. When on sale, you could get this and when 1&2 are on sale have all 3 for less than the price of Diablo. With Diablo, the whole dungeon-crawling setting was always a little offputting to me, too. The setting of Borgovia and the lore in Van Helsing along with price is a more attractive choice to me. I may get lynched for saying this, but having played Van Helsing I’d be more inclined to try Diablo now, but only after playing all three Van Helsing games first. Previously, that wouldn’t have been a consideration so it appears The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III has won a game of Top Trumps with its archenemy.
And if you’re a fan of action RPGs then I can recommend this as it managed to make me one.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III is available now on Steam for PC.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III Classes – Umbralist & Phlogistoneer – NeocoreGames
Important info:
- Publisher: NeocoreGames
- Players: 4 co-op, PvP
- HDTV options: up to 1080p
- Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes
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GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY POTENTIAL |
7.5 6.5 7.5 6.5 |
| OVERALL | 7 |
I’m all about the Games and Gadgets. Rumoured to have been born with a mobile phone in his hand. (It’s not true. It was a Gameboy) You want to know more about my business? You better invest in it then hadn’t you.