The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Previews

Neocore Games was hosting a brief presentation of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing on the show floor of last week’s E3, and that’s led to the availability of a fistful of new previews.

Gaming Angels:

The demo started off with the teaser trailer for the game. We find out that this isn’t the Van Helsing of old and that he’s not really killing vampires here. In fact, the vampires that have been his family’s bread and butter for years have called him back to Borgovia to help get rid of even bigger monsters (literally and figuratively). There’s a mad scientist who has set lose his experiments and it’s just a lot for vampires to have to deal with considering the hours they keep. Sometimes you don’t want to have to call in you archnemesis’s son, but them’s the breaks if you don’t want your local blood bank to be overrun by fringe science creations.

gamrReview:

Gameplay is also exemplary for the genre, with skill trees, loot drops, and clicking galore. In the demo, Van Helsing Jr.’s arsenal consisted of a sword and a pair of pistols; effectively switching between both close-quarters and long-range combat became necessary for survival, as players quickly find themselves surrounded by enemies. Crowd-control moves, such as shooting exploding fireballs with my pistols, gave myself some room to maneuver, then I would switch to my sword to focus on taking down enemies one by one.

Seagate’s Digital Den Blog:

Part of the immediate charm about this game is that you’re not playing as the legendary Van Helsing, but rather his son. Van Helsing Sr. has retired and junior is taking up his father’s mantle to fight evil in every form.

Ok, so the gameplay is something that is very familiar to any action/RPG player where you’ll have items to loot from fallen foes as well as potions and spells to manage and upgrade as you progress through the game.

RipTen:

Currently, the game is controlled using a combination of keyboard for movement and special powers and the mouse for attacks. It balks the click-and-move tradition of the genre and may change prior to the game’s release late this year. It was certainly the roughest area of the game, as there were no hotkeys for switching between melee and ranged, also. If controls are refined and the sense of humor and art style pervades, it should shape up to be a great experience.

And Technology Tell:

For all the familiarity, this is one of the few games at E3 that I enjoyed as I played. Although there’s no class system, Van Helsing is able to grow as a character in all the ways that matter for this kind of game (as a melee fighter, ranged fighter, or magician), so it’s no big deal that up to four players can combine forces to drive back the forces of darkness, and pick up some cool loot while they’re at it.