The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, funky game or just funky name?
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is an action role-playing video game developed by the Hungarian independent development studio Neocore Games. Based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the game focuses on the trials of young Van Helsing, son of the legendary vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing from the book. The game is set in a gothic-noir 19th-century Eastern Europe and contains “intentionally anachronistic humor and gadgetry”. But is it any good by today’s standarts? I think yes and I’ll explain why you should take the trip to Borgovia!
Firstly a little bit about the game. You play as, you guessed it, Van Helsing but not the one you are thinking about. This is his son, a supernatural expert with little in the way of tact or restraint making him reckless and not wanted by the people around him. A new mysterious letter arrives which is addressed to your retired father, but since he is retired, you as the young Van Helsing must travel there to eradicate the problem (no spoilers!). The task before him is difficult and the road is filled with peril, that’s why you are not alone, somebody or better, something follows you. Where would any adventurer be without his trusty ghost sidekick. Yep, that’s right, ghost sidekick! Her name is Katarina, a ghost that was saved by the original Van Helsing decades previously and thus is now bound to serve Van Helsing in his quests; she herself enjoys the call for adventures, but of course she would never tell Van Helsing that! She injects some much needed hilarity into the adventure because her personality clashes so much with Van Helsing’s. The characters are very well written, well-developed, interact perfectly with each other and I can say only good things about them. Anyway together you travel from London across the sea to the Thunderhead Mountains (annoyingly you don’t play any of this in the game!) and that’s when your adventure really starts.
Let the adventure begin!
Now the primary goal is obviously to reach to the location the letter was talking about and see what is the problem that must be dealt with (no spoilers!). To do so you must travel on foot through many villages defeating many enemies. You defeat the enemies in a simple point and click fashion and can do so by wielding double guns or double swords or combine both. Of course guns are better long range whereas swords suit close range combat, in this and every respect the game is very simple, defeat enemies to reach your location, loot their bodies and power up your skills and weapons. That is the only thing you do and it can get a little repetitive. Not criticizing many top games e.g. Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 which have kinda the same premise, in fact I would say that TIAoVH is very reminiscent of those games.
