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| You do have to wade through a fair amount of enemies to get to that chest however. |
Story
TIAoVH's story actually takes place from the point of view of Van Helsing's son Abraham, an energetic and determined successor to his world-renowned father. Abraham is a fledgling monster hunter, trying to live up to his father's insurmountable legacy, a monumental task considering Van Helsing brought peace between the humans and vampires of Borgova. Along this journey Abraham is accompanied by Lady Katarina, a buxom spirit and servant of the Van Helsing family who takes an endless amount of pleasure in nagging him. The two begin their journey in the haunted hillsides of Borgova but soon find themselves in places such as mountainous caverns filled with werewolves, boggy swamps brimming with semi-intelligent toad people, and an impressive mechanical city teeming with science-spawned abominations of flesh and metal. The ultimate goal here is to bring peace once again to Borgova whilst foiling the sinister plans of whatever mad scientists still reside in the area, twisting beast and nature to their whims with nonsensical pseudo-science that would make even George Lucas giggle. While being admittedly a little too-lighthearted through the first part, the game's second act presents a clear idea of what is at stake if Abraham fails in his task to bring down the mad scientists. The game loves throwing out references to other movies and games that preceded it, even filling the mandatory quota of at least one Portal shout out in the latter part of the story. Make no mistake, this is not an ultra-serious adaptation of the various books based on Van Helsing's adventures, but rather a deliberately silly romp through various locals wiping out hordes of monsters and aberrations while waiting for that next legendary item to drop. While the story started off a little weaker than I expected, I quickly became entranced by the witty dialogue exchanged between Van Helsing and his spectral lady friend. Katarina is an absolutely fantastic support character and frequent comic-relief for those who didn't think the game was already humorous enough. RPG enthusiasts will also be pleased to know that she is fully customizable, but more on that in the Gameplay section. Overall this is a very good start for this series, providing an interesting backdrop and locations while giving you a clear reason as to why you are pursuing the next objective. Think of it as a more self-aware Diablo 3 in terms of the story, always expanding as you progress while avoiding the common irk of flying off into ridiculousness that most RPGs seem to suffer in their final acts.
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| Abraham and Katarina as seen here, looking mighty serious about something. |
Graphics
It really says something about the industry when an indie developer manages to develop a game that looks arguably better than several other AAA games that cost at least $60 to buy. TAoVH is an absolutely gorgeous ARPG that never ceases to wow with its enormous environments, impressive spell effects, and detailed character models. A lot of love has been poured into the game world by the developers and it really shows in the layout of each sprawling area you traverse, admiring the scenery as you savagely gib fearsome swarms of beasts of various size and type. Some of the higher tier spells you unlock create some truly awing battles, as protective flames engulf Van Helsing or bursts of freezing particles snap-freeze enemies solid. It is also unsettlingly satisfying to slice and maim your way through swathes of beasts, leaving behind hunks of meat and pools of blood in your wake. At first I was skeptical with Abraham's look, though it quickly grew on me as I went about my journey, outfitting him with an ever growing wardrobe of strange hats and coats.. I never thought I would actually enjoy a humorous rendition of the Van Helsing legends, but the realistically rendered worlds really helped immerse me wherever I ventured. The game shares many visual assets with the Diablo series, most notably the HUD which struck me as being directly from Diablo 3 save for a few changes. It even seems to give a few nods to the relatively new free-to-play Path of Exile, another excellent ARPG Diablo-clone. Another interesting touch here is Abraham's arsenal of death-dealing weapons, namely how over-sized they seem. From dual-wielding pistols and swords to hefting around huge rifles and blades, TIAoVH never ceases to amaze me with the ludicrous amount of weighty weapons it throws at you with seemingly every turn. How can any monster hope to best a man wielding a blade that is at least 2-3 times his own body length? Apparently someone gave the creatures an uplifting speech because they sure throw themselves at you with wanton abandon, with the ranged types generally staying rather unusually close to you as well even when approached directly. I really must hand it to TIAoVH, this game is a real visual treat to behold if you have the rig that can handle everything maxed out.
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| Behold a pissed off Lady Katarina! |
Gameplay
If you've played more than a few dungeon crawlers then you are going to be pretty familiar with how TIAoVH works, feeling like a mishmash of Diablo, Torchlight, and Path of Exile. This is a top down perspective type of game, with the camera able to be zoomed in and out depending on how close or far away the player prefers it. Honestly though the bigger fights kind of force you to zoom out a bit as roving packs of monsters seem to randomly jump into the fray of a heated battle. I fondly recall a huge battle near the end-game where I had somehow attracted the attention of dozens of bloodthirsty beasties, the ocean of blood and body parts coating the ground proof of my triumphant success. Most of the combat and movement is done by using the mouse, whilst special abilities, spells, and potions are mapped to the keyboard. The set-up is very similar to the control scheme of Diablo 3 and never feels cumbersome or clunky. Everything is ultra-responsive and works perfectly well, though the huge skirmishes do make it a pain to see where your character is located amidst the sea of writhing monsters. Just point, click, and watch with grim interest as Van Helsing and his companion reduce ravening beasts into barely recognizable piles of sliced meat and gore. Upgrading your character's a abilities is a necessity if you are going to survive, especially late into the game when humongous abominations shamble towards you. Luckily you are awarded lots of skill points for completing quests and leveling up, giving you the ability to customize Abraham to your heart's content. The game has no classes, rather relying heavily on active and passive abilities to really define your character's role on the battlefield. I completed my first playthrough while only investing points in the melee tree, becoming a nigh-unstoppable death machine whenever I brought my sword into play. All major abilities come with power-ups that you can activate by attaining rage in battles, boosting your abilities in a variety of ways. Rage is a vital resource that is both plentiful and scarce, only able to attained through striking foes or wearing certain items and able to be depleted by taking damage. Over the course of the story you will learn to become extremely efficient at managing your Rage, or you'll never even notice it and keep playing exactly how you started. I completely forgot about the stuff for half my playthrough and just assumed the power-ups were passive, not realizing my grievous error till later when more demanding foes began flooding me. Lady Katarina can also be fully customized with gear and her base behavior modified to however the player wants to use her best, able to take the role of ranged or melee on the fly with but a click of a button. If she loses all of her health she will become fully incorporeal until she regenerates, providing a passive defense boon to her master, making her an effective ally even outside of combat. Like Abraham, Katarina can invest points into solely passive skills that provide many kinds of boosts to Van Helsing's stats, keeping him combat effective at all times depending on what passives are employed. And as if all these stats weren't enough the game contains a Fame system that levels dependent on how many monsters and champions you slay. Each increase in level allows you to pick from a list of perks which expand as the story progresses, suiting any style of play while adding another layer of depth and providing incentive to hunt down every last enemy. Now we get to the loot. Oh the glorious loot. TIAoVH lacks some of the item variety seen in the Diablo and Torchlight series, as the game contains no pre-made classes. This still does not deter slain enemies and smashed objects from spilling tons of gold and enchanted trinkets forth, providing a steady supply of even more gold to the player as he sends Katarina back to town with a full inventory. I will say that some of the Epic-level loot is extremely unbalanced, staying effective even through the final act. I found a two-handed sword so powerful and loaded with passive boosts that it was the only melee weapon I needed in my playthrough, and this was acquired near the start of the game. Don't let this dishearten you from hunting down as many items as you can though, the game has plenty of different types of armor and weapons it can randomly generate on the fly, much like Diablo. Connecting most of the areas together are HUB locations such as towns or lairs which can be utilized to upgrade auras, forge items, enchant items, sell unwanted loot, and attain side-quests. Chatting with towns-folk always provided a welcome reprieve from the near-constant engagements I kept stumbling upon, however I wished there were more side-quests on display here. There is also a very well-implemented tower defense mechanic that is utilized later in the story, though I will not spoil it as it is tied to events in the storyline. If you are a hardcore Diablo or Torchlight fan then you should feel right at home in TIAoVH, as it feels like a welcome combination of the best elements of those games.
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| Rats, it had to be rats! |
Sound
Perhaps even more of an achievement than the beautiful graphics engine is the soundtrack, the music is absolutely beautiful. I was dumbstruck by how hauntingly serene the ambient tunes were, filled with sweeping orchestral scores and instrumental chimes which puts the player into a breathtaking world filled with horror and mystery. I could just imagine myself sitting on a hillside in Borgova, watching the grass sway in the wind. It really is that captivating and the composer really deserves some kind of award for producing music that can rival nearly any triple A title in the industry. It must also be mentioned that the voice acting is right on spot for most of the characters, with Van Helsing and Katarina standing out clearly above the others in the delivery of their lines. The rest of the sound department is rather average, with your typical weapon and monster sound effects. Perfectly serviceable with nothing drawing the attention away from the combat. Besides the music. Man, that was some damn good music.
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| The music deserves it's own award, so here you go. |
Conclusion
Developed by Neocore Games, TIAoVH is a fantastic addition to any ARPG lover's collection and a worthy dungeon crawler at that! Going in, its easy to see that the developers had much love for the legendary Van Helsing, paying homage whilst crafting their own zany tale about the adventures of a monster hunter and his sassy ghost servant. For $15 you are getting an excellent deal, a decent length campaign with enough incentive to warrant a couple more playthroughs and also offering up extra challenges for max level players. A sequel is already in development and I can't wait to see what new places Abraham Van Helsing and Lady Katarina embark to. A truly underrated gem and excellent start for the series. 8/10 (PC version reviewed)
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