anus_pounder, Grunker, be sure to post Your impressions.
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The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - Part III Released
- Thread starter MicoSelva
- Start date
Why so serious 'trony?
Name
Cipher
As a storyfag, I only want to know if this game maintains the above-average writing of Neocore?
PS. Is it another buggy release in the tradition of Neocore? Nevermind, I don't have a good enough machine to run their poorly optimized program neither.
PS. Is it another buggy release in the tradition of Neocore? Nevermind, I don't have a good enough machine to run their poorly optimized program neither.
anus_pounder
Arcane
Neocore?
...
Hey, aren't these the King Arthur guys? Where the hell is King Arthur 's (spiritual?) sequel?
...
Hey, aren't these the King Arthur guys? Where the hell is King Arthur 's (spiritual?) sequel?
Name
Cipher
I think they have had enough with Total War ripoff/dlcs. Apparantly all they want to do now is the rpg part. Another of their lineup (besides this Diablo-clone) is Broken Sea, a party-based "tactical" RPG set in a "high magic world", with a suspisious pirate-theme name.
Yep, they are the ones. After the rather mixed reviews of KA II, I doubt they will make another sequel.
anus_pounder
Arcane
circ
Arcane
Torchlight 2 was another Diablo clone too. Codex liked that. So, is this in the same ballpark? Are you stuck with playing just this Van Helsing?
Pity. Torchlight 2's charm ran out very fast for me.
I'll be sure to post impressions when I've got them.
I'll be sure to post impressions when I've got them.
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2010
- Messages
- 2,342
So far (just reached the 2nd hive) it definitely is fun. Playing on heroic is challenging enough, yet not completely retarded difficulty wise. Music is amazing, the design in general also is great. The skilltree is somewhat lackluster, since you only get like 3 to 4 spells depending on whether you chose to go full melee/range, hybrid play is a lot of fun though. The whole rage-mechanic (you get rage for killing enemies, and have 3 mini-upgrades like increased range or chance to stun that you can augment your skills with mid-combat, but it depletes rage) makes for decent combat aswell. As far as story goes, there really isn't much there - it's an ARPG after all.
As far as copying successful features, it has the companion with inventory that shops for you and either fights or buffs you, a reputation system where you get "rep" when you kill a pack of champions or an elite that grants perks; it got crafting, enchanting, gems, and all the other stuff. The humor doesn't feel out of place either. The first act has a few huge areas (none of the maps are randomly generated) whereas the second one consists of a larger amount of smaller ones, all of them got a few riddles or secrets to discover. Since there is zero handholding you can easily miss some of those, I'm sure I missed at least two of them.
Loot is randomly generated, magic/gold find and stuff like that, a few things are pre-defined but mostly you'll just hack your way through packs of mobs or get slaughtered, depending on whether you fucked up your build (I find it hard to imagine that a build without life-steal cleave would make it through heroic). Ranged seems to be a bit easier since you can use your companion as a meat shield. Boss fights are fun and difficult, no cheesing either since the whole boss room resets when you die.
All in all it is a solid game, more suited to singleplayer than multiplayer (regarding the latter I still prefer PoE) and sticks close to torchlights formula, yet is different enough to not feel like a "cheap" copy. Gotta praise the music once again since they really did a great job there. Looking forward to finishing it and the other parts of this trilogy (the next part is supposed to come out this year aswell). Seeing how you don't really get much for 15bucks nowadays when it comes to videogames, this one certainly is worth the money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaHS_LeYZNU&t=13m20s whoever did this area deserves a fucking award.
As far as copying successful features, it has the companion with inventory that shops for you and either fights or buffs you, a reputation system where you get "rep" when you kill a pack of champions or an elite that grants perks; it got crafting, enchanting, gems, and all the other stuff. The humor doesn't feel out of place either. The first act has a few huge areas (none of the maps are randomly generated) whereas the second one consists of a larger amount of smaller ones, all of them got a few riddles or secrets to discover. Since there is zero handholding you can easily miss some of those, I'm sure I missed at least two of them.
Loot is randomly generated, magic/gold find and stuff like that, a few things are pre-defined but mostly you'll just hack your way through packs of mobs or get slaughtered, depending on whether you fucked up your build (I find it hard to imagine that a build without life-steal cleave would make it through heroic). Ranged seems to be a bit easier since you can use your companion as a meat shield. Boss fights are fun and difficult, no cheesing either since the whole boss room resets when you die.
All in all it is a solid game, more suited to singleplayer than multiplayer (regarding the latter I still prefer PoE) and sticks close to torchlights formula, yet is different enough to not feel like a "cheap" copy. Gotta praise the music once again since they really did a great job there. Looking forward to finishing it and the other parts of this trilogy (the next part is supposed to come out this year aswell). Seeing how you don't really get much for 15bucks nowadays when it comes to videogames, this one certainly is worth the money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaHS_LeYZNU&t=13m20s whoever did this area deserves a fucking award.
Sounds like your standard, modern ARPG. How sad. Path of Exile, though an excellent, excellent game, wasn't my kind of game and couldn't hold my attention.
Doubt this will be able to if it's just more of Torchlight. Perhaps during a boring summer day.
Doubt this will be able to if it's just more of Torchlight. Perhaps during a boring summer day.
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2010
- Messages
- 2,342
That's really the gist of it. They are both similar, yet I enjoy Van Hellsing alot more since it doesn't try to be more than what it is: an action RPG without a huge budget that you can pick up when it's rainy outside. A title worthy of the "good for what it is" label. Maybe I didn't give TL2 a proper chance though since it came out after I quit D3 and started playing PoE again.
How the hell does one go from four big-scale strategy games to akshun rpg? 
Seemed okay rogue at first, nice style and straightforward setting, one character and funny enough companion, shooting volkolaks, vodyanoi and rusalkas with exploding bullets from double revolvers. Even spooky in a good way. But the amount of derp started to pile up and now I've reached, through a body of worm-like drill, a mechanized city full of toy soldiers, rats and mutant brutes where vampire Vlad is leading LA RESISTANCE from Hellsing vault. Shit. Just once I was hoping game will be like Diablo 1, without too many cultural references, gloomy and serious in tone, just with scraps of macabre humor here and there.
Also, skills lack variety and are just... abstract. A fire shot, and ice shot, poison shot... they could as well be firebolt, ice missle and poison missle. There are't any ammo types or mechanics which would make it look more believable.
Although it is fun to stop time, load imaginative exploding bullet into a pistol using Rage system and shoot it in the bunch of enemies. Katarina commenting everything is also a nice touch (with dat magical accent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PAk063ri5s ). And maps reward exploration and have some events and little puzzles, and they do look nice. There is even some local C&C and a bit of choice in dialogue. Music is cool.
Also, skills lack variety and are just... abstract. A fire shot, and ice shot, poison shot... they could as well be firebolt, ice missle and poison missle. There are't any ammo types or mechanics which would make it look more believable.
Although it is fun to stop time, load imaginative exploding bullet into a pistol using Rage system and shoot it in the bunch of enemies. Katarina commenting everything is also a nice touch (with dat magical accent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PAk063ri5s ). And maps reward exploration and have some events and little puzzles, and they do look nice. There is even some local C&C and a bit of choice in dialogue. Music is cool.
Yep, played for an hour, uninstalled. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
Multiple Sarcasm
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2007
- Messages
- 3,181
So, uh, is there a hotkey to hide that HUEG useless map window in upper-right corner? I must be going blind, since no one could make a design decision as retarded as that thing.
Sadly, I have to agree.
Disappointed. I might still give it a playthrough on the lowest difficulty because I like Katarina.
How the hell does one go from four big-scale strategy games to akshun rpg?
Yes, that's sad. Another promising developer's gone fuuuuuu. Crusader: Thy Kingdom Comes was very crude which you could really feel after playing "King's Crusade" (same shit but RTS part felt so much better, especially camera and unit balance). Then KA1, while niche game, it was their pinnacle so far, although with some problems. They tried to fixed them in KA2 and shift more towards cRPG and they fucked it up (I still liked it a lot). All in all, they all were not bestsellers so they decided to stick to Diablo formula...
Wonder if they are still working on Broken Sea. Looks hopeless though, as Van Helsing is supposed to be a fucking trilogy
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2010
- Messages
- 21,144
I now interrupt your bitching about unrelated shit with my uninformed opinion.
Played for about an hour. Impressions:
+ Love atmosphere the setting. I'd love to play a TES style game in something like this.
+ Melee combat feels good. Attacks have impact and the right blend of slashing noises and gore.
+ Borrowed a bunch of useful stuff from other arpgs, like sending your companion back to town to sell and buy shit.
+ Areas feel quite small but are packed with monsters, which means it's not uncommon to fight a couple dozen of them at the time. This probably shortens the game considerably. I don't mind, I don't have the same patience I had in my youth when I played diablo 2 for months on end (if not years), but if you're looking for a lengthy game this probably isn't it, although i'll probably end up replaying it at least once as a ranged character.
+ Much like Divinity the game doesn't take itself too seriously. That might irk some people, but I don't think an entirely serious take would work all that well with the setting. Plus, there's some genuinely amusing stuff, like one of the couple dozen potato rednecks who accost you at the beginning exclaiming that he wants your hat.
- I didn't like the gunplay, but I'm going for a pure melee build so I didn't try it much. Will update on second playthrough with more thorough impressions.
- I hate the rage system. You build up rage by fighting (killing enemies I think, but I didn't pay attention
) which you can then use to activate abilities that buff your active skills on the next strike. It's certainly original, and gives you something else to do during combat other than just click, but I like to be able to zone out when I'm hacking shit to pieces, and I also thought the abilities would allow you to customize your skills with permanent bonuses so I was quite butthurt to find out that wasn't the case.
- katarina's dialogue is fine but her actual abilities... her skill tree consists almost entirely of more buffs to you. What the fuck is the point, put that shit in my skill tree and let me use her skill tree to boost HER. I'm guessing this also pretty much means that making her a melee tank is out of the question. Individual monsters aren't that tough but when you have 20 of them gang banging you to death with nothing but some shitty armor between you and them...
Played for about an hour. Impressions:
+ Love atmosphere the setting. I'd love to play a TES style game in something like this.
+ Melee combat feels good. Attacks have impact and the right blend of slashing noises and gore.
+ Borrowed a bunch of useful stuff from other arpgs, like sending your companion back to town to sell and buy shit.
+ Areas feel quite small but are packed with monsters, which means it's not uncommon to fight a couple dozen of them at the time. This probably shortens the game considerably. I don't mind, I don't have the same patience I had in my youth when I played diablo 2 for months on end (if not years), but if you're looking for a lengthy game this probably isn't it, although i'll probably end up replaying it at least once as a ranged character.
+ Much like Divinity the game doesn't take itself too seriously. That might irk some people, but I don't think an entirely serious take would work all that well with the setting. Plus, there's some genuinely amusing stuff, like one of the couple dozen potato rednecks who accost you at the beginning exclaiming that he wants your hat.
- I didn't like the gunplay, but I'm going for a pure melee build so I didn't try it much. Will update on second playthrough with more thorough impressions.
- I hate the rage system. You build up rage by fighting (killing enemies I think, but I didn't pay attention
) which you can then use to activate abilities that buff your active skills on the next strike. It's certainly original, and gives you something else to do during combat other than just click, but I like to be able to zone out when I'm hacking shit to pieces, and I also thought the abilities would allow you to customize your skills with permanent bonuses so I was quite butthurt to find out that wasn't the case.- katarina's dialogue is fine but her actual abilities... her skill tree consists almost entirely of more buffs to you. What the fuck is the point, put that shit in my skill tree and let me use her skill tree to boost HER. I'm guessing this also pretty much means that making her a melee tank is out of the question. Individual monsters aren't that tough but when you have 20 of them gang banging you to death with nothing but some shitty armor between you and them...
The Last Blackguard
Augur
- Joined
- May 15, 2013
- Messages
- 115
Haven't actually played this yet, but I gotta say, I have been waiting on a Van Helsing game for a long time. But in my head, it would be much more like The Witcher, where you would have to investigate your enemies carefully, then engage and overwhelm them with cunning and badassitude. Not this Diablo type stuff.
circ
Arcane
OK. Played this for 3-4 hours. Is that good enough for impressions or do I have to play through it?
I can only think of one good thing about it, Katrina's VO.
Oh, music's quite good too.
The rest, well. Areas are pointless rectangles with very little of interest. Graphics are impressive, if this was 2005-6 or so, ground textures especially are horrible. It might look decent with max settings, but I had to turn most options off, though textures were still supposed to be fairly decent - just to get good fps. Loot is completely pointless - once you've seen what each slot holds, you've pretty much seen it all; only thing that changes are the names and stats, there's no imagination in the visuals at all. Combat is so bad, it will cure insomnia, and skills aren't at all interesting. Oh and animations don't particularly impress either. I'd recommend it if it's part of a bundle and the other games are actually good, otherwise it's not even worth $1. And although it's not a camera/interface/control nightmare like Obsidian games, nor did I spot any bugs, it's just so plain and bland.
I can only think of one good thing about it, Katrina's VO.
Oh, music's quite good too.
The rest, well. Areas are pointless rectangles with very little of interest. Graphics are impressive, if this was 2005-6 or so, ground textures especially are horrible. It might look decent with max settings, but I had to turn most options off, though textures were still supposed to be fairly decent - just to get good fps. Loot is completely pointless - once you've seen what each slot holds, you've pretty much seen it all; only thing that changes are the names and stats, there's no imagination in the visuals at all. Combat is so bad, it will cure insomnia, and skills aren't at all interesting. Oh and animations don't particularly impress either. I'd recommend it if it's part of a bundle and the other games are actually good, otherwise it's not even worth $1. And although it's not a camera/interface/control nightmare like Obsidian games, nor did I spot any bugs, it's just so plain and bland.
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