Monster hunting. Cheesy horror. Really bonkers guns. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III takes these elements in its vampiric embrace. An old-school, action-RPG and dungeon crawler that takes a light-hearted approach to the often grisly Gothic. As the titular Van Helsing, players lead a resistance group trying to save Borgovia from the bad guy, all the while exploring a world of never ending Gothic references before killing and looting everything in your way.
I’ve been very lax on playing more traditional western RPGs in recent years, and the Van Helsing games had never spoken to me before, even though I was aware of their continual praise. As a newcomer to the series, jumping into the deep end of a trilogy is both intimidating and revealing. I quickly realised how, in my absence, I had become terrible at the genre, but also how the game rekindled my enjoyment of it. In many ways it reminds me of the Dragon Age series’ design, with a greater emphasis on emulating the past nostalgia and traditionalism of role-playing games.
The developers have mentioned they never intended taking the concept of the disturbing elements of the Dracula novel which this is loosely based off too seriously. And it shows, though not in a detrimental way. Thematically, everything is Gothic at its base but with many exaggerations to them. The game’s overall look is less clichéd steampunk and more ‘electricpunk’, with lightning guns and mech suits that remind me of XCOM: Enemy Unknown units if they’d been made during the Victorian era of ‘weird science’. It still has an unfortunate number of the traditional trappings though, like the bland fantasy environments of forests and dungeons, but puts a distinct visual design to them. At times it can even be fairly colourful which extends into the characters.
There are a handful of unique classes to choose from at the start of the game, with the strangest names I’ve ever read (Phlogistoneer sounds like a bad cold). The design of each class obviously had dedicated time put into making them distinct from one another. Though all are based on traditional fantasy classes, the look and unique abilities they gain help avoid being purely warrior/mage/rogue, and are more like a combination of all three. The enemies feel less cohesive and more akin to throwaway concept art. Maybe it’s the likes of the recent Bloodborne and The Witcher 3 revitalising the look of mythical European creatures, but none of the enemies in Van Helsing III are terribly memorable. Stitched together Frankenstein’s monsters, cultists in robes, giant frog monsters. They fit into the gothic fantasy setting well enough, but without sparking any sense of individuality about them. As they swarm towards the player, it’s hard to see them as anything more than various sized wasps that need to be swatted.
The game’s writing is mostly enjoyable, and though the game prides itself on its carefree jokes and references, some are a bit hit-and-miss. As I wrote earlier the environments are often plain. The opening area is especially, as it’s a stereotypical mad scientist’s laboratory, with Tesla coil things, tubs of chemicals and failed experiments on slabs. Eventually a bit of banter occurs with your companion, the spectral Lady Katerina, and the conversation mentions the clichéd setting you’re walking around in, openly mocking it. What’s infuriating is I was still made to go through the lab after the game was making fun of how boring and stale it was. You don’t joke at the bad points of game design and then make people play it. The humour just slips into frustration. Yet often the humour does hit the right spot, poking fun at other vampire characters and wider popular culture, whilst also subverting the usually gruesome gothic with something more cheerful.
Initially playing Van Helsing III was a bit all over the place for me. Starting as the Bounty Hunter class I found myself constantly retreating to shoot from afar, as is the character’s speciality, since any close combat resulted in my death. The problem was I kept dying quite easily and frequently. Eventually I was in the rhythm of respawning, spamming attacks until I died, before eventually avenging myself by killing whatever killed me. And that’s how I spent my first hour. I was baffled. Surely I was doing this wrong, though as a new player I wasn’t quite sure if this was just how the game was played. The lack of more in-depth tutorials, rather than reams of pop-up text or occasionally confusing journal entries, made the barrier to entry too high for me to understand.
Everything in the game is set-up for fans of the series, and newcomers will just have to deal with it as nothing was made to cater to them. Eventually, I began experimenting with the numerous menus and ways to customise before I finally understood the game had (essentially) a basic attack button that I wasn’t clicking fast enough. Everything soon fell into place and the game became fun, as clicking rapidly on enemies and crowd control became engaging.
Though most basic RPG combat is typically reduced to key-bashing numbness, there’s some flexibility here. Players are rewarded for playing to a character class’ strength and utilising all their abilities, rather than slashing like a lunatic and relying on the same special abilities. The Protector class can raise their shield to gain bonuses to their subsequent attacks and the Bounty Hunter gains bonuses for standing still and far away from enemies. The basic mechanics of each class are distinct and deep enough to make each enjoyable and rewarding. However, the play-styles don’t progress much passed their initial setup. Unlike Dragon Age which evolves its class’ abilities to give each a unique, extra attribute that change how you use them, Van Helsing III is purely based around increasing numbers and percentages. Slightly more damage, one extra attack, a slightly shorter cooldown, longer poison or burning effects. It’s a mechanic that features way too much maths for a game which classes itself as ‘action’. A dated aspect that could have been more intriguing if modernised.
Even though players are able to use a console controller, (I tested an Xbox 360 pad) it’s flawed. In almost every sense the controls fought against me or were just unusable. There was an obvious attempt put into integrating controllers as a separate UI has been designed for use with them, but menus are clunky to navigate and the general gameplay is often unresponsive. I stuck to the mouse and keyboard it was clearly designed around and everything felt much better for it. Unless a patch rectifies the controller issues, I can’t ever see it becoming the couch game it has the potential to be.
Regardless of the way you wish to control the game, the general navigation and combat can at times be difficult or boring as the camera is set at a fixed, birds-eye view of the word. Enemies can ambush you from below the screen and the HUD can sometimes get in the way of fighting on the bottom half of the screen, as I occasionally opened new windows and tabs I never wanted. The levels themselves felt a bit stilted, considering the world is primarily made up of square rooms and rectangular corridors, as if I was playing on a grid instead of in a fleshed-out world.
Despite the near-constant fighting, there’s a bit of down time from the dungeon crawling at the resistance’s home base, where players can manage missions and such for their forces. Exactly like what Dragon Age: Inquisition did, even down to the ability to send your forces on a real-time mission to complete to get you equipment. It’s an occasionally nice distraction, and having a central area where you can access shops, upgrades, missions and so on, is just really nice. The hub is another way the game keeps you busy and interacting with the world, without it being exclusively about fighting.
Van Helsing III also features multiplayer, with either 4 player cooperative or 8 player competitive modes. Teaming up to face the monster hordes means joining or hosting a game based around the story mode or extra tough scenarios. Little changes from the main game, apart from adding someone to help you in the world which makes everything incredibly easier. And obviously playing with friends, or even strangers, is going to be more enjoyable. There’s also a PvP arena style mode which, again, hinges on the people you join up with. The main issue with the multiplayer is finding other people to play with as the community is quite small and I imagine more focused on singleplayer, though when you do, the connection is smooth and stable.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III offers what its spiritual and literal predecessors have, with a little more on top. A continuation of what A-RPGs use to be and are still good at doing. Extensive personal customisation, continually engaging and fast and just fun. Something any fans of the genre will enjoy. However, through its attempt to emulate the great features of the past, it also brings the flaws. More modernisation in the overall design would’ve made the game much more enjoyable and accessible for newcomers. Ultimately though, the time I spent with Van Helsing III rejuvenated my interest in coming out of my self-imposed exile of classic RPGs and enjoying them for what they are.