From the first gameplay trailer I pegged exactly what this game was and what it’d be like to play. Most likely you will too if you’ve watched it. And you’d be mostly right. Victor Vran is a dark fantasy set in a mixed Victorian-esque and demonic world, focused on action RPG elements. Along with that comes the usual suspects of demonic monsters, a messed up city and about any other European fantasy cliché you could shake a familiar stick at. A typical RPG in many ways, yet still grasps at some wider gaming elements to give the Victor Vran experience its own (if incredibly familiar) identity.

The gist of the narrative revolves around Victor Vran, a demon hunter who is an expert at dispatching demons. He ventures into the demonic filled city of Zagorovia, where he hopes to find his lost friend. Whilst primarily noble, everything Victor does, and pretty much encompasses as a character, is lacklustre in the narrative presentation. You’re not playing to be swept away by the story, basically, which does its job well enough but won’t keep you coming back. Other aspects of the writing are far more enjoyably interesting, specifically the humour. Next to the moody demon hunter is the Voice, who randomly pops up as a voice in Vran’s head, becoming an annoying companion of sorts for Victor. This comedy relief sidekick’s attempts at evoking laughter are a mixed bag at the best of times.

Eye rolling jokes are occasionally countered by absurd or interesting observational comedy that can be enjoyable. Pokes at illusion of choice, level-locked content in the game world, and occasionally mimicking the style of Bastion’s narrator, all whilst mocking Victor, makes the world a bit more fun to be in, distracting from the rougher edges of it all. It’s a shame the Voice is often annoyingly clunky or too on the nose with its humour that, when it comes down to it, my huffs of disappointment came more frequently than any chuckling I could muster. One such moment was the direct reference to ‘I use to be x, but then I took an arrow to the knee’ and the Voice compliment’s its own wit ironically act at uttering this is, depressingly, what is considered good comedy in this world. It’s a shame, as the Voice’s introduction moments offered a more interesting idea of it being an integral part of the world, akin to an unreliable narrator, but that was a wisp that went away and turned into Jar Jar Binks (though that’s extremely harsh, the Voice is much better).

The game play itself focuses on more action-than-RPG elements, like a fast, hack-and-slash, where you’re reliant on your use of skills and attacks, including dodging strikes in real-time, instead of more traditional and slower, almost turn-based, alternatives. It’s mostly enjoyable to smack stuff about, especially when you dispatch a large number of enemies, though attacks never give as much impact as I feel they could. Another departure from the typical genre confinements is the dropping of classes and instead focusing on weapon ‘loadouts’, similar to FPS games in a way. Swords and hammers can be mixed with lightning guns and scythes and much more, allowing the gameplay to mix between close and long-ranged combat without the need to specialise or stick to one playstyle. None are particularly deep in their application and ability, with a standard arrack mixed with a pair of weapon specific ones offering a limited amount of options to deal with foes. It adds some variety in a typically heavily repetitive style of play, though it’s more enjoyable to play in shorter amounts rather than long sessions.

The fights are primarily focused around tackling swarming enemies, where they shamble towards you and you knock them down as they approach, like some zombie horde you were caught downwind of. The added feature of a roll increases the more kinetic feeling of combat, as well as utilising enemy types that make it a requirement to learn. There are also demon powers which, like the weapons, are interchangeable, offering some extra offensive and defensive choices mid battle if things become a bit too hairy. I rarely remembered they were there at all as, again, they all lack a real sense of impact and aren’t integral to the whole experience. Whilst generally solid, combat ultimately lacked a sense of force behind it, especially as a long amount of time is spent on taking down spiders or skeletons, none of it left me with a particularly special or stand out moment.

Despite those gripes, Victor Vran controls quite well. Even on a gamepad its competent & well put together, distinctively taking advantage of the hack-and-slash genre systems. Graphically it’s decent in conveying the gothic setting it’s inspired by and creates a fairly believable world. The art style is familiar, as is most of the fantasy settings you’ve ever visited. The city in general still suffers under a vast amount of crypts & caves to explore, but occasionally exploring the familiar environments helps change things up slightly. Locations do, however, feel like they have more of a place then some disjointed, separate areas. Each area does contain its own main objective to complete, along with several side quests or challenges which can be found. Typically they involve killing optional bosses or specific enemies in the swarm of endless creatures. Completionists won’t have much difficulty in keeping up with the most strenuous of them, but for everyone else it is a nice addition, giving a bit more of an incentive & focus to the generally senseless monster grinding.

There’s little else to add really. The game felt incredibly familiar, and if you read my review of The Incredible Van Helsing III when it recently released, there are quite a number of moments where my points in there, both compliments and critique, could be applied to Victor Vran. The general design, combat and visuals all hold similar base ideas, like they used a single, shared design document between them but from different perspectives. The UI especially looks like it was designed by the same person. This is not a slate or dig at either game, though. Van Helsing III was entertaining for what it was, as is Victor Vran. Enjoyable time sinks with responsive fighting. They’re just continuing the seemingly never-ending release of dark fantasy, action-RPGs tropes and ideas. Top down views, recycled enemy designs, meaningless side quests.

I’m sort of burned out on these things. Which is why, despite being dark fantasy games, the likes of Dark Souls and Bloodborne don’t heed the genre tropes to the letter, mixing in amazing design and scope which helps to instead widen the vast disturbing imagery and feeling of a dark, fantastical world. Here, there’s little more than what’s been made in the past. I expected something just a little bit different from the developers, Haemimont Games, who are behind the recent Tropico games as they’re a different perspective on strategy games. But you’ve likely played Victor Vran in same shape before, and if you enjoyed those classic RPGs there’s certainly be fun found with Vran and Voice. But this won’t change the minds of those who are already done with the genre. Fans only need apply.

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