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Incline [Van Helsing]Torchlight II and Diablo 3 Killer?

Unwanted

Frian Bargo

Kosmonaut's Alt
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
282
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing


I haven't heard a buzz about it here, but it appears to be all over Steam. Gameplay video looks great. The creature models are reminicent of the original Diablo, but ofcourse jazzed up for today's age. They appear appropriately demonic/gothic enough. Haven't heard gameplay music though.

Anyone here played it? I only care about single player experiences, couldn't give a crap about multiplayer. The only thing against it I would have is that you are stuck with playing Van Helsing. But I am sure you can choose how to evolve him.
 
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Messages
845
Will I be able to forge unique equipment from the souls of slain foes?

Or tan their hides to create armor?
 

Eddard Stark

Educated
Joined
Jun 15, 2006
Messages
48
It's a fun one-time experience. Replayability is almost non-existent though. To summarize: graphics are good, animations are a bit on the cheap side but tolerable, atmosphere is solid, some maps are big and there's quite a bit of secrets/stuff to find, no classes but there's a multi-tiered character progression system in place (attributes, skill trees, passive auras, ticks, perks + companion attributes/skills), an interesting and imo unannoying permanent companion, story is simple but fine for an ARPG (at least dialogues aren't on the uber-retarded level of D3), banter with Katarina is occasionally fun and hilarious, item system is quite good, there's plenty of useful stuff dropping all the time.

All in all, I found it to be a rather good game for one playthrough, especially for the cheap price their asking, and had more fun with it than with D3, on pair with T2. And mind it, I still hate Neocore for the KA2 and was quite sceptical about Van Helsing. They've gone a bit derp since launch though: although they added some free content including a post-main game scenario system, they're also selling a DLC with an extra skill tree for companion, which is complete bullshit. Worst thing is that without that DLC Katarina is quite weak by herself in late game, and mainly serves to boost the player. So, some shady DLC tactics there.
 

circ

Arcane
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
11,470
Location
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Loot tables are boring, you'll see everything after a short while and the later tier equipment isn't that different either visually. There's nothing unique looking that I remember.
Skills are equally boring, if not more so. Made even more boring because your companion's skills are total trash.
No reason whatsoever to buy anything really. Well there were some perks you might want to buy and that's it.
Until about two thirds into the game, the areas are really bad. The designs improve a little bit after that.
Retarded plot that probably tries to be funny even, but I wasn't laughing. Your companion has some giggly lines though I guess.
Dull boss fights. Dull combat in general, as everything after a while just seems like a faceless blob.
Unimpressive graphics that still for some reason require some juice from your system.
Crap VO, though your companion is fine.
Not the worst controls ever, but nothing special either, slight case of the consolitis. UI feels cheap but servicable.
Side quests, and quests too, are really uninspiring. But atleast there aren't that many.

Some good bits would be ability to send your companion to town to sell things. Though every Diablo clone probably has that these days. I seem to remember the music also being far too good for a crap game like this.

Try the demo maybe, if you're not into it after about 30 minutes don't bother because that's pretty much it.
 
Unwanted

Frian Bargo

Kosmonaut's Alt
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
282
It's a fun one-time experience. Replayability is almost non-existent though. To summarize: graphics are good, animations are a bit on the cheap side but tolerable, atmosphere is solid, some maps are big and there's quite a bit of secrets/stuff to find, no classes but there's a multi-tiered character progression system in place (attributes, skill trees, passive auras, ticks, perks + companion attributes/skills), an interesting and imo unannoying permanent companion, story is simple but fine for an ARPG (at least dialogues aren't on the uber-retarded level of D3), banter with Katarina is occasionally fun and hilarious, item system is quite good, there's plenty of useful stuff dropping all the time.

All in all, I found it to be a rather good game for one playthrough, especially for the cheap price their asking, and had more fun with it than with D3, on pair with T2. And mind it, I still hate Neocore for the KA2 and was quite sceptical about Van Helsing. They've gone a bit derp since launch though: although they added some free content including a post-main game scenario system, they're also selling a DLC with an extra skill tree for companion, which is complete bullshit. Worst thing is that without that DLC Katarina is quite weak by herself in late game, and mainly serves to boost the player. So, some shady DLC tactics there.

Thanks for the mini review. You too circ

Can you speak more about the companion? I take it it's a hot babe named Katarina? Also, how can you mold your character? Standard warrior/mage/rogue with tech oriented flavors for all?

Is the game totally linear? Is grinding needed? Do monsters respawn?

Also, this reminds me...there was a vampire game in the works with a sexy female vamp companion. Any news on that?
 

circ

Arcane
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
11,470
Location
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Only one companion - Katarina the ghost. She can do melee or ranged AI, I just stuck to melee. Your own character has the same weapon choices - melee or ranged. There's dual wielding with pistols, but the control isn't optimal, or you can go with pistol+magic offhand, melee+magic, don't think you could do dual-wield melee but I ran around ranged. Also you get pistol or rifle for ranged. Pretty much the same thing, more range on rifle but slower. You should stick to one weapon as you'll be pretty weak otherwise, you can respec though. Skills are for example: elemental magic, elemental magic on bullets and melee. Rapid fire, explosive shot, few other shots. You also get passive skills that are mostly bought + perks of sorts that give passive permanent bonuses, picked every 5 levels or something. They all sound more interesting than they are.

It's mostly linear. Some areas offer different paths but they mostly all lead to the same place. Didn't grind at all, did fine. No on respawn, though I didn't revisit areas, but nothing indicated that that happened. Also once you get to the second hub you can't go back to the first.

Doesn't ring a bell.
 

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