Developer: NeocoreGames
Publisher: NeocoreGames
Platform: PC
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II – Review
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II is the second installment in the Van Helsing series. It continues where the last game ended and it’s of course packed with witty dialogue, arrogant hunters, betrayal, action and most important: Easter eggs! Everything from the Bat sign to Saving Private Bryan, you order, they deliver!
Story
The story in Van Helsing II builds further on the story of the first game. In the first game you defeated a mad scientist in order to free the land, but defeating the leader doesn’t always mean the end of the war… General Harker, a “colleague” of the scientist you killed, has been released from his prison and is uniting the remainder of the scientist’s army. With this army, he plans on destroying Borgova once and for all. Your job of course is to stop him. The game starts off by meeting a new ally, Prisoner Seven. Prisoner Seven is the result of being a test subject of a mad scientist. But be wary, you aren’t the only one behind a mask. Once you get outside, you find out Harker is trying to get rid of you and your comrades by trying to take over the Viaduct Junction, the area where you are residing. You make a valiant effort to defend the Junction but you are forced to fall back into a secret hideout. Harker makes quick work of trying to find you and he builds a giant drill that will completely destroy the hideout, you then continue to destroy the drill and after that destroy Harker. You won! Right? Remember our friend Prisoner Seven? Yeah, he’ll be seen in the third game for sure.
Graphics
Graphics in this game are controversial. Why? Well, the environment is sometimes not greatly detailed. Abilities, environmental explosions and weather however are awesome. It’s of course not easy to put great detail into the environment, but it would be nice if the environment would be as cool as the abilities. It doesn’t feel greatly optimized either, running at a steady 60 fps and suddenly dropping to 10 when extreme weather conditions hit is not fun at all.
Sound
Music and sound effects are one of the best features in this game. Abilities have amazing sound effects and voice acting is pretty good. The music is what finishes the game though, it’s simply great.
They really went all out on composing the music, it makes the game feel so epic when you have the right music at the right time. Epic music and huge battles is what won me over into loving this game. Monsters, abilities, voice acting, nothing is re-used. Every sound that you hear from the minute you start the game will be a new one. From falling icicles of a blizzard to Alpen winds in the high mountains, simply amazing.
Gameplay
There is a lot of gameplay and mechanics to this game, so I’m going to break it up into a few chunks.
The classes
You can either start the game at level 1 for the full experience or start from level 30, where the previous game ended. At level 1 you have the choice between Hunter, Thaumaturge and Arcane Mechanic. The Hunter is your classic monster killer, armed with blades and firearms. The Thaumaturge is a mage and the Arcane Mechanic is a new breed of Hunter, he mixes science with firepower, utilizing a hand canon and powerful gadgets.
When choosing to start at level 30, the game made a few sub-classes for you, but of course, they could have made 20 builds and there would still be plenty of creativity left for you. Each class is split into 2 sub-classes. The Hunter either specializes in melee or ranged, the Thaumaturge specializes in direct damage or kiting and then there’s the Arcane Mechanic, armed with medium to long range cannon attacks or with awesome gadgets that protect him!
If you played the previous game, you can import your old character! If you are a little bit more creative, you can start from scratch, completely building your character the way you want and buying a full gear set.
The basics
The basics of this game are pretty simple. Move with left click, abilities are numbers 1-6 and left/right click (when targeting monsters). You of course have an inventory with a few tabs, a journal, skill window, character window, perks, … the works! You also have a permanent companion with you named Lady Katarina, she can be a pain sometimes. But as hard as it is to admit, you can’t imagine your lives without each other!
There are also a few difficulties available, and the ramp up quickly, so watch out with that hardcore character on your first playthrough!
Levelling and skills
The levelling is pretty basic, kill monsters, do quests, get experience. As you level up, Lady Katarina will also level. Each level will give you a few points to spend into your character tree and skill tree. Killing unique mobs, champions and bosses will also give you reputation which you can use to acquire perks.
First, you have your character tree, this is simply putting points into body (hp/survival), dexterity (melee), willpower (mage) or luck (crit damage/magic and gold find).
Then you have the skill tree. The skill tree is huge and countless amounts of builds can be made. You usually have 4 tabs: the first 2 are dependent on your class. Then there are tricks and auras. The first 2 tabs are where you acquire your damaging skills or buffs for your specific build, with a wide variety of skills available, possibilities are endless! Tricks are, well, tricks! They can be used to heal, summon copies of Lady Katarina, slow down time, make yourself invisible, make yourself invulnerable to damage, … Again, there are a lot of choices to be made here. Then there are the auras, these are buffs that are active at all times. Be wary though, you can only have 3 auras up at the same time. Each ability, trick and aura can be leveled up to a certain cap, this will give the abilities increased effects and it unlocks its masteries.
That was pretty simple, right? Well, that’s where the simple part ends. Every skill, trick or aura can be mastered twice. Each mastery gives a new effect to the spell and requires a certain spell level in order to learn. These masteries can include AoE healing, less cooldown for that spell, extra mana regen for a few seconds after activating, etc. Each melee and magic skill can also have “rage mastery”. Rage is a resource that is used to enhance your offensive abilities. Rage can be spent by pressing spacebar and the enhancement only works for your next spell cast, regaining rage can be done by killing monsters. The enhancements are completely up to you to choose and again: a wide variety is available!
At last, there’s the perks, these are little enhancements to your character that make your overall character better. You can increase character points, gain extra skill points, get more HP out of your potions, get extra mana regen etc.
So, that’s it, right? Not really… You have to do the same thing for Lady Katarina: you can specialize her as a support, a ranged companion or a close range warrior!
As you might have noticed, it takes a skilled and creative mind to make a good build. If you’re unsure or if you’re new to the game, you’re better off selecting one of the pre-built characters and building further upon it. The builds are amazing!
Game Mechanics
There are a lot of (optional) little game mechanics that will improve your gear or your overall experience of the game. First there’s the Chimera. The Chimera is a beast that you will encounter if you play through the story, when you defeat it, you can keep it as a pet and send it out for missions in order to get extra money and loot. You can also summon it to battle if it’s not out on a mission! Then there’s the Resistance Management, this can also be used to gain extra experience, loot and gold but it’s a little bit more advanced. You have a couple of commanders, you can use these commanders and level them by sending them out on missions together with soldiers you have to train (up to a certain cap). You can also improve your soldier’s equipment to increase your chances of success!
There are also a few mechanics to improve your gear, but I won’t go greatly into detail on those. Basically you can gem, enchant, reforge, combine, craft, transform and disenchant your gear. All with the purpose to get your items stronger and stronger!
You also have a trophy room, acquiring certain achievements or killing certain monsters will give you an artefact. You can activate up to 3 artefacts at the same time. Artefacts will always give a positive and negative effect, so be careful!
Game modes
The game modes featured in this game are either singleplayer or multiplayer. After you completed the story, you can enter the “endless story mode”, which basically starts you from the beginning again. Also, you can enter “scenarios”. These are basically little challenging story chains that you can complete to get epic gear. In multiplayer, you can play through the story in co-op or you can PvP! The PvP features Hunger Games (attrition battle) and Battle Royale (free for all). Oh, and did I mention there’s a mini game in the story mode? You can play tower defense!
Conclusion
Van Helsing II may seem a lot to take in for a new player, but the game prepares you at your best with its pre-made characters. At first, you might not know what to do, but the basics are pretty easy. The more enhanced options could use more detailed tutorials but with a bit of thinking and fiddling around, it’s easy to master! Van Helsing II is the second successful game in the series, will the third be as good?
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II – Review,
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