A year after the release of Blizzard’s excellent Diablo III, both a PC and Xbox 360 reached a title of an almost unknown Hungarian studio that, in the form of a trilogy and immersed in the universe of Bram Stoker and his character Van Helsing, promised to be nothing less than the “Diablo III Killer” or the “Anti-Devil”.
A qualification that, with more or less success, already predisposed the collective of players to confront both titles. The result was clear. The “Triple A” of Blizzard swept the independent game in all aspects. The biggest advantage was in the technical section, but also left him far behind in fundamental issues for an RPG as the “balance” of damage, the progression of the difficulty, the multiplayer …
“The incredible adventures of Van Helsing” did not become the title that dethroned the King and it is still debatable if the maneuver to sell it as capable of achieving it worked in favor or against the product of NeocoreGames. At that time, he faced two excellent Rol games and it was debated which was better. The balance clearly inclined in favor of Diablo, although, and it is where
we want to go, the confrontation took place between a title with years of development and a huge technical, personal and economic investment against another totally independent, the work of a small study from Budapest and that went on the market for a quarter of the price of the first.
That was the circumstance that made us look forward to the continuation of the saga and put great hope in this second installment that we analyze today.
Exactly one year later comes to our PC the continuation of the chronicles of the son of that doctor Van Helsing who, together with the paradigmatic Count Dracula, allowed Bram Stoker to convert nineteenth-century Eastern European folklore into an outstanding part of the popular culture of the later centuries and perhaps the most relevant in terms of the horror genre.
However, the young Van Helsing has little to do with his tormented father when facing face to face with the monsters and adopts the role of “multifunction” hunter that in recent years we have seen in the cinema played by Hugh Jackman and that nothing it has to do with the original character.
The game presents us with an “army of one man” where the young Van Helsing can choose which specialization will be the most convenient to eliminate the tens of thousands of enemies that will be eliminated in the adventure. Spells, bladed weapons, firearms, poisons, magic … little to do with sticking a stake through the heart, of course.
The excuse to do so will be again the confrontation that takes place between humanity and science in the face of monsters and magic, trapping
Van Helsing between both fronts and forcing him, as it can not be otherwise, to become the fundamental piece that resolve the conflict by fulfilling hundreds of missions, of greater or lesser relevance, but always entailing facing alone a horde after a horde of enemies, at each moment more fearsome and lethal.
We return to count on the fundamental help of our beloved Katarina, who after death accompanies us in her spectral form and who is able to alternate her presence cordial and animated conversation, with that of a demon that is a threat to enemies almost as big as is Van Helsing himself. The scenarios are kept in the fictitious region of Borgovia, recreation with an evident
“steam punk” influence of the Romania of the early twentieth century, and alternate between outdoor areas, such as forests and frozen wastelands, with interiors, such as the Gothic streets and dark of the capital, Borgova, and its underground and catacombs.
