The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - Catch All

Not sure if anyone else has posted about this - I didnt see it in my basic search. This game has gotten some decent buzz on RPS and is available for preorder through their web site which will provide you a STEAM key to play the closed beta. If you enjoy a good Action RPG than The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is probably worth your time.

Looks like this came out this week. Anyone jump in on it? Force seems to be thumbs up on it:

Yep - downloaded it yesterday. Haven't had a chance to play it properly yet but it makes a good first impression (apart from the voice acting).

* I like what they've done with the companion (Katarina the Ghost) especially - she works much the same as Torchlight's pets but you can set her to automatically collect gold and items of a specified level (either by rarity or by setting a minimum gold value limit) and also do that 'pet' thing to send her back to town to sell items (apparently ghosts are no big deal around here) and come back with a pre-set number of healing/mana potions.

* Doesn't seem to take it self at all seriously, which is nice. Lots of banter between Van Helsing and Katarina who don't really like each other very much.

* Also looks really good for a game that only costs a bit more than £10!

I'm loving the game, It's rather challenging which is nice change of pace. I'm struggling to survive in the area past the first town. I believe I've locked down somewhat of a survivablity build at the moment that really letting me sit and beat on things.

Slytin wrote:

I'm loving the game, It's rather challenging which is nice change of pace. I'm struggling to survive in the area past the first town. I believe I've locked down somewhat of a survivablity build at the moment that really letting me sit and beat on things. ;)

Good to hear! I think I've found something to keep me occupied this Memorial Day...

For a budget game I'm really impressed with this so far. There seems to be a ton of little side things to do, the loot is flowing freely and there's some pretty good witty banter between our hero and his ghostly guardian. The music's pretty good too it's got a bit of a "Sherlock" vibe to it.

It's a LITTLE bit choppy on my PC when there's a lot happening on-screen at once so I might have to tone down some settings but other than that, few complaints as of yet.

Yeah for 14 bucks you couldn't ask for better.

Woah! Haven't even heard of this game before today but it looks like it could be a lot of fun!

Ugh, I'd convinced myself out of getting this, but you guys are dragging me back into considering it again!

Interesting, might dl it tonight to see what it plays like.

There's some neat concept art on the dev blog! I've also enjoyed the enormously hairy puss-puss that surfaces randomly amongst the game shots.

IMAGE(http://www.pucemoose.com/pics/superpuss.jpg)

Some questions:
1) Can you zoom the camera in farther than what you see in most of the shots? (zooming in to see animations, character detail, etc.)
2) Any HUD customization? Can we disable damage/random numbers/XP popping out of enemies/enemy health bars/HUD opacity fade?
3) Respawn? Is it possible to clear an area, or are enemies constantly respawning around you?

Puce Moose wrote:

Some questions:
1) Can you zoom the camera in farther than what you see in most of the shots? (zooming in to see animations, character detail, etc.)
2) Any HUD customization? Can we disable damage/random numbers/XP popping out of enemies/enemy health bars/HUD opacity fade?
3) Respawn? Is it possible to clear an area, or are enemies constantly respawning around you?

1) You can zoom in closer with the mousewheel. You also get a full screen view of your current Van Helsing on the main menu, Torchlight style.

2) numbers, health bars etc seem off by default but appear when you are hovering over things with a mouse. You can set them to permanently on in the menu. No HUD customisation as far as I can tell, apart from changing transparency of the overlay map.

3) No respawn, areas stay cleared.

*

getting a good response from user reviews on metacritic as well (at the time of posting this at least). Not many official reviews yet.

Sounds like there's some issues to be aware of with the current build. Characters being deleted, massive frame drops when launching through Steam, CTD problems...

I'm sure it'll all get cleared up, but caveat emptor. I'll probably hang back a week or two before picking up.

The places video is really nice.

I so desperately want a Fallout 3 or Fallout 3 / Dishonoured hybrid version in this universe.

UMOarsman wrote:

Sounds like there's some issues to be aware of with the current build. Characters being deleted, massive frame drops when launching through Steam, CTD problems...

I'm sure it'll all get cleared up, but caveat emptor. I'll probably hang back a week or two before picking up.

I have had no issues. Game is quite enjoyable. A steal for the budget price. Love the humor and dialog.

I'm going to need somebody to co-op with when I get to it.
Anyone else hedging at this game?

Good game for the price.. scratches the ARPG itch..

So, there's a vanhelsing movie reboot mentioned as recently as March 2013?

Anyone else finding this game a little on the hard side? Maybe it is just I have no idea what i am trying to do with my build. Well I do want to make a spells focused build and it seems like the game would make itself much easier if I went full body, full melee.

fangblackbone wrote:

Anyone else finding this game a little on the hard side? Maybe it is just I have no idea what i am trying to do with my build. Well I do want to make a spells focused build and it seems like the game would make itself much easier if I went full body, full melee.

Running. Lots and lots of running is what I do I've specced all points into exploding shot (I think that's what it's called). I didn't put anything into melee as I found I was getting destroyed. Not that the game is easy by any means but it's manageable. I did also find one green piece, a set piece, that was considerably stronger than what I had previously. I am playing on the hardest difficulty that is not hardcore.

fangblackbone wrote:

Anyone else finding this game a little on the hard side? Maybe it is just I have no idea what i am trying to do with my build. Well I do want to make a spells focused build and it seems like the game would make itself much easier if I went full body, full melee.

It is all how you build. Ranged seems easier unless you drop points into your health and strength and drop points in Katerinas skill that adds to your defense. Judicious use of potions and your heal skill will also be required if you want to go melee. If you do go melee dont waste points on some of the range stuff - drop points in lightning sword and keep your base attack maxed out. Look for equipment or skills that add health on hit etc...

I hit a wall with the tunnel worm.. tried to respec to a better melee build and still the spiders tear me up in seconds.. plus they slow you down with their ranged attacks.. seems almost impossible.. saw a video on youtube where the Melee build character had some sort of run speed Talent.. but I can't find that for sale anywhere.

Plus no seemingly way to grind up levels.. all the maps are clear.

TheGameguru wrote:

I hit a wall with the tunnel worm.. tried to respec to a better melee build and still the spiders tear me up in seconds.. plus they slow you down with their ranged attacks.. seems almost impossible.. saw a video on youtube where the Melee build character had some sort of run speed Talent.. but I can't find that for sale anywhere.

Plus no seemingly way to grind up levels.. all the maps are clear.

Yeah - the designers recognized the no grind flaw and were supposedly looking to address. Best advice is use the basic range skill to thin the crowd (involves lots of running away smartly) and then wading into melee when you can. I have two builds - one that is almost pure range and then a balance between melee and range - this seems to work well. I start off with range and then switch to the Electric sword and stock sword attack with the health on hit. YMMV.

TheGameguru wrote:

I hit a wall with the tunnel worm.. tried to respec to a better melee build and still the spiders tear me up in seconds.. plus they slow you down with their ranged attacks.. seems almost impossible.. saw a video on youtube where the Melee build character had some sort of run speed Talent.. but I can't find that for sale anywhere.

Plus no seemingly way to grind up levels.. all the maps are clear.

I'm not sure how you can do that solo. If you want help (and are playing on the same difficulty level as I am) let me know and I'd be happy to help.

Just picked this game out and so far I'm really digging it. I like the less cartoon graphics as compared to Torchlight 2. So is there much multiplayer going on with it?

Docjoe wrote:

Just picked this game out and so far I'm really digging it. I like the less cartoon graphics as compared to Torchlight 2. So is there much multiplayer going on with it?

If you have that itch, let me know. It might be just the thing that gets me over the hump...

Was really enjoying the game but noticed stuttering getting worse and worse. Turned the settins down to very low and that helped for a bit. Got to the swamp and the game became unplayable. 2 second pause any time anything was picked up. Load times were horrendous the whole time too. Looked this up and seems that I should be playing the game through the x86.exe. Noticed a huge boost in load times and have started to ramp up the graphics. Amazing how fun the game is when it's smooth.

Just beat it.

Managed to get through going ranged on one of the harder difficulties. Had over 1000 DPS with my regular attack and just under 1300 with one of my skills. Only used two skills; the small AOE ranged attack and the frozen bullet. Worked great. Maxed the primary attack, those two skills, the one that increases my rage, put 5 points in the next two down that line, and put a few points in the life steal passive, trick cooldown passive, and two more points in the heal. Used Heal and the time stopper as tricks. Easily slaughtered the last boss but took a lot of kiting.

Super fun little game. The title fits well and I think this could be a good way of delivering hack'n slash games. Smaller chunks based around 1-2 environments. Prevents massive burnout and keeps prices down. Treat the rest as level packs featuring new adventures and increase the level cap each time.

I've been playing this recently and enjoying it. I think I paid $5 or so for it during the summer Steam sale. It's a fun ARPG, and like earlier posters mentioned, harder than I expected. Lots of kiting so far. And the Destructoid review is really too harsh. If the story is no worse than in any version of Diablo, you can't really criticize it, in my opinion.

concentric wrote:

I've been playing this recently and enjoying it. I think I paid $5 or so for it during the summer Steam sale. It's a fun ARPG, and like earlier posters mentioned, harder than I expected. Lots of kiting so far. And the Destructoid review is really too harsh. If the story is no worse than in any version of Diablo, you can't really criticize it, in my opinion.

I'd argue the story is better because it's aware of its ridiculousness. Diablo 3's story is just serious and bad.

Vector wrote:
concentric wrote:

I've been playing this recently and enjoying it. I think I paid $5 or so for it during the summer Steam sale. It's a fun ARPG, and like earlier posters mentioned, harder than I expected. Lots of kiting so far. And the Destructoid review is really too harsh. If the story is no worse than in any version of Diablo, you can't really criticize it, in my opinion.

I'd argue the story is better because it's aware of its ridiculousness. Diablo 3's story is just serious and bad.

So true. I agree.

ETA: I am enjoying this just as much ~8 hours in. Great, mindless fun, and the graphics are beautiful. The game does have a sense of humor about itself as well; that makes it all go down more easily.