How to begin...

The first impression of the game wasn't that great. A rather generic forest area with expectable enemies didn't get my hopes up too high, but after around an hour the game gained a lot in both presentation and interesting content. For around 7-8 hours afterwards you are in for a great ride with excellent graphics, music and quests. Your companion really adds to game and lifts it above most Diablo clones. Sadly at a certain point the game turns into a pure grind fest and the content runs thin, very thin. The final battle is over the top hard and while it's certainly finishable, nothing in the game prepares you for it.

A lot of great ideas and lovely designed areas will keep you entertained for a few hours and if you can forgive the game a rather rushed/forced ending, I'd say it's a really good hack 'n slash RPG.

Pro:
- Great design
- Atmospheric music
- Interesting skill system
- Sarcastic and entertaining companion

Con:
- Too short and yet it still feels lengthy in the last 1/4 of the game
- Crashes occasionally

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is a third person hack and slash game very similar to the Diablo / Torchlight series. If you’ve played any of those, you should be able to drop right into Van Helsing with a good idea of how to play. The game seems pretty demanding hardware wise, and it heats up my computer, which is unusual for a top down isometric game.

You play the title character Van Helsing, a monster hunter on a mission to the country of Borgovia to answer a distress letter. It seems some unspecified evil is causing trouble for the people there. In the game’s world, monsters seem pretty commonplace, and you are actually accompanied on your quest by a snarky ghost named Lady Katarina. Gameplay-wise Lady Katarina is the equivalent of the “pet” in Torchlight, or a “merc” in Diablo 2, except that she talks to you all the time as part of the story. She has her own gear/stats/skills and can go back to town to sell loot for you, just like the pet in Torchlight. In combat she can hold her own for a while, but dies pretty quickly later on in the game.

The game is broken up into 2 city hubs like Diablo 2 Acts, each with its own main town, NPC shops, and quests. The game is filled with little hidden quests that you may not find in 1 playthrough, even though the maps are not randomly generated. I’ve finished 2 characters and the maps were exactly the same both times. There is an option in the main menu to have enemies respawn each time you leave and re-enter a game (like Diablo 2), and you can turn this on or off whenever you want. Like Diablo 2, you can’t see what level the enemies are, but if you’re having a hard time, you should probably go back and level up a little more. This isn’t possible if the enemies don’t respawn. In my experience if you don’t grind at least a few levels, you’ll end the game around level 27 (max level is 30).

The game has an extensive loot system similar to Diablo/Torchlight with normal/rare/set/epic item types as well as “+magic find%” attributes that can be found on gear to boost your chances of getting rarer items. There is also a way to upgrade particular items with “essence” which is kind of like gems in Diablo, or ember in Torchlight. I haven’t used the system much since every time I find a better weapon I just sell the old one, and don’t bother breaking it down for all the essences that I’ve put into it.

The game’s stat system should be familiar to people who play dungeon crawler games. Body (hp / melee damage), Dexterity (dodge chance / range damage), Willpower (magic damage/ mana), and Luck (critical damage / magic find) are your four stats and you get 5 per level up to distribute as you please. The skill system is more complicated because you don’t just choose skills (which can cost more than 1 skill point), you can also choose the “power ups” that can be used with the skills. These power ups are activated before you cast the skill, and use a “rage” meter which is separate from your mana bar. You build rage by killing monsters while mana just regenerates by itself. So an example would be activating a damage boost power up right before casting a lightning bolt spell. The power up drains some of your rage bar and the spell drains some of your mana bar with the result being a lightning bolt with increased damage. You can toggle an auto-activate to your power ups if you don’t want to deal with pressing the button every time. You’ll probably run out of rage really quickly though.

Another thing to note about the skill system is that your skills are broken up into several categories, though they all take skill points to level up. There are your main Skills, Auras, and Tricks. Auras are passive boosts that you have on permanently, though you can only have 2 auras active at any time. An example would be the Rampage aura which boosts your critical hit damage. Tricks are just another set of skills and personally I don’t see why they were separated from the other skills, except that they don’t use mana. An example would be Arcane Healing, which is an area affecting heal spell. Tricks have a cool down to prevent you from constantly spamming them.

Pros:
+Decent story set in a medieval fantasy world.
+Gameplay is mostly intuitive though some things really could benefit from further explanation. For example there is no explanation of the skill system. I went about 5 – 6 levels before I put points into any skills because I was afraid I might be wasting points on weak skills. Turns out you can re-spec them later, so go wild.
+Pretty simple multi player co-op system. I’m able to join my brother’s game pretty quickly and easily with an average ping of 80 ms. One thing I noticed is that the game’s multiplayer server browser doesn’t tell you if a person’s game has a password until you’ve tried connecting to it. That’s kind of dumb. A bunch of people constantly try connecting to my brother and my games and disconnecting because they don’t know the password.

Cons:
-There is very little information online for beginners. In most games of this type, you can find a wiki or strategy website where people share their character builds. I found one site like this, but a lot of the info is outdated. In RPG games I hate feeling like I missed out on something cool.

If you got this game from the Humble Jumbo 2 bundle, you should have the “Complete Pack” which includes the Thaumaturge and Arcane Mechanic DLCs. These DLCs are 2 new character classes along with a few class specific quests. That means you can see a few areas in the game that you can’t get into unless you’re one of these 2 new classes. The Thaumaturge is a pure spell caster and is probably the most enjoyable class, but easily killed. The Arcane Mechanic is a ranged attacker who shoots slow moving grenades and can summon support units. The base class Hunter is a little bit of everything, but really best as a melee tank with some back up spells.

I’ve heard people say that the game is pretty short, but personally I’m happy with a 12 hour game, especially one in the $1 tier of a humble bundle. I'm actually glad it doesn't have an end game grind like Diablo, where you just play over and over looking for better gear after you've finished the main storyline. Van Helsing also has a hardcore mode for people who want that extra element of risk (death is permanent). I never have and probably never will create a hardcore character since I die all the time in games like this. Overall I give the game a thumbs up if you enjoy hack and slash dungeon crawlers. You’ll find the graphics comparable with Path of Exile, and the loot finding should keep you occupied for a while.

If u thought Van Helsing the movie was not good, then this game is the movie you wanted to see.
If u thought Van Helsing the movie was decent, then this game will make you feel like you were indeed cheated of your money.
If u thought Van Helsing the movie was good, then this game will seem like a better version of the movie.
If u thought Van Helsing the movie was excellent, then lets face it, you dont have that great taste in movies...

Beside the Torchlight franchise, Titan Quest and the free Path of Exile NeocoreGames' Van Helsing represents another alternative for those finding the latest Diablo entry a bit too casual. What's more is that while Van Helsing is shorter than aforementioned hack 'n' slash games it still offers a decent story and a lot of content. Due to the additional game modes (scenario and neverending story) it has a high replayability value, as well.

The game follows a quest of Van Helsing and his companion, the ghost Katharina, who try to get to Borgovia to stop a mad scientist. Along the way you encounter dozens of different enemies throughout numerous different environments. Some of these locales look stunningly beautiful: you traverse through a muddy forest fighting hideous monsters and evil spirits and also join the resistance in a town to fight the soldier-machines. These machines add the steampunk part of the game - with all the traps and contraptions you find they make the game even more diverse.

One of the things I liked about Van Helsing was its atmosphere. Sound effects and the score are excellent and I liked the sarcastic conversations between Helsing and Katharina. One-liners are common from them as well as from enemies and there are numerous references to other video games and films throughout the game. In order to find all of them it's worth hovering the cursor over all objects in every environment - Van Helsing might collect a quest item or just make a funny comment.

There are many sidemissions, of course, as it is common in this genre and there's even one that takes you throughout the game. You just need to carefully look everywhere and open all chests, containers, destroy all barrels and boxes as you might find the next piece of the puzzle. It's worth mentioning, though, that not all items are related to a quest, still, they will be part of the corresponding tab in your inventory.

Normally, Van Helsing wields two swords and two pistols. You can decide which way to go from there in terms of customisation. Beside these two tabs there is also one called Tricks (active spells) and Auras (passive skills). Every level-up grants you ability points (the good-old attributes we are talking about here), skill points and occasionally reputation points, but the latter is not related to quest but more to the annihilation of strong beasts. Your reputation can then yields you perks - the list is gradually increasing and you can pick more and more of them along the way.

Katharina, the ghost companion is a bit similar to the pet we have in Torchlight. She can do the shopping on behalf of us and can also pick up loot by category. Her behaviour is completely modifiable. Of course, she has many skills and also attributes - her skills either make her stronger or support Van Helsing in combat.

While there are no other companions in the game the abovementioned customisation I described for Van Helsing is the Hunter class only. With the added DLCs you can play as a Thaumaturge or Arcane Mechanic. I hear they are pretty fun and diverse, too, so this is all the more in favour of the longevity of this game.

Van Helsing is pretty cool game considering it is a relatively low-budget hack 'n' slash. It is filled with content and there's high replayability due to the 3 different classes, more difficulty levels, hardcore mode, online cooperative mode in the game. I look forward to playing with its sequel. In the meantime, if you are the fan of the genre Van Helsing should be in your library. Word of advice: buckle up as the game can be pretty challenging even on normal difficulty setting!

Great game if you enjoy playing Diablo-like games or just the idea of playing a Van Helsing game!
The graphics aren't too amazing, the story is short but good, and the gameplay is loads of fun!

Only downside of this game for me was that it likes to crash... Looked up a bunch of fixes and tried all kinds of things, yet it still crashes when you're in the middle of combat. There are a few more people who reported this problem, but I wasn't able to find a permanent fix.

I do recommend giving this game a try, if you can deal with some crashes that might happen. (:

Enjoyable action-rpg with a lot of enemies to destroy, many secrets to discover and witty dialogue between Van Helsing and his companion Katarina. The game is also complemented by beautiful visuals and an amazing soundtrack, it's overall performance/optimization could be better though...

Rating - 84/100
Recommendation - There's something for everyone. Even non-ARPG-fans.

It is a travesty how far under the radar this game has flown. Even rather diehard ARPG fans have overlooked it, which is not only a sin, but should also be a crime. This game is GREAT.

All the hallmarks of a modern ARPG are here: Hordes and hordes of enemies, quick level-ups, copious perks and skill points, gigantic boss monsters, and a minion you can outfit who levels up alongside you. There are 3 acts, waypoints, hidden quests, socketables, stashes, etc.

Don't go thinking this game is just like every other ARPG, however. There are a number of ways Van Helsing differs from its siblings.

The main surprise for me was how Lady Katarina (Van Helsing's companion) feels like a fully-fledged player character. Her skills can be absurdly powerful, and you can build her to either be completely passive and only provide boosts to Van Helsing, or as a hell-raising destruction machine (with Van Helsing providing boosts to her if wanted). She has a full set of skills, mildly-programmable AI, and nearly the same amount of equipment options as Van Helsing himself. While minions in other games really feel like nothing more than pets, Katarina felt more like a full co-op partner.

Another part that surprised me was the skill system. When you level up, you earn points that you can use to unlock skills and skill upgrades. In battle, you can use your mana to unleash special attacks, and use so-called rage points (you have a rage meter that charges up as you use regular attacks) to add modifiers to your skills. For example, you can use a lightning strike that sends 3 small electric tendrils snaking out along the ground, and you can use your rage points to add additional tendrils, increase the damage, or add a stun effect. Each modifier can be stacked up to 3 times, and the effects can be devastatingly powerful. Rage charges up rather slowly, though, so it's best to save them up for any one of the brutally-difficult boss fights.

Speaking of difficulty, this game skates the same tough-but-doable line that other recent ARPGs (other than Diablo 3) have. It's also worth mentioning that playing in co-op increases the difficulty drastically. I found it much easier when I played in single player, so bring a friend who knows what they're doing.

Overall, I have nothing that I can complain about with this game. The graphics are great, the voice acting is well-done and often hilarious, the multiplayer is stable, the combat is visceral and entertaining, the skill system is unique and robust, the difficulty is even and fair, the story is interesting, the game length is just right, and the whole affair is filled with the mindless slaughtering of countless enemies that you've come to know and love. There are riddles, cultural references, ethereal "rift" sections, and even a few little tower defense distractions.

If you are at all a fan of ARPGs, I honestly cannot recommend it enough. Even if you aren't a fan of the genre, this one does just enough things differently that you will likely find something to enjoy. If not, well, at least it's cheap.

-DrB

I must say i really like The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing.If you like Diablo games or Path of Exile and throw in some Torchlight 2,then im sure you will find this game entertaining.I would highly recommend getting the DLC or a complete pack.So if these games are your cup of tea then i would say give The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing a try :)

If you´re in this sort of game you might wanna try it. Of course in this case you must mention, that there´s a f2p title called "Path of Exile" out there which is constantly supported by the devs and has far more to option, but Van Helsing doesn´t lack in any way, it has it´s own sort of style and universe and worth a play if you can grap it.

Theres 3 Classes you can choose, and a straight storyline to enter, the multiplayer is kinda slow. There´s still some bugs around, but it´s fun and entertaining thru the travel.

I would recommend The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing for those who are into a Hack and Slay concept.

I recently purchased The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Franchise pack and it's exactly the kind of game I've been looking for. Over-the-top monsters, decent world building and (for me) much more fun than Diablo 3. I wanted something that dealt with the supernatural and I wanted to kill a lot of monsters and this game gave me just that. I was already a big fan of the character's history and mythos (even though it's his son in this instance) I was very satisfied to step into the shoes of the world famous monster hunter. On the gameplay side of things, because I'm building strictly for ranged combat I like being able to set the behaviours of my companion Katarina and build her toward being a melee tank complimenting my own playstyle. The controls took a bit of getting used to, but they're quite cleverly implemented in that per shot you can decide which type of special round you'd like to load up into the gun. I'm still only very early into the game, but one of my favourite implementations that they've brought to the genre that I haven't seen anywhere else is that when you find a legendary item to gain it's full benefits you need to use the weapon to get kills in specific ways which unlock the item's abilities. It's one of those neat minor additions that helps keep the game interesting. Overall it has been a solid experience and I hope that this franchise can manage to keep going on strong.

This is pretty good. I am long since tired of Diablo clones, but I liked this one. It is worth a playthrough, somewhere on the order of 10 hours of play. It does not try to stretch that to 40 with fake longevity or 400 by asking you to keep re-running the same maps. It's not flawless, and I wouldn't recommend it without a sale (I got it in a Humble Bundle), but it does its job of being entertaining and engrossing.

An awesome game if u like diablo-like games. graphics are pretty cool also. really good game to play

☺ Everything an ARPG needs.
☺ Great environments.
☺ Nice soundtrack.

☹ Repetitive encounters.

An entertaining and enjoyable hack and slash, filled with loot, humour and atmosphere.

If you're not a fan of Action Roleplaying Games, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing isn't going to be the game that changes your mind. However, if you're new to the genre or a fan of hack and slash loot fests, you're in luck! Van Helsing manages to provide an entertaining experience throughout its ten or so hour campaign (more so if you're an explorer like myself who likes to uncover all of the map).

You take on the role of the famous Van Helsing (well one of them, his son to be exact) as he and his companion the ghostly Lady Katarina attempt to save the day as monsters and science collide to bring about death and destruction upon Borgovia. You empower the great monster hunter and snappy ghost with a variety of skills from melee to ranged attacks and can even increase your attack power or versatility mid combat by powering up said abilities. Although an interesting attempt at creating options in combat, I will admit I hardly ever used said system myself, as I created a character who got his benefits from not using Rage, the resource that powers the stronger attacks.

The world itself is really well created with a lot of detail, creating a great mood as you hack and slash through groups of monsters. The encounters themselves are well balanced, but grow repetitive as you encounter the same groups of enemies again and again, a bit more variation in group makeup would have been welcome, but it's a slight issue rather than a deal breaker. Of course, the most important element for a game like this...the loot, is frequent and diverse. I was often switching over to newly acquired items or optimising my build.

I must admit, I really enjoyed playing the game. The grim world is lightened with a sprinkling of humour, especially the witty banter between Van Helsing and Lady Katarina throughout the game, which is well acted and entertaining. The game itself is also littered with cultural references, if something is clickable, its likely Van Helsing has something to say about it that'll bring a smile to your face. I also found myself really enjoying the music, while not overly diverse, it's rather lovely and fits the world well.

Listed under 'Main Features' is a section on building and developing traps to defend your lair. It's worth mentioning this is more of a brief distraction and isn't very deep. Those looking for a bit of tower defence in their ARPG might be a bit disappointed, despite the developers best intentions.

I really do recommend the game to fans of action roleplaying games or for someone that fancies a simple, yet entertaining story with a touch of humour and a great deal of sparkly objects bursting out of everything you touch.

Awesome diablo clone with only bad optimization =/,but anyway love it <3

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is solid Diabloesque RPG on pc that plays well with a gamepad. That was my main draw point as got into the game. What I did not know is that it is actually very light-hearted and silly (in a positive way) RPG experience that really ended up enjoying.
All the core mechanics work, the game play is solid, the story is there (perhaps not the best but certainly entertaining) and the game can be quite challenging at times. The questing is always about killing someone which ofc can be expected from this type of game and it might smother the enthusiast of some hard core RPG fans but aside from that it’s a very solid title.
Crafting and enchanting provide plenty of variety; some interesting tower defence experiments were a fun idea as well. Graphics are nice as well but nothing amazing.

An entertaining and fun RPG game that does not take itself seriously at all and provides just some solid entertainment.
7.5/10

PS: probably one of the best gamepad supported pc RPG games currently

I'm a casual player. I mostly spend my time on simple games or on the ones which handle a story that I really like. The only serious, well-made RPG game I started and finished was DragonAge. And then came Van Helsing.
I have never thought I would encounter a game that will mix up steampunk, monster killing and the legend on Van Helsing in such a perfect manner.

The game is just amazing. I only played the hunter class, but I just can't wait to start it again as a mechanic or a thaumaturge. Well-balanced, fun to play, and Lady Katarina's character is just brilliant.

It's worth every penny.

One word: Katarina. An amazing, funny and epically voiced companion who will add a lot of fun to your wondrous journey through Borgovia. More than once she made me smile with her smirky comments.
There is abundance of references to other games and movies that are well placed and funny.
The story is interesting and pulls you in more and more as you play, the combat on higher difficulty is actually challenging and you will find yourself dying more than once before you figure out a way to beat your enemy.

As a first game in the series there are a few things that were a bit disappointing and some of them were even fixed later on in the second game:

The traps are obsolete when you defending your lair on high difficulty; your own minions (if you chose to play this way) will trigger some of them; werewolf traps do not differentiate between you and the enemy and in most cases will get you killed.
Once chosen, the difficulty cannot be changed.
If you want to play with someone, you will have to invite a friend, because the multiplayer lobby is empty.
You are given a very limited amount of skill points as you level up, placing the vast majority of perks and skills out of your reach so you will never have a chance to use them. I found myself using the same 3-4 skills/perks the entire game.

That said, I enjoyed the game tremendously and maybe you will too...

In a cliched world of action RPGs involving medieval/fantasy type settings, it’s refreshing to discover Neocore’s 19th century steampunk gothic-noir type game, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. The game’s ambience of nighttime villages and murky swamps accompanied by a greatly appropriate soundtrack will keep you playing until your index finger gets numb.

Character class and selection is so varied the game will probably warrant more than a single playthrough to flesh out all of its possibilities. Upon seeing the blank skill tree when first starting out it’s almost mind blowing to wonder where you’re going to put all of the skills, perks and auras the game allows you to. It’s not quite the endless skill tree as Path of Exile, but it’s deep enough you’ll feel your character grow as you play. Enemies come in waves, overwhelmingly so. I played a range character and being able to kite the enemies helped somewhat. If you decide to play as a melee class I think you’ll have your work cut out for you.

Neocore is a small publisher out of Hungary, and big publishers could take some lessons from these guys. I’ve never had the desire to play an RPG through more than once until I played this. Despite the trappings, however, all is not perfect. There was no game manual included in the download, and for the developers to instruct players to read online forums and watch online videos to learn simple instructions about the game bears little in the way of professionalism. Once I learned how “rage” (the energy required to do super attacks, acquired through killing NPCs) worked I was able to accomplish much more. Some creatures in the game had an attribute called Abomination. I never did find out exactly what that was. And the final boss fight involved a lot of lag for me. I died many times because I simply lagged out. Definitely not a deal breaker, but it made that final fight more difficult than it had any right to be. This may or may not be an issue affecting anybody else. I have a state of the art rig, and I was surprised the lag even occured.

Still, I’m glad I found this game. I look forward to playing through it again, experimenting with another class. And then I’ll look forward to tackling Neocore’s sophomore effort, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II.

If you like short arpg's with interesting storyline, I recommend this game.

this game is really nice
like playing diablo 2 but better