Victor Vran - Two new Reviews

Our Eye spotted two new reviews for the action RPG Victor Vran:

PixelJudge:

Victor Vran is the Action RPG from developers Haemimont Games. Haemimont have made a name for themselves as strategy specialists with Tropico 3, 4, and 5, as well as other management games too. So this begs the questions: what can a team of strategy specialists bring to make a genre that has very little strategy? And why did they then decide to ignore well established trends for that genre, removing even more strategy from it? Are Haemimont just pulling our chain, like an artist who’s thrown some paint at a canvas and called it abstract, or do they have an actual plan at work here? Are Haemimont the new Monet?

[…]

Victor Vran is an excellent entry into the action RPG genre. The focus is definitely on combat, with satisfying weapon abilities and direct keyboard control of Victor coupled with active dodge and jump functions make it feel more engaging than other ARPGs. You're restricted in the amount of stuff you can equip at once, limiting your options to a handful of possibilities so it's a welcoming game to genre newcomers but deep enough for veterans to get a kick out of it.

Hexes, challenges and secrets provide plenty of value for completionists and masochists alike but the main story on normal difficulty never really impedes you so long as you keep your equipment and spells up to date with the various drops. Similarly you'll never really be short of gold, it's a game that wants you to worry about how you're going to smash the next group of enemies, not worry about how you're going to afford a new sword or fit it into your bag.

Co-op play is also an absolute blast but not without its glitches, from invisible characters to quests not completing for one character it made for a little confusion and backtracking but never really got frustrating, even when playing on hard with all the hexes active. Overall it's a game worthy of playing solo or with friends, at turns both light and dark in tone thanks to voice actors from The Stanley Parable and The Witcher basically playing the same roles and even lampooning those, and other games.

Score: 4/5

PC PowerPlay:

At first glance Victor Vran looks like another entry in the Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing series of action RPGs, but in reality it’s a very different kind of animal. While there are similarities when it comes to the faux-Gothic seriousness of the story, the overall look of the game and the reliance on pop-culture references for humour, the way the two games play is very different. Victor Vran is about combat, not about character building. There are no classes, no skill trees or unlockable abilities. All skills are tied to equipment. What the eponymous character wears, wields and equips directly affects the way he functions.

[…]

A streamlined action RPG with the emphasis placed firmly on the action.

Score: 8/10

More information.

Better or worse than Adventures of Van Hellsing 1?

Originally Posted by luj1
Better or worse than Adventures of Van Hellsing 1?

Take my opinion for what it is, a personal opinion, but I don't think both games are on the same league. I found Victor Vran to be a much more interesting, and fun, game to play (and this coming from someone who even had beta access to The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, and owns all 3 chapters/entries of the series).

Victor Vran's gameplay is a bit more "arcade" than Van Hellsing, since the character can dodge/roll and jump (which brings some verticality to the game, since you can climb buildings through jumping, and access hidden areas/quests), and is fun to play either with mouse + keyboard, or even a controller.
You have plenty of maps to explore, many which aren't even part of the main storyline, all with objectives/challenges (to give a bit of incentive to replay sections of the game).
Plus, the developer of Victor Vran has been updating the game for free with new content/mechanics, so that players come back to the game.
Here's a roadmap of their plans:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/345180…7867786761716/

I found van hellsing 1 to be quite good and I definitely enjoyed victor van. They are very different games even though they are both arpg. I enjoy victor vran maps and game mechanics better but van hellsing had tighter story and more straight forward progression. My one 'complaint' with victor vran (and it is minor) is that the characters are some what linear in development. On the bright side they are adding a bit more and I have not tried the new things they have added (tomes and new outfit).
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When I finish bard's tale this week I will probably spin up victor vran again and try some of the new stuff. To be honest while I prefer victor vran game play/maps (jumping, finding secrets, …) I like titan quest class structure a lot better (more diversed). last but least I find all three of these games (victor vran, van helsing 1 and titan quest) much more interesting and better than torch light ii (which was very forgetable). Take this with a grain of salt. I haven't played titan quest since 2008 so if I played it today I might feel differently; like wise I haven't played the other two since release - of the 4 mentioned I played titan quest the longest). I plan on replaying van helsing when the complete version is release (I have 2 and 3 but never played them) and then there will be grim dawn soon.

Originally Posted by you
I plan on replaying van helsing when the complete version is release (I have 2 and 3 but never played them) and then there will be grim dawn soon.

We're on the same boat.
I'll be checking out the complete version of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, to see how it's improved over the separate chapters, plus I'm very much looking forward to Grim Dawn, since I rather liked Titan Quest (actually, it's been quite a wait for Grim Dawn, since I bought it on January 2010, over 5 and a half years ago, and two years before it went to Kickstarter ).
Plus, the developers of Victor Vran have something planned for Halloween this month, so I'll be checking that content out too.

First Van Helsing was the best one in the series.