Van Helsing - Review @ Softpedia

Couchpotato

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As promised from the last gameplay post Softpedia has posted their review of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing.
I'm a huge RPG fan, but when it comes to hack and slash games, I'm a bit picky. I was profoundly disappointed by Diablo III, though I greatly enjoyed the previous installments in the series.

Fortunately, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing restored my faith in the ARPG genre and proved once again that small studios like Neocore can create amazing games even if they do not get too much exposure.

There are some things that still need to be ironed out by developers, but, overall, I can guarantee that every RPG fan will enjoy Van Helsing's adventure in Borgovia. And for the price you have to pay, it would be a mistake to miss such a game.

I sincerely believe The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is one of the best RPG titles released this year and I can't wait for the second installment in the series, which is expected to arrive in about six months.

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The good:
- Immersive steampunk setting
- Deep character development and customization
- Brilliant voice acting
- Refreshing gameplay
- Art work and music perfectly fit the dark gothic environment

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The bad:
- Broken multiplayer
- No monster respawn in single player
- Limited replayability
More information.
 
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"The bad:
- No monster respawn in single player"
This supposed to be a good point.
 
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I also can't believe it. Is that some internal Softpedia's joke?

But haven't tried MP at all so dunno if it's broken.
 
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)) I was sure I'd read flames
agreed. I was playing some Jrpg now on android.. man those respawns suck the life out of you
 
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I also can't believe it. Is that some internal Softpedia's joke?

But haven't tried MP at all so dunno if it's broken.

No I think the reviewer loves re-spawning that's why it's listed under bad. I know you don't though.;)
 
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After reading his comment about Respawning being a positive, his creditability just took a serious nose dive.
 
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After reading his comment about Respawning being a positive, his creditability just took a serious nose dive.

I'm neutral on this topic. I know you need it to get experience for your character, but there are many games were it's annoying.

The original Sacred is one example of annoying.
 
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No I think the reviewer loves re-spawning that's why it's listed under bad. I know you don't though.;)

Joxer doesn't like re-spawning? Never would have guessed. Who'd have thunk it??

And Couch, if you completed a certain number of side quests in most, but not all, areas in Sacred, the respawning would slow to a crawl, and sometimes stop altogether.

Van Helsing is a good game though. Especially for the $15 price tag.
 
Surprised that price isn't under the "good" list. I paid a lot more for D3, and liked it a lot less.
 
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If you go to the Neocore and Steam forums you will see that the spirit of the Anti-Joxer is everywhere. They plead and beg for respawning, clamoring for more mobs to kill and also for a continue game mode. See what you wished for Joxer? They will soon know that you are to blame and pitchforks and torches will be forthcoming.

There is supposed to be a patch on the way to fix the broken multiplayer. Pretty fun game so far and I heard the extra allotted space is for free DLC and 2 more expansions.
 
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The good:
- Immersive steampunk setting - yes
- Deep character development and customization - compared to what Diablo 3?
- Brilliant voice acting - yes
- Refreshing gameplay- no, having to constantly use pots pissed me off
- Art work and music perfectly fit the dark gothic environment - yes

The bad:
- Broken multiplayer - never tried
- No monster respawn in single player - this should be a gpood thing
- Limited replayability - if it had "deep character development and customisation" this wouldnt be true. But yes.
 
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Thank you for reading my review. I hope it made you want to play Van Helsing because it's a wonderful game. I just wanted to clarify a few things. I do not like respawning in single player. Van Helsing is a story-driven game, so it would be weird if you had to kill the same bosses or mobs again and again.
The reason I mentioned lack of respawning under negatives is that lots of players hope that Van Helsing can offer them much more than Diablo 3.
Lots of ARPG players love loot and the only way to grab it is by killing the same mob over and over again. Van Helsing is not about hunting loot, it's about hunting monsters. However, there's a workaround that players can take advantage if the only thing they care is loot.
Respawning can be both good and bad, I just wished you could choose that before starting a new game. I reckon I should've listed respawning as both good and bad. However, no matter if you like it or not at least now you know what to expect from the game.
In case you haven't bought the game yet, I'll be happy to answer all your questions:)
 
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No respawn is a great plus for me instead.
 
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If you go to the Neocore and Steam forums you will see that the spirit of the Anti-Joxer is everywhere. They plead and beg for respawning, clamoring for more mobs to kill and also for a continue game mode. See what you wished for Joxer? They will soon know that you are to blame and pitchforks and torches will be forthcoming.


It remains to be seen if they can get their ways satisfied.

Been the standard in video gaming for a decade now: listening to the customer. Watching one video was enough to see that the game did not feature respawning.
Yet even though potentially known beforehand, players will want to bring the game to what they like.

It is not like the offer of games with respawning mob is low though.
 
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Suppose one shouldn't forget that this game was made on a budget that wouldn't finance Diablo 3's petty cash a/c. Adding optional respawns would likely require additional work and balancing.
 
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Suppose one shouldn't forget that this game was made on a budget that wouldn't finance Diablo 3's petty cash a/c. Adding optional respawns would likely require additional work and balancing.

Indeed it would. But as I said in my previous post those who are hungry for loot will find that Van Helsing does offer that as well, just not in single player mode:)

You just have to make an Online Character, select Multiplayer and make your session private so that no one joins it. Whenever you want to play with a friend simply give your friend the password of your session and he will be able to join. It's that easy.

Unfortunately, the patch delivered last night via Steam does not solve all the issues with multiplayer, but it's nice to know devs are one step closer to fixing all these problems.
 
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If you go to the Neocore and Steam forums you will see that the spirit of the Anti-Joxer is everywhere. They plead and beg for respawning, clamoring for more mobs to kill and also for a continue game mode. See what you wished for Joxer? They will soon know that you are to blame and pitchforks and torches will be forthcoming.
Kill the witch? Let them come.

They can always install Origin malware and buy KoA. Or play any MMO.
And I'll repeat this later on Steam forum.
 
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