Since then, the game has had two sequels, one of which is the subject of this review. The reason I bring this up is that the sequels, whilst being perfectly functional and enjoyable games, do little to actually innovate and improve upon the formula in play. Where you to look past the world’s setting, the colorful cast of characters found therein and the witty banter amongst all involved, you would find a somewhat basic and in many places, unintuitive adventure role playing game.

"The problem here is that whilst they are six distinct character classes, there is no need for it."

In my preview of the game, which you can find here, I spoke about how the character limits on the preview build forced me into playing the Elementalist, a build that was much more to my liking than the melee orientated Protector. In the final build of the game, players have access to six different classes. The Protector, The Elementalist, The Bounter Hunter, The Constructor, The Phlogistoneer and The Umbralist.

The problem here is that whilst they are six distinct character classes, there is no need for it.

The Elementalist, The Bounter Hunter, The Constructor and even The Phlogistoneer are all different takes on ranged gameplay for the most part. Dealing damage at a distance and then falling back when the enemy gets too close, before repeating the process, ad infinitum. This is an inherent flaw in their design, typically the action adventure genre sticks to a smaller cast, and for good reason too. There’s a melee class, a ranged class and a mage class, this covers the three main needs of a party. The Phlogistoneer can at least stand toe to toe with opponents thanks to an interesting shielding ability, but he still falls back primarily on projectile attacks.

The Umbralist and The Protector both fill the melee slot with ease. Where The Protector wades through a sea of sundered enemy bodies, sword swinging and powers firing, The Umbralist does the same, but with the addition of character buffs and AoE attacks that will cloak the player and freeze the enemy. The Umbralist adds an air of the occult to the game with impressive magical powers.

"Repetitious characters aside, I stand by what I’ve said about the game's visuals. It positively drips atmosphere and every corner of the game has been intricately designed based on the characteristics of the local inhabitants."

So when you get right down to the heart of things, you really only have a ranged unit and a melee unit to choose from. The only real difference being how their attacks look and function. Had Neocore Games simply went with a smaller roster of better developed characters, things would have definitely been better.

Repetitious characters aside, I stand by what I’ve said about the game’s visuals. It positively drips atmosphere and every corner of the game has been intricately designed based on the characteristics of the local inhabitants. From the stagnant fogged forests to the smokey cobbled pathways of the Dreadworks, each and every corner has been given a touch of the realistic with some added fantasy. Attention to detail is key, and Neocore went over this game with a fine tooth comb.

A problem with the game, is that it kind of just drops the player into the world and lets them run amok. Little direction is given and thus, the learning curve may be a bit difficult for some to overcome. Eventually, you’re going to level up, and this is the first hurdle. The menu screens are a nightmare. Not only do they fill the screen with all manner of tiny and ultimately superfluous details that could have been much better presented, but they are divided into pages, with tabs inside them.

"All told, this is a competent action adventure video game that I would recommend to any fans of the genre. Yes, character types could have been much better handled, and this lack of quality over quantity sadly hamstrings the game's overall impression."

One would expect that you can level up your attributes, powers and abilities on one page, but this is not the case. Van Helsing and Katarina, your constant companion, both level up independent of each other. Rifling through pages and tabs to level up both Van Helsing and Katarina is nothing short of infuriating, especially when you’re not given a dedicated interface for each. A system in the style of Torchlight would have been more suitable, with each character being given an all encompassing, color coordinated page to handle everything.

Beyond this, everything else performs admirably. The overall performance is stable and in my own tests, the game scales well across different hardware, something that is becoming less and less common in the modern gaming space.

Controls are fine, though not exceptional, a controller will serve you far better than a mouse and keyboard. Visuals are sharp and crisp with a number of world assets being widely distributed so you’re not going to tire of seeing repeated environments. What’s more, the soundscape is brilliant, with witty banter being exchanged back and forth at regular enough intervals to keep it fresh. NPC voice-overs can still be a bit poor on places though.

All told, this is a competent action adventure video game that I would recommend to any fans of the genre. Yes, character types could have been much better handled, and this lack of quality over quantity sadly hamstrings the game’s overall impression.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

For those of you that aren’t in the know, or simply haven’t given the series a go, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is an action adventure RPG set in the fairly impressive Gothic world of Borgovia. The first game in the series is a personal favourite of mine with Gamingbolt praising the setting, gameplay and wealth of content.

Now, given that this was a preview build of the game, I can’t quite tell you where I was dropped into the game. Honestly, I don’t know if I started at the beginning or if this was simply a locale chosen by the dev team to serve as a testing ground. Either way, upon setting out on my adventure I was given the choice between one of two character classes. One was The Protector, a woefully generic looking melee focused character and the other is The Elementalist.

"Sound wise, the game is on point for the most part. Our two protagonists, Van Helsing and Katarina, the spectral apparition get the best dialogue of the two, make no mistake. I could listen to Van Helsing and Katarina banter back and forward for hours on end, the same however, can’t be said of many NPCs that had dreadful voice over work."

Given that I tend to go with front line combat, I grudgingly selected the Protector and waded into the Secret Lair that was my starting point. Immediately, I didn’t get on too well with this character class, which was not what I expected given my past love of melee characters. I soon discovered that this was because I was using the keyboard and mouse setup. It simply didn’t feel good for the Protector, the controller setup was much better as it resulted in less headlong charges into the opponent, which in turn resulted in less pointless deaths.

So having decided that the Protector wasn’t for me, I switched over to the Elementalist and I instantly dominated everything that dared to come my way, and this was on Hard difficulty. Say what you will about swarm enemies having their place in games, but nothing, and I mean nothing, could stand against me when I deployed the following strategy. Flame Serpent (a fire spitting Hydra-esque creature), Blazing Barrier (wall of fire) followed by Stream of Bolts (basic ranged mana attack). I would then back pedal a bit and repeat the wall of fire and ranged attacks. On hard difficulty, nothing could touch me, let alone kill me, with that basic 3>2 combo cycle.

"What was less entertaining, was my movement speed. It took so long to get from point A to point B that I regretted switching to the Elementalist. At least the Protector had a charge attack that could be used to cover ground quickly."

Not that this is a bad thing, you can of course throw some other skills and abilities into the mix to stir things up a bit, but given that the preview did little to explain what I was doing and/or why, I just rolled with what worked. And it was rewarding enough to see a blazing centaur burst through my barrier only to be mauled by a summoned pack of Netherhounds.

A bit grim, perhaps, but fun nonetheless.

What was less entertaining, was my movement speed. It took so long to get from point A to point B that I regretted switching to the Elementalist. At least the Protector had a charge attack that could be used to cover ground quickly. But that minor niggle aside, gameplay is mostly a sound and solid affair.

Sound wise, the game is on point for the most part. Our two protagonists, Van Helsing and Katarina, the spectral apparition get the best dialogue of the two, make no mistake. I could listen to Van Helsing and Katarina banter back and forward for hours on end, the same however, can’t be said of many NPCs that had dreadful voice over work. Effort has clearly been made to make the characters seem different, but that doesn’t mean it was done well.

" It would appear that with no competition within this genre of racing games, the studio seems to be on a roll and they no intention of stopping. "

Visually, the game is quite lovely. There’s a varied set of assets that decorate the stages making them starkly contrast with each other. There’s one major flaw with the visuals however, specifically in stages that involve trees and the like. When I first encountered the forested region of the game, which was introduced to me as the second area of the game, the first thing that became apparent was that The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III handles screen coverage very poorly in dense areas. As I moved forwards into the tree line, it became increasingly more difficult to navigate properly, at times I couldn’t even see the enemy I was attacking, but my AOE attack pattern that we covered above was more than enough to ensure my survival, despite the fact that I could only see my target perhaps 60% of the time.

To be honest, there’s not much else I have to say about the game at this point, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III is shaping up to be another fantastic entry into the series which, thus far, has been fairly well received across the board. If anything, the final release of this third iteration of the series looks as though it may be the most daring to date. Let’s just hope that the rest of the character classes look better than the Protector, because he really left a bad impression.

This game was previewed on the PC.

Neocore Games’ next iteration to the Van Helsing series finally has a release date as The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III is slated to arrive on May 22nd for Steam. It will release a full year after the first game and a new trailer which showcases the last two classes, namely the Bounty Hunter and the Constructor.

While the Bounty Hunter relies on long ranged weapons, mechanical seekers to hunt down enemies and decoys to scout areas from a distance, the Constructor uses a gun platform to create various gadgets including turrents, dismemberbots and ornithopters to take down foes from a distance.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III will feature four player co-op and eight player PvP and signal the end of the trilogy. Lady Katarina’s past will be revealed and you’ll see the return of the tower defense mini-games from the second game.

Will you be picking up The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III on Friday? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Neocore Games has announced two brand new classes for the newest installment in its gothic-noir steampunk action-RPG series, the upcoming Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III. You can check out both the new classes in the trailer above.

The new classes include the Elementalist and the Protector. The Elementalist can unleash terribly damaging forces from a distance, although his lack of defenses leaves him vulnerable in melee combat. Fortunately, he can wipe away monsters with a flick of a hand or send in moving pillars of frost to discourage the enemy from trying to get too close. Meanwhile, the Protector is a close-range armored specialist. He deals heavy physical damage and provides bonuses for his companions. With his vast array of abilities he can charge right into the middle of the battle, knocking down his enemies or jump right in from a distance to begin the fight.

Stay tuned for more news and coverage on the game.