Welcome to Borgovia! It sounds like a fictional country from Terry Pratchett book, but it is not! It is the setting for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, an Action Adventure RPG from Neocore Games.
I’ll be honest going in, this isn’t my usual taste in RPG. I like my RPG’s set in some form of horrible post-apocalyptic/dystopian future and from a first person perspective. I have, of course, gone in with an open mind and I’ve approached this from the point of view of someone who isn’t new to video games, but is new to this genre. Which wasn’t too hard a mindset to get into.
The titular character isn’t the original Van Helsing but his son who travels to the eastern-European land of Bogrovia to discover why the peace treaty brokered by the elder Van Helsing has collapsed. And to kill lots of monsters. Mainly that. Accompanied by the ghostly Lady Katarina, through villages, forests and mountains on your way to the capital city, Borgova. Apart from the intro movie the story isn’t mentioned much for the first few hours, you help villagers and travellers, and slowly work your way towards the capital. It’s not a huge downer, but I feel with the world they created, and the rich source material, that extra layer of fiction would have really added some more depth.
Thankfully the interactions between Van Helsing, Lady Katarina and the other NPC’s makes up for that missing fiction. Whilst Van Helsing’s voice actor can be a little wooden at times, the writing is good. Some good quips and one liners, and some chuckle worthy dry, black humour make it worth paying attention to all the characters. The Pratchett reference in the beginning is quite appropriate for some of the humour, and the overall feel of the game. It’s a rich world based in classic fiction with some odd humour, Katarina suggested Van Helsing “brighten up” his house with a set of gallows (complete with victim).
The world looks good, lots of detail in the trees and forests, white water rapids bubbling at the edges, swampy forests and stone villages all well animated and they look good. From time to time you travel into The Ink, a sort of other realm connected to Borgovia through inkwells. The environment changes to dark blues, indigos and blacks and the enemies become more supernatural. It’s a good way for a quick change of scenery, without it feeling cheap or forced.
The detail is good, and the UI isn’t too intrusive
The setting is a sort of anachronistic past, with revolvers and rifles being combined with magic and science, a similar sort of vein to Dishonored. Nothing feels out of place in the world, nothing feels too over or underpowered and it all fits well with the overall fiction. The sound design is solid as well, combat sounds satisfying, the music is good, and, Van Helsing aside, the characters are pretty well voiced.
The gameplay is solid, with very few bugs, and it’s relatively easy to get to grips with. It’s quick and simple to change between ranged and melee and it’s just as easy to cycle through secondary attacks and spells. As long as you can remember the right keys. Movement is easy, though a few times I did get stuck on invisible bits of scenery. Once was towards the end of a boss fight so I went from inches from victory to being pounded to death.
When you die, and you probably will, you’re given three options to respawn; at the last town/safehouse you passed, the previous checkpoint or yards from where you fell. The first is free, the second costs around 5% of your money and the latter 10%. The checkpoints are fairly spread out, and are normally at the start of a new area but the lack of any sort of save system can be frustrating, especially when you die as the result of a bug. Thankfully, you’re never really too far from the previous checkpoint or even the nearest town so you won’t lose a huge amount of progress and none of your items.
Enemies are varied, attacking from range and close combat
You pick up more than enough loot to be constantly getting slightly better gear and have a steady income. If you run low of potions whilst a distance from a merchant you can send your companion shopping. She disappears for a few minutes and returns with whatever items you need. This is handy after a few big encounters have diminished your supplies but you don’t fancy trekking to the merchant and back.
The UI is un-cluttered, with no real unnecessary buttons and the tutorial messages that pop up are helpful without being intrusive. The skill trees have enough depth to be worthwhile and keep RPG fans mulling over them, there aren’t so many of them that it’s overwhelming and overcomplicated. I chose to specialise in melee and ranged combat, and it was simple to follow the skill trees and the impact was immediately noticeable.
Skill Tree - Three distinct tabs, with three interweaving trees
Rage adds another level of attacks at the push of another button. By pushing the space key you get an attack that does extra damage or adds extra special attacks. For example, I chose a power-up that gives me explosive rounds when my Rage metre is full. These give you a bit of an edge, and let you build up a tactical approach to combat. I start of shooting from range, before moving in with swords to try and bludgeon creatures into satisfyingly meaty chunks with an equally satisfying crunch.
I do have a few gripes, some of them might be personal, but none of them ruin the game at all. The lack of a save system irks me a little, but only because I’m not great at the game. The combat occasionally gets very cluttered, and very confusing. It’s worth turning off some of the on-screen notifications just to make it a bit easier to understand what’s going on. Sometimes I ended up being overwhelmed out of nowhere, pinned on bits of scenery or just running around in a weird circle like a broken spirograph drawing.
Example of when just too much is going on
Overall, it’s a very solid, pretty enjoyable game especially when you consider the price tag (£12 on Steam at time of publishing). It’s not too punishing for people new to the genre, I played on medium and never really felt the game made it impossible for me. I can’t comment as an experienced player, but the depth in skill tree, interesting environments and challenging difficulty levels should appeal to veterans of the AARPG genre.
