The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

I have a soft spot for action-RPGs that know exactly what they are and lean into it with confidence, and the first Van Helsing sits squarely in that category. NeocoreGames set their hack-and-slash in Borgovia, a fictional 19th-century kingdom where mad science and ancient horror share the same cobblestones, and the result is a setting that genuinely sticks with you, part Gothic fairy tale, part Frankenstein parody, all atmosphere. The visual tone blends industrial soot and monster-haunted forests in a way that feels handcrafted rather than procedurally shuffled, and the score does quiet, committed work underneath all the combat noise. The gameplay loop is Diablo-adjacent: click enemies into oblivion, collect loot, sink points into a skill tree that opens up more than it initially advertises. You start the game as the Hunter, with melee and ranged combat sitting on the same character, and the skill system is genuinely more fluid than most genre peers, a Hunter can trend toward tanky brawler, elusive sniper, or something stranger, without the game ever fully closing a door on you. The Thaumaturge and Arcane Mechanic classes arrived as DLC post-launch, adding a magic-user and a gadgeteer with a bomb launcher respectively, which broaden replay value considerably. Riding alongside you throughout is Lady Katarina, a ghost companion with her own two skill trees and a habit of sarcastic commentary that critics consistently flagged as one of the game's genuine highlights. The banter between the two carries more personality than most of the quest writing that surrounds it. Where the first game earns criticism is in its second half. The opening hours deliver sprawling maps, interesting boss gimmicks, and a story that moves at a pleasantly pulpy pace. Then the enemy design leans harder on throwing larger and larger crowds at you rather than evolving its challenges, and the loot, while plentiful, rarely generates the kind of "I need to rebuild my whole character around this item" excitement that keeps the best ARPGs alive past midnight. The tower defense sequences scattered across the campaign are a surprising amount of fun in isolation, but they land without explanation and feel bolted on rather than integrated. There are also optional boss trophies that create global combat modifiers, which adds a layer of build expression that the core loot system alone does not deliver. For co-op players, the game supports up to four players online, and that context genuinely smooths over the repetition issues. Solo, the mid-to-late game asks for patience. The music rewards both modes equally, it is one of those soundtracks that understands restraint, letting quieter orchestral passages do mood work before the combat layers swell in. For a 2013 indie release from a Hungarian studio finding its footing in the ARPG genre, the ambition of the audio design is easy to undervalue. If you already own Grim Dawn and Path of Exile and you need something with mechanical depth to match those, Van Helsing 1 is not the answer. But if you want a shorter, story-shaped ARPG where the world has real character and you are never more than a few minutes from something weird and atmospheric, this first entry delivers that with a warmth that the bigger names in the genre rarely bother with. It knows when to crack a joke and when to let the fog settle.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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