Werewolves. So. Many. Werewolves

Something evil is stirring in Borgovia. Of course, with a name like that, an indeterminate location somewhere in Eastern Europe and an out of control lycanthrope infestation, the country was never likely to be high on anyone’s list of holiday destinations, but that isn’t stopping Van Helsing from taking a scenic tour and enacting monster homicide on an epic scale while he’s at it.

Or rather, I should say son of Van Helsing, as the title character is in fact the rather more sprightly progeny of the venerable vampire hunter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Good thing too: wasting uncanny creatures by the thousands is a young man’s game, and this upcoming action RPG for PC, Mac and Xbox Live Arcade from NeocoreGames really doesn’t hold back when it comes to flinging enemies in your direction.


I got to taste a hefty chunk of this mayhem with the latest preview build of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. The section I played comes from early in the game, and finds our hero and his companion Katarina (on whom more later) at something of a loss when their coach is wrecked in Borgovia’s Gorgon Pass, miles from the country’s capital. This necessitates a trudge through the pass to the local village of Markovna to get help, only to find that the villagers have problems of their own: the mayor has been kidnapped by a giant werewolf.



The basics of the game will be familiar to anyone who has clicked happily through an action RPG, with Van Helsing able to equip attacks to both left and right mouse buttons in the PC version, large open levels to roam, lashings of loot to collect and a vast menagerie of opponents to unleash all kinds of hell upon. But The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing ramps things up to 11, and is shaping up to be a title that fans of the ARPG genre will adore.

Take the skills system: with only a single playable character, the game does away with the notion of classes, instead allowing players to fully mould Van Helsing into their preferred style of killing machine, thanks to a skill tree bursting with options. Ostensibly divided into two paths - the melee Mystic Warrior and the ranged Occult Hunter - you can happily invest skill points in either whenever you wish, and there’s no separation between weaponry and magic, with some skills crossing over between the two: ramp up your Shoot and Lightning talents and you can unlock the Icicle Shot skill that adds freezing effects to your standard weapon damage.


Each skill has multiple tiers to unlock, additional options such as Phosphorous Tipped Rounds for your Explosive Shot, and power ups. Up to three of these are available for each skill, adding extra effects to your attacks. Add in up to two active auras and tricks at anyone time, and there’s an abundance of ways to spec out your vision of Van Helsing.

Of course, an ARPG stands or falls on its loot, and The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is packed to the rafters with the stuff, much of it reflecting the game’s Steampunk style mix of arcane technology and outright sorcery. Drops are plentiful, so you’ll want to make heavy use of the the ability to teleport back to the nearest town to offload and cash in your unwanted items. You rarely go long without coming across an upgrade to at least one of your items, be it a ludicrously powerful sword, bunderbluss or magical talisman, and many pieces of equipment can be upgraded with alchemical essences for further bonus effects.

To put it to the test, Van Helsing and Katarina headed out into the wilds of nearby Croakwood in search of the missing mayor and oh my god how many werewolves? Combat is suitably over the top with huge swathes of enemies charging at you. A single lycanthrope is a frightening prospect. When you’ve got the best part of two dozen of them haring after you, along with harpies, satyrs, re-animated soldiers, acid-spitting frogmen, psychopathic rodents and a whole host more - all at the same time - things can get ridiculous. It’s hugely satisfying when you sweep an area entirely free of such beasts, although I did find myself preferring to engage at range, as attempting to melee a tidal wave of unholy creatures can become overwhelming. That’s where Katarina comes in.

Van Helsing’s lady companion is, well, dead, a ghost who has become bound to the dashing vampire killer. But she doesn’t let that prevent her from engaging in a damn good ruck, and is one of the better NPC characters in the genre. She’s no equivalent to Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite in the personality stakes - and if there’s one area where The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing feels rough-edged it’s in the less than sparkling verbal parrying between its two characters - but she’s hugely flexible. You can set her to attack at melee range or distance (or keep out of fights entirely) but beyond that she has a skill tree and equipment layout of her own, as well as a huge amount of options to control her behaviour.

And you’re going to need her. By the time we were exploring the foggy swamps of nearby Gallowsbog, we were being faced by huge hordes of enemies, the kiting of which inevitably led you into the path of another gaggle of slavering psychotics, culminating in a boss battle with not one giant beast, but a whole clutch of them, including a gigantic quadripedal toad with a rocket launcher and something titled an Electriferous Beast-King. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing looks set to be an atmospheric addition to the ARPG ranks when it releases on May 22nd, and one for those who like their carnage writ large.

Most Anticipated Feature: If one of the earliest battles is with an Electriferous Beast-King, just how demented are some of the later boss battles going to be?