Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III Review for PS4

Professor Abraham Van Helsing was a character invented by Bram Stoker for the classic novel: Dracula, in the late 1800’s. Little did Stoker know, that his character would become the inspiration for countless movies, comic books, and an alright game that got ported to the PS4 from PC.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III was ported to PS4 by developer NeocoreGames on January 31st 2020. The series made its name from the first two in the trilogy. It appears to be the subjective community consensus that the first two are superior titles. There are complaints like a lack of character porting and the rework of the skill tree being too restrictive. I, myself, have never played the first two in the series and have based my judgments purely on the third.

Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III Review for PS4

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III is a Diablo-like Action RPG. You’re given six classes to choose from at the start of the game and then you’re dropped into the story.

One of the appeals of the series is that Van Helsing is a more story-based RPG than its other competitors. You follow the adventure of a single character (Van Helsing, good guess) and all that it might entail. However, I found despite Van Helsing being a narrative driven game, that its writing was one of its weakest points.

The opening sequence is a massive exposition dump. The writers seemed to have missed the common advice of ‘show don’t tell.’ You sit through what appears to be a rushed summary of what happened in the previous titles. But not only that, the player is spoon fed what kind of character that Van Helsing is. It’s as if they just printed out the character outline and setting synopsis from a writing room and handed it directly to the voice actor as they read out a list of bullet points.

My issues with the writing extend far into the bulk of the game. The game often tries to tell you how to feel about certain things. At one point, I encountered a side quest and Katarina, the player’s companion, exclaimed, “Sounds interesting!” I got annoyed as it felt like I was being treated as a small child watching Dora the Explorer, needing indication that Swiper is indeed a bad guy.p

The gameplay in The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III is repetitive,which is something I don’t blame entirely on the game itself. The genre often falls into this, so it may just be my own preferences. But I found that enemies from the beginning of the game and the end of the game are near indistinguishable. They seem just to be given higher stats to scale with the player’s progression but pose no unique challenge. All this despite what the player may have improved and learned about throughout the game.

The saving grace of this issue were the bosses. I found every time I encountered a boss to be a refreshing experience where I have to think a bit more about who I rapidly spam a button at. Bosses had a bit more complexity and variation in their attack patterns which I enjoyed. But it only emphasized the other parts of the game which I didn’t enjoy. Any time I had to listen to stilted dialogue or fight the same horde of monsters for the eightieth time, I realized I just wanted to fight a boss.

Despite my qualms, there are two aspects I feel the developers nailed it with: the music and the visuals. The music was tense and I liked the atmosphere it built. It worked well with the detailed environments that get drawn out in front you. The tone of a dark, grizzled, monster hunter and the world he lives in is only made believable through the excellent creative direction.

I also enjoyed a lot of the QoL and details provided in the game, which not all ARPG’s accomplish. Things like a DPS counter helps the player easily visualize the quality of their gear. Another feature I found interesting was the amount of control you had in customizing the gameplay of your companion. It’s a unique implementation and I liked being able to interact that way. Katarina was easily one of my favorite features.

All in all The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III was a decent enough game but not the point that I think it could supplant other ARPG’s like Diablo or Grim Dawn.

I rate the game:

6/10