[h1]Sum-Up[/h1]
[h3]In-depth analysis further down.[/h3]
[table]
[tr]
[th]🟩 [b]Pros[/b][/th]
[th]🟥 [b]Cons[/b][/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]
• The unique approach to skills and progression, based on items rather than ability trees, grants a high degree of build flexibility while keeping gameplay fresh.
• Excellent enemy variety: champions with many modifiers and plenty of named bosses in each map, all with unique skills and movesets.
• High challenge on the Hard difficulty. It balances well between character build and individual player skill.
• Almost all weapons and skills are viable, distinct, and can integrate into many builds, with few redundancy issues if any… at least until very late game.
[/td]
[td]
• Melee-focused builds become borderline unviable in later game phases due to the obscene amount of one-shots, chain-stuns and hostile AoE.
• Certain enemy skills can outright stunlock and instant-kill you without any chance to avoid them or react. It feels cheap and unfair.
• The storyline and characters feel generic, uninspired and shallow, even for an ARPG.
• The optional Map Challenge system starts well, but later proves too restrictive; it cripples your experience by banning the use of many features.
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
[table]
[tr]
[th]🟨 [b]Bugs & Issues[/b][/th]
[th]🔧 [b]Specs[/b][/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]
• Significant input latency, which can lead to button presses not registering.
• The mouse cursor’s scaling in 1440p and 4K is far too small.
• In co-op, shared challenges can sometimes lose sync between players.
[/td]
[td]
• i9 13980HX
• 64GB RAM DDR5
• RTX 4090
• NvME SSD
• 3840x2160
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
[quote]Follow our [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/]Curator[/url] and [url=https://summitreviews.biz]Website[/url] to see more high-quality reviews regularly.[/quote]
[table]
[tr]
[td][b]Content & Replay Value:[/b][/td]
[td]23 hours is what took me and another player to complete Victor Vran on the Hard difficulty, taking considerable extra time to find most secrets and clear most challenges. Given that there are no choices and you can freely swap any build, the replay value is minimal.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td][b]Do I recommend it?[/b][/td]
[td]Yes, preferably in co-op. It’s a decent ARPG that plays out differently than most on the market, just beware of how annoying some of its optional content can get.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td][h3]Conclusion[/h3][/td]
[td]Van Helsing at home, but actually pretty good. The unique gameplay design and solid variety carry it most of the way, despite a clichèd story and an uninspired setting.[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
[h1]In-Depth[/h1]
[h3]Writing & Worldbuilding[/h3]
Many a Hunter vowed to smite the dark forces, and journeyed to Zagoravia to rid it of its curse; none returned. Then again, they were not Victor Vran. The demon-smiting Van Helsing cosplayer ventures alone into the eternal night enveloping the Transylvan-esque city. He does fit the part: hard-boiled one-liners and a demeanor that has no damns left to be given.
You won’t have any of them left as well, about the story at least, mostly sooner than later. It’s a generic, trite tale of a jaded hero coming to the rescue when all hope is lost, despite himself being cursed by the very forces he swore to destroy. “The abyss also gazes into you” and all that slop. Boring. If the side characters weren’t as insipid or the lore so minimal and dry, maybe I wouldn’t have switched to auto-pilot after just a couple hours. But alas, narrative was never a priority for ARPGs.
Zagoravia doesn’t shine with enticing ambiance. Despite the good variety of environs to visit, from desolate streets to forgotten dwellings and catacombs, none of them feels anything but already seen at any point. Even if coherent and cohesive, the worldbuilding ultimately feels stale. One generic dark fantasy location to the next, without much to note, environmental storytelling only hinted at in the best of cases.
[h3]Exploration & Secrets[/h3]
The cursed city is divided into many districts, one more infested than the previous. You’ll cross them on foot, sparse checkpoints preventing excess backtracking by advancing your respawn position should you perish. As you roam, you’ll come across gates, acting as transitions between levels and doubling as map markers, enabling fast travel from your base at Castle Zagore. There’s no proper open world: even if some areas span far and wide, each is a self-contained stage with its own challenges and fixed enemy spawns.
There’s no absence of side areas and secrets in each location, many of which are hidden behind destructible objects, illusory walls, or platforming sections that use wall-jumping so that Victor can reach greater heights. Some just have chests with random loot, others even secret bosses and more than a few Easter eggs. It’s worthwhile to seek these out, at least until late game, at which point normal enemies will drop items just as good, or possibly better, than most chests you could find, making it redundant.
[h3]Character Progression & Challenges[/h3]
Unlike most Diablo-like ARPGs, Victor Vran doesn’t have skill trees or attributes. When you level up, you may get new items or other rewards instead. That’s because the entirety of its skill system relies on weapons and gear, rather than class-specific abilities. For instance, a spellcaster Tome will have three skills, the same for all of them no matter the rarity, exceptions are made for Legendary ones, which may have specific modifiers, but could also completely suck.
It works the same way for each weapon, a feature often paired with unique passives that encourage using that specific weapon in a certain way, like Lighting Guns bouncing their beam between enemies with the Electrified status. You may swap weapons at any time. The same goes for armor sets and consumables, which all have different properties, armor ratings and passive bonuses, and usually, different ways to gain Overdrive, the game’s Mana. This system removes the need to stick to a fixed build and allows completely reworking your gameplay in a few moves: just swap everything and try something new if you get tired of playing the same stuff. On the other hand, it doesn’t allow the build depth and finesse other “classic” ARPGs may have.
The challenges are both the best and most depressing system of this game. On one side, they’ll grant you major XP and loot for completing them, especially early on, but on the other, some of them are tremendous hurdles that will sap your will to continue. Especially when a challenge asks you to not use Potions, Spells and Consumables to kill X enemies without taking damage, and stuff along those lines. All for what? A common chest. Good thing they’re optional; if you’re an achievement hunter though, I’m sorry for your soul.
[h3]Combat System & Bosses[/h3]
Your demon-slaughtering will play out much like any other top-down ARPG around. You’ll be able to swap between two weapons to combine their skills, use consumable potions and other utilities, like AoE bombs, and cast up to two Demon Power spells, which use Overdrive, gained from slaying enemies or in other specific ways depending on the Armor Set you’re using. You can also jump, dodge and parkour around—a necessity, given the amount of projectiles, rushing enemies and hostile AoE in the average fight. At times, it almost feels like a bullet-hell.
Enemies power up more than you do, to obscene points: by the level cap of 50, on Hard, prepare to get one-shot at a moment’s notice by almost anything, nevermind if you want to be a tank, that’s not going to happen. Bosses, the proper ones, giant health bars and all, have multi-phase designs and are adequately challenging, although the real deal is with the secret ones found in special levels or obscure side areas. Combat is engaging, fun, and well-paced all around. The weight between hits and flying ragdolls emphasize the violence of each hit and explosion.
