The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Preview
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We were given the chance to have some extensive hands-on time with the game, playing two brand-new gamescom 2012 levels: the Rooftops and the Sewers. Playing on an Xbox 360 we were keen to see how the controls felt on a console. The first impressions of the game immediately bring to mind the Diablo and Torchlight series and that is certainly no bad thing. The perspective is reassuringly isometric and the combat and role-playing components seem very much inspired by the strengths of these titles.
Using an Xbox 360 controller was surprisingly intuitive and was not as problematic as we had feared. There were a few problems, but as this was still somewhat early gameplay they were understandable. Sometimes controlling Van Helsing in the midst of a strong group of enemies was challenging and there were a number of occasions where our lack of manoeuvrability caused us to use several health potions. Yet, the camera was always competent and kept on top of the action even when dozens of opponents were trying to pen us into a corner.
Van Helsing has access to a variety of weapons and attacks, with the primary means being divided into close-combat, ranged and magical attacks. Most melee battles were taken care courtesy of the monster-slayer's rather brutal double-handed sword that dealt a great deal of damage. Van Helsing was also equipped with a brace of pistols that were dual-wielded and were especially effective in knocking enemies back from you. The drawback to this was a lack of damage and we mainly used the firearms to keep waves of the smaller enemies at bay while retreating.
