Review: Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Extended Edition (PlayStation 4)

Be Van Helsing, monster-hunter extraordinaire and save the day with your charming and beautiful companion, Lady Katarina (who happens to be a ghost, by the way). Explore the savage wilderness in the mountains and the soot-stained brick districts of a grim metropolis.

Pros:

• Nice looking graphics.
• 10.08GB download size.
• Game play is a ARPG and very much in the same style as Diablo III.
• Three classes to play as- Classic hunter, Thaumaturge and arcane mechanic.
• Four difficulties- Casual, Normal, Hard and heroic.
• Hardcore mode. Turns the game into a rogue like, One death and its game over.
• Full Platinum trophy.
• Four game modes- Story, Multiplayer, Scenario and Never ending story (NG+)
• Options- Blood, If enemy respawns after you leave the area, Auto equip, Health bars, Language, Hide hat, Highlight item names.
• Three visual quality settings- 1080p=Better performance, 1620p=Balanced or 4k=Better quality.
• Can skip cut-scenes.
• Used DS4 speaker.
• Earn EXP, Level up and get upgrade points for attributes, Perks, Abilities.
• Your companion also levels up and has her own set of attributes, Perks and abilities.
• Can swap out different powers from the menu.
• You have a constant companion who will fight alongside you. You can set here actions like melee,ranged or if she takes the attention of enemies or heals you etc.
• Tutorial pop ups as and when new things happen.
• Decent voice work for all characters.
• Unlock portals for fast travel.
• Main hub has your storage, Shop and blacksmith for crafting and an enchanter to buff items.
• Clear item description. Green for good and red for bad on stats.
• You can reset your unlock points at a vendor.
• Shrines can be found and activated granting timed effects.
• Map uncovers as you move.
• Mission markers.
• Onscreen HUD is tidy showing objectives, Health/rage and EXP bar.
• Main and optional side quests.
• Addictive game play.
• Loot is like Diablo with common, Rare, Legendary and set item drops all different colour for identification. So legendary is orange and set is green.
• Much better experience with friends.
• Supports online co op.
• In game text chat available.
• Auto-saves regularly.
• Teleport to your hub for fast travel back from anywhere.
• Ink infested locations provide bonus off world experiences.
• Fun to play.
• Treasure goblin like beings that if killed will drop substantial loot but will try and run away.
• Huge massive open levels to discover.
• Hidden loot boxes, Chests, Totems and more.
• Wide cast of characters to interact with.
• Decent story.
• Monsters are varied and all have unique attacks and abilities. Monsters can be normal, Champions or elites which have a much stronger attack and bigger health bar but give better loot.
• You have two weapons on most classes. One melee and one ranged and its a click of the stick to change between them.
• Dark Gothic atmosphere.

Cons:

• A lot of man management time is needed. You have so many options/sections in which to spend your upgrade points that it gets a bit much. Then add on the fact you have to do this again for your follower.
• Loot for classes you are not playing as drops a lot.
• Small personal space and you have to spend valuable upgrade points to expand it.
• A lot of fetch quests.
• Some very cheesy voice performances crop up.
• Slow paced in single player early on.
• Loot progression in terms of getting better loot is a slow path.
• Some performance issues on all three of the visual settings like slowdown or screen tearing.
• Can get a bit tiring fighting off wave after wave of monster for very little pay off.