Van Helsing

"Devil May Cry With Hugh Jackman Instead of Dante"

Introduction

Having seen the rather entertaining Van Helsing movie, I had decided to give the game a try. As one can expect, the game follows the events of the movie.

Story

Van Helsing is the story of a man by the same name, who's out to kill evil monsters such as werewolves, the Frankenstein monster, and of course Dracula. The story of the game does not differ much from that of the movie. There are differences between the game and the movie however, both positive and negative. What makes the game worth playing is the inclusion of certain scenes detailing Van Helsing's background story that are not found in the movie. Such scenes however, are few in quantity. Most of the time, the game's cut scenes are but abridged versions of a particular scene from the movie. What's worse is that certain characters in the movie are completely absent in the game. In other words, if you want to know the story of Van Helsing, you're better off watching the Van Helsing movie or the animated Van Helsing: The London Assignment.

Gameplay

Van Helsing's gameplay bears an unusual similarity to Capcom's Devil May Cry. The developers of the game were clearly inspired and influenced by Capcom's popular action game. Although the game feels and plays just like Devil May Cry, the game lacks the amount of polish and refinement that Capcom's games usually have. Therefore no, this game is not what Devil May Cry 2 should have been.

Van Helsing begins the game wielding two handguns and his Tojo blades. He later acquires various other weapons, some of which are seen in the movie, such as the shotgun and the bow gun. Van Helsing can make use of both his firearms and his blades to dispatch enemies. He also has the ability to use enhanced ammunition with his weapons once the ammo is found. Hitting the L1 trigger gives Van Helsing a blue-ish glow as he unloads his enhanced ammo (this is basically the Van Helsing equivalent to Devil May Cry's Devil Trigger.) Van Helsing also can perform evasive rolls in four directions to avoid incoming attacks, just like Devil May Cry hero Dante.

The game also features a shop of sorts where you can purchase additional combat techniques and power ups to increase health and other such characteristics. Items in the shop can be purchased by using “orbs” that are collected from fallen enemies.

One difference is that Van Helsing has a grappling hook that allows him to latch onto high ledges that are otherwise inaccessible. Van Helsing can also make use of his grappling hook to start combos or to perform grappling jumps. Another difference is the fact that the controls are not as responsive as those found in Devil May Cry.

Overall, this game is not as intense or as challenging as Devil May Cry. However, because this game is modeled after one of the greatest action games ever made makes it is still an enjoyable game to play.

Graphics

The game's graphics are decent enough, but the frame rate is horribly low. The characters in Van Helsing don't bear much similarity with their real life counterparts. Van Helsing for instance, just looks like some square-jawed guy with a stubble. The game's environments are taken straight from the movie and are fairly detailed. Overall average graphics.

Music and Sound

The music in Van Helsing is quite good and well composed. I'm not entirely sure if the game uses the movie soundtrack or not. If it does not, then the music in the game manages to accurately convey the feel of the movie.

With regards to voice acting, this game features the voice of some of the actors who played in the movie. Van Helsing and Dracula for instance, are voice by their real life actors Hugh Jackman and Richard Roxburgh. Other characters such as Anna, is voice by a sound alike that doesn't quite sound like it. All in all, this game has some good voice acting.

Replay Value

Replay is below average. Many cheats are to be found as you play along. These cheats enable things such as a big head Van Helsing, translucent enemies, and other useless things of the same nature. Character stats and weapons are ported over to the next play through, which makes playing on higher difficulty settings a breeze.

Closing Comments

Unless you're a huge fan of the movie or of Hugh Jackman, I would not recommend buying this game. It is however, worth a rental.

Grade

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/04