Van Helsing

"Hold On to Your Hat!"

Remember back when all licensed games were incredibly bad? Van Helsing is an action game based upon the movie of the same name. You take on the role of Van Helsing, mysterious hat-wearing monster hunter, as he journeys to Transylvania in pursuit of Dracula in this particularly excellent little game. Van Helsing is what a licensed game should be!

GRAPHICS (8/10)
The graphics are good, but nothing especially outstanding. There are some nice reflection, smoke, and sparks of electricity effects that add to the look of the game. The characters closely resemble their movie counterparts, though some of the models are better than others. Environments are well detailed (though you will be revisiting most of them at least once) and enemies and bosses have a good coolness factor.

GAMEPLAY (10/10)
The gameplay of Van Helsing borrows heavily from other action titles, the first Devil May Cry in particular. Van Helsing is armed with an excellent variety of weapons, both ranged and melee, and can be equipped with one of each at the same time. The weapons ranged from the standard handgun and shotgun to more exotic implements of enemy-destroying such as the gas-powered crossbow, a pair of round saw-like blades, and even an eclectic gun that shoots lightening. Weapons can be switched out at any time and are also used to solve certain puzzles and open certain kinds of doors. The X button controls your ranged weapon (it can be held down for continuous fire), the Y button controls your melee weapon, and you can target enemies by holding the right trigger. Van Helsing can perform some pretty spectacular combos with different combinations of these buttons and is also capable of some acrobatic moves when you throw jumping, rolling, and dodging into the mix. Defeating enemies fills two meters, one that allows Van Helsing to perform super-powered attacks for a limited amount of time and another that lets him perform a finishing movie that automatically destroys the enemy it targets with the exception of bosses. There are thirteen missions in the game and nearly all of them contain at least one boss fight. Combat is smooth, fluid, fun, and quite often downright awesome. Defeated enemies drop glowing green orbs called glyphs, these are the currency of the game and can be used to purchase upgrades, new moves, and recovery items in between missions. Some missions also contain platforming elements and a few simple puzzles. Van Helsing is also equipped with a grappling hook-type device that you will use quite often throughout the course of the game. The game does present a pretty good challenge on normal mode (easy and hard are also available), but if you do happen to die you are sent back to the room or area you were in before that unfortunate event, which cuts down on any possible frustration. It should also be mentioned that Van Helsing can lose his hat during the course of a mission (enemies and bosses can knock it off and, yes, you can pick it back up with the B button), and the games notes whether you finished each mission with or without the hat. Perhaps the only true complaint with the gameplay is that there simply is not enough of it. The game can be finished in a matter of hours your first time through and some of the missions are miserably short. The addition of a few more missions and areas would have been a great improvement.

CONTROLS (10/10)
The control system can make or break an action-heavy title like this one, lucky the controls are both responsive and intuitive. No complaints here. The only annoyance is the camera system. The camera angles in the game are fixed which can present a bit of a problem for seeing the action at times, though in my experience the camera was not too bad.

SOUND (10/10)
The actors from the movie provide the voices and the background music is great.

STORY (7/10)
The story of the Van Helsing game follows that of the movie but with some marked differences. I won't go into them here so as not to spoil the story of the game or the movie for anyone but if you have seen the movie you will notice some major differences. I would have liked to have seen the game follow the movie a little more closely, but the story is always secondary to the action in this style of game and it is by no means bad nor is the story element completely ignored. The best part is that you get to take control of Van Helsing and relive some of the more awesome moments.

REPLAY VALUE (7/10)
This is a relatively short game and you will probably see and do everything that you would like to do on your first play through. You can always go back and play the game through on hard mode, which allows you to unlock a few more secrets and cheats (most of the cheats are for pretty worthless stuff though, like a big head mode, tiny enemies mode, metal body, etc.). There is quite a bit of hidden material in the game and plenty to unlock.

FINAL SCORE - 9/10
This is an excellent game and I enjoy it so much that I would like to give it a 10, and I would if there were a few more missions or the existing ones were longer… and thus there were a few more hours worth of game. I can't bring myself to recommend that you pay full price for it unless you are a really big fan of the movie or this sort of game since you could rent it and do most everything in a couple of days. So, I would say either rent or wait until the price goes down. Van Helsing is definitely worth checking out, especially if you liked the movie or you are a fan of games like the first Devil May Cry.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/10/04