Is it worth it and what edition to get if it is ?

[Rockco]

title

[CaleoGaming]

Its quite alright, a little steep in terms of difficulty imo (Enemies seem to hit ridicilously hard).
I personally got the Anthology to save money overall.

[Migromul]

It's kind of a Action-Adventure in Iso-Perspective. Much more story and - especially - more dialog, than other diablo-clones. And enemies only respawn, if you set this feature in the options. (it exists at least in part 1.)
I also bought the anthology. I want to play the whole story. You also could buy the final cut, but it seems you will get this, if you buy Anthology, and the final cut didn't get very positive reputation. AND you get Deathtrap, a Tower-defense-game in the Van-Helsing-world.
Of course, the anthology costs 2,50€ more. (6,99) and deathtrap costs 1,99, if I remember correctly, so you will spare 0,50€, if you combine final cut and deathtrap... (compared to anthology including deathtrap.)

If you like diablo-clones and story and good dialog, then it's definitly worth the 6,99.

[HiFive]

All of the Van Helsing games, along with the Torchlight games (especially Torchlight II) are my favorite games. They are my "home-base" games that I keep going back to. I will experiment with other games, or thoroughly explore them, but I always come back to these games when I am done because I never get tired of them.

[HiFive]

As far as what edition to get, some good explanations are here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/400170/discussions/0/451848855027089261/

[Rockco]

should i get the base game or all the dlcs for this game?

[HiFive]

Originally posted by Rockco:

should i get the base game or all the dlcs for this game?

I like all content for this game except the tower defense one, since I don't like tower defense in general. VH1, 2, and 3 are continuations of the storyline, but each one can be played as a complete stand-alone game with a final boss. If you get all 3 games you are eligible to get a free copy of the Final Cut version of the game, which merges them into one continuous game that has all the changes made in the VH3 game, and a few other tweeks. The instructions to get the free Final Cut are here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/400170/discussions/0/490125103628159104/

Some of us like the original VH1 and VH2 the way they are, although we also have Final Cut.

[Celendrin]

This is a surprisingly good 'overall' game, but with kinda janky somewhat lack-luster combat.

The music, ambiance, characters, setting etc are all far better than what you would expect, especially compared to most trash games on steam nowadays, but the combat is 'floaty' and doesn't have weight or solidity to it. : ((

If you want something to 'relax' to at night, get 'lost' in, explore, level up, build a character find cool equipment - but without picking stuff up every two seconds (like some arpg's that turn the game into a tedious 'inventory management simulator' (ahem Grim Dawn ahem), then you'll really like this game.

If you want something with rock-solid combat, tight responsive controls, where every nuance of your skill matters, this is -- Not -- it !

(the 'combat' in this game is basically spamming your attack and hoping you have more Hp than the enemy to survive the 'hp attrition' rate till you, or they, die)

(If you want incredible top-down combat play Victor Vran or 'Kill to Collect' )

Overall I am very pleasantly surprised by these titles, but at the same time the combat turned out to be a let-down.

However, keep in mind this game (I believe) was designed around mouse+keyboard controls, so that's part of the problem. The fact they made it into a working controller compatible top-down arpg deserves credit to the devs.

[HiFive]

Originally posted by Celendrin:

If you want something to 'relax' to at night, get 'lost' in, explore, level up, build a character find cool equipment - but without picking stuff up every two seconds (like some arpg's that turn the game into a tedious 'inventory management simulator' (ahem Grim Dawn ahem), then you'll really like this game..

This statement gave me a chuckle. I doubt many would agree with you. Nevertheless, everyone has his favorite style of game. The Van Helsing series and Torchlight 2 happen to be perfect for my style and purposes. If anyone needs them to be more invigorating, they can just play them on hardcore. On Van Helsing, you don't even need that. Just play on the Very Hard or Heroic difficulty.

Van Helsing 2 is actually my favorite of the 3 original games, for it's variety: Maps are indoors, outdoors, in caves, in cities and you even get several war zones. There are plenty of skills and powerups on both Katarina and Van Helsing to make the game as complex or as simple as you like. You have tower defense mini-games that you can do yourself or assign to your generals.
Endgame has an Endless Story option where you replay the game over and over as it gets harder and harder; it also has a Scenario option, with sets of varied mini-games that you must complete with certain added challenges. They are very enjoyable, but hard at first. The Chimera is lots of fun to play with as well. You can craft your own gear and weapons, and it requires some skill to do it well. Adding essences to items is also an interesting part of the game. I'm sure there's a lot more that I haven't thought of at the moment. It's really a solid, good game.

I DO have "Victor Vran", and tried it a little bit, but as soon as I started Van Helsing I was hooked and didn't get back to Mr. Vran. I plan on trying him again soon, however. I hope I can stick with that game longer to give it a solid try.

I have not heard of "Kill to Collect". I will look that one up. I like to take a break from my favorite games every once in a while, and I keep looking for other games to add to my home-base games that I always return to. Currently I just have Torchlight II and the Van Helsing games for that.

[Celendrin]

" Originally posted by Celendrin:

If you want something to 'relax' to at night, get 'lost' in, explore, level up, build a character find cool equipment - but without picking stuff up every two seconds (like some arpg's that turn the game into a tedious 'inventory management simulator' (ahem Grim Dawn ahem), then you'll really like this game..

This statement gave me a chuckle. I doubt many would agree with you "


Out of curiousity what part did you not agree with? lol the Grim Dawn thing?

I'm not trying to 'bash' Grim Dawn inadvertantly, but for comparison purposes to Van Helsing you can see how much controller support makes all the difference.

Grim Dawn was such a huge disappointment words cannot express, after beating Titan Quest I was beyond pumped to get Grim Dawn.

Even though I knew it was only mouse+keyboard I was like, 'eh Titan Quest was still fun', even though I wished GD had controller support.

Well what a let-down it was, I beat the whole first difficulty half-asleep looking at the walls in my room simply spamming (anywhere on the screen) some 'roots' spell, literally level 1 just killing everything in sight.

I beat the whole 1st difficulty and I don't think I added more than 2 points in my skills or attributes, it was a total joke.

Then, okay I thought, "alright well that was the first difficulty, this second one should actually be some challenge right".. (keep in mind this is me crying half the time cause I wanted it to be controller supported so I could actually do melee and enjoy the game, but nope, only m+k..)

So start second playthrough, well, turns out where first playthrough was just spam-clicking the same dumb op spell over and over (which made no graphical sense, the 'roots' didn't matter where they showed up since 'everyone' in a massive area was affected by the spell anyways), well the second playthrough was 'do you have the right resistance armor on?'

The second playthrough you could still kill guys easy with the root spell, but now 'they' could kill you, if you didn't have the exact resistance armor to the element the enemies were using.

Well what does that mean? Since you're constantly loaded full of gear you had to constantly go to town, 'redo' your armor set, store the rest, go back to the fight, rinse-repeat.

I mean, and this is from the guys that made Titan Quest.

Never mind how obnoxious the m+k playstyle is, constantly clickclickclicking everything - you DO click more to 'pick up stuff' (both to open items and pick gear up off the floor) than to -- Actually Play the Freaking Game -- (as in 'attack', move, explore, etc).

I mean this is insanity any top-down game dev - Not - making their game full controller support should be charged with a crime against humanity, how many people spent hours of their life picking garbage off the floor in these games than actually having fun or doing something productive?..

lol, anyways.. GD was by far the biggest disappointment in my gaming 'career' lol..

(and if you do get Kill to Collect, and like it, give me a shout I'm playing it lots)

[HiFive]

" Originally posted by Celendrin (partial quote):

If you want something to 'relax' to at night, get 'lost' in, explore, level up, build a character find cool equipment - but without picking stuff up every two seconds (like some arpg's that turn the game into a tedious 'inventory management simulator' (ahem Grim Dawn ahem), then you'll really like this game.."

Response by HiFive (partial quote): "This statement gave me a chuckle. I doubt many would agree with you "

Response by Celendrin (partial quote): "Out of curiousity what part did you not agree with? lol the Grim Dawn thing?"

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Well, now you really have me confused as to what you were originally talking about when you were referring to something to relax and go to sleep with, I thought you were talking about Van Helsing, and that is what I was saying a lot of people would disagree with.

The stuff about Grim Dawn is amusing, though. I play Torchlight II a lot and quite frequently people from Grim Dawn will get on the Discussions for Torchlight II and promote Grim Dawn. They kind of make a regular habit of it. So I finally bought the game because it was on sale. Then I watched some YouTube videos and saw that it was almost exactly the same os Diablo 3 - just different, very similar-looking maps. Same type of graphics, etc. It's as if the same team made both Grim Dawn and Diablo 3. Well, I have thoroughly explored every class and difficulty level and end-game content in Diablo 3 and I'm done with it. The story and graphics were always too dark and morbid for me anyway. Also, I didn't like the graphic style in most places. So I am thoroughly done with that game and get bored within minutes every time I try to play it again.

Anyway, when I saw how similar the 2 games are, I decided not to play Grim Dawn, except as a last resort. So, along you come and tell me all this about Grim Dawn, and I can't help but start laughing! The poor Grim Dawn people!

Regardless, we are on a Discussion page for Van Helsing, so all of my comments were in reference to Van Helsing.

I've been busy answering other questions on this and other game pages so I haven't looked at "Kill to Collect" yet. I'll try to do it now.

[Celendrin]

"Well, now you really have me confused as to what you were originally talking about when you were referring to something to relax and go to sleep with, "

Yeah lol it was just 'relax with' not 'fall asleep to' lol,

That is ironic you thought that though cause I literally wrote that in my first review about Grim Dawn, it was so 'drone-like' to just repetitively use the same spell/skill over and over and it was far too easy in the first playthrough so it ended up putting you to 'sleep' (in a bad way), so many people were outraged at that review etc pfft..

Yeah the GD people really come across as 'fan-boys' I hate to say.

After playing VH I can see why it has such a popular following, it definitely has 'character' and a smooth flowing fun-factor to it's gameplay (not combat but the whole gameplay 'experience' overall aspect), something Grim Dawn completely lacks.

Remember Kill to Collect is not some kind of 'rpg' it's like the old Smash T.V. but with tactful melee combat, so be aware of that lol.


I made a long post regarding the importance of 'controller support' in Zombasite forums too, cause that game is great it has a massively expansive leveling / skill system, but the horrendous m+k controls ruin the flow of the game.

You know sadly I find games (or the 'devs' that make them) are a lot like people, I learned over the years people don't listen well, doesn't matter how 'good' the idea is (such as full controller support etc), and even when a game has a super awesome 'positive' factor (Grim Dawns character skill design, Zombasites leveling and world system, etc) when you try to 'promote' an improvement in them, they tend to be hard-headed and don't change.

Interestingly though you find games like this that 'get it', make the appropriate changes/tech design (some kind of controller support), and they get the job 'done', it's a good fun game.

Point I'm getting at is I see games are like people, you can only do so much to nudge them in the right direction, but ultimately you have to let them 'go' and just focus on the games (devs/people) that are worth your time, (support,buy and play the games that include the 'good' things you want, like controller support etc..)

Anyways sad to see so much great potential in games (like Grim Dawn, Zombasite etc) go to waste cause of very important design decisions missing ..

[HiFive]

Okay, Celendrin, I looked at "Kill to Collect". Sorry to dissappoint you:

1) It's not my type of graphics. Not a game-breaker if there are other good features, though.

2) Even though it can be played solo, it's designed to be played co-op, preferably with 4 people. I played MMO's for a while and I am totally done with multi-player games. I have absolutely no interest in any type of multi-player game, period.

3) I don't like the music at all. As with most games, I would turn that off.

4) The pictures and videos on the store page make it look like an arena type of game. This would probably get really boring for me. Graphics and different, very interesting, maps are a big thing for me. Also, I love lots of graphic detailing, so I'm really into Van Helsing-type graphics (I'm also a huge fan of Steampunk). The arenas also look somewhat monochromatic, which is not appealing to me.

5) Again, graphics: I don't like the look of the characters.

So, maybe someday I'll get bored with everything I already have in my Library and give that game a try, but probably not. I might be passing up a fun game, but there are just tons of others I would rather try first, so I don't think I would get to that one.

I know you are hoping to find others to play the game with, so I'm sorry I can't help out with that, but maybe someone else will look it up and find it interesting.

[HiFive]

Partial quote from Celendrin:

"You know sadly I find games (or the 'devs' that make them) are a lot like people, I learned over the years people don't listen well, doesn't matter how 'good' the idea is (such as full controller support etc), and even when a game has a super awesome 'positive' factor (Grim Dawns character skill design, Zombasites leveling and world system, etc) when you try to 'promote' an improvement in them, they tend to be hard-headed and don't change."

Programming sophisticated games is extremely complicated. Some changes are feasible to do. Some are just not worth the huge rework they would require. What can be changed easily on one game may be very hard to change on another. For instance, there was a request, some years ago, for the developers to make Van Helsing accessible for Linux users. The developers worked on it, and even got a bunch of people to participate in a Beta test. But they soon discovered that it just wasn't worth it, and they put the project on hold. Luckily there is now another way for Linux users to make Van Helsing work on their operating system.

So anyway, don't be too harsh on the developers, especially the Indie developers. They really want to make the games work for as many people as possible, but there's a ton of different types of components being used by gamers, and trying to accomodate all of those is not an easy task.

[Celendrin]

Originally posted by HiFive:

Okay, Celendrin, I looked at "Kill to Collect". Sorry to dissappoint you:

1) It's not my type of graphics. Not a game-breaker if there are other good features, though.

2) Even though it can be played solo, it's designed to be played co-op, preferably with 4 people. I played MMO's for a while and I am totally done with multi-player games. I have absolutely no interest in any type of multi-player game, period.

3) I don't like the music at all. As with most games, I would turn that off.

4) The pictures and videos on the store page make it look like an arena type of game. This would probably get really boring for me. Graphics and different, very interesting, maps are a big thing for me. Also, I love lots of graphic detailing, so I'm really into Van Helsing-type graphics (I'm also a huge fan of Steampunk). The arenas also look somewhat monochromatic, which is not appealing to me.

did I quote that right? (sorry I'm not a steam chat pro so not sure I quoted that properly), anyways yeah the thing with 'KTC' though, is it's kinda a 'unique' game.

It's one of those games where 'looking' at pics of it don't do it any justice, I tried to find vids online saw some, etc, none of them begin to give you the 'feel' of how it is.

The graphics (still-shots) are 'meh', but when you see how 'smooth' the animations are, how solid the shots feel and look, the physics of how the enemies 'splatter' when you whack them, I mean it's rock-solid top-notch game-play.

It just 'feels' right, smooth and buttery and everything just 'flows', and that's not getting into the combat either.

What makes it unique (and why I recommend it even though there's like 100 other games that 'look' like it etc) is it has this very difficult, but rewarding, combat mechanic system.

The devs basically set it up you can't 'spam' attacks, if you just keep hitting attack at any given enemy you'll basically be dead in 3 seconds.

You have to constantly weave in and out dodge, hit, move, hit, dodge etc it's amazing. I don't expect any of that to 'convince' you to play or anything but I'm just rambling a bit cause it's about how 'looks' can be very deceiving when it comes to getting a feel of a game.

I wish they would make an rpg based game using that kind of combat style it would be amazing (also the characters all have unique moves/traits, so the teamwork aspect leads to fun 'greater than the sum of its parts' lol, if that makes any sense).

I consider KTC to be a hidden lost gem on steam, especially when so many other 'top-down' games vie for your attention but none are anything like ktc.

The music thing I found interesting that game has some of the best music I ever heard!! lol, but you probably don't like that synth-wave retro-techno fair enough.

I love how you clear out rooms systematically enemy by enemy, I just noticed Van Helsing has 'non-respawning' enemies is that right?..

Hmm I'm not a fan of that, : P..


Cool though I appreciate just being able to talk about a game getting the word out, anyone reading these forums can check things out and see what they think,

(and why aren't you into mp games anymore? I find as I get older I enjoy mp games other than how annoying it is to get people together to actually play them, lol.. )

[Celendrin]

What did you mean by 'Arena' type game by the way? I didnt' quite get that