an Helsing II, I'm sorry - I messed up. Well not entirely, let me explain. I still felt a bit of an ARPG itch after Van Helsing 2 and decided to see if the sequel improved in a major way. My first impressions were not good. The game isn't so much of a "true" sequel and more of a part 2. The skills from level 1-30 (the cap from the prior game) are exactly the same. While some new enemies are introduced, and thankfully the UFO is rarely used, the graphics and levels are exactly the same. Other than one daytrip to a frosty mountain, you don't venture to a new locale and instead explore new districts of the same city; defending it from the big bad General Harker, leader of Frankenstein's army. In the rubble of your the first games finall boss fight you find Prison Seven. A specimen of the previous mad scientist who has been merged with the Ink, gaining control of it. The enigmatic figure is helpful, but the writing is so on the nose that he's not to be trusted and is going to betray you. Trying to get you to steal power for yourself at every turn, and that's exactly how the game ends. The tower defence returns here but is thankfully much shorter. A new mechanic that I always enjoy in games since I first experience in AC: Brotherhood is the mission hub. Command and train special teams to go on ops and help change the course of the war in favour of your resistance. Unfortunately it's little more than a dumping ground for your spare gold; in return receiving gold and the occasional item. The cutscenes are appreciated, even if they're a little outdated and redundant, like the rest of the story. You can see how they've come considering how food they are in WH40k Inquisitor Martyr. I don't think I mentioned the voice acting in my first review but I think it's fantastic; especially for Helsing and Katarina. Again, equally phenomenal in Inquisitor Martyr.
Overall I was ready to write this series off entirely, and power through to the end skipping all side content. All this was compounded by the fact that I had to level through the exact same skills from level 1, or so I thought. As it turns out you can import you character, a feature the game does a terrible job of letting you know about. So after too many hours tinkering with the Steam Deck to try and get the import to work on Linux, I finally had the idea of installing the games on my PC so I could sync the saves and create a new character. Once I did this I was ready to throw away my level 18 imposter and pick up where I left off from the first game. And to my surprise I enjoyed it. Not only do they bring over all your loot, giving it a much more seamless feel but they improve all the skills and look. The skills no longer feel like arbitrary number increases, an experience familiar to anyone who has used Excel. Instead now they have unique abilities that allow for much more creative build craft. The first ability I got was one that splits the bullet, which I could upgrade to pierce more enemies and split more. It also had frost and would freeze them, awesome. Compound this with a new ability that has a knockback affect to keep the elites at bay and now we're cooking. I never got rid of the poison shot with it's vulnerable because I love and it's just too useful; not to mention its good for the tiny hordes of rates, bats and more. By the end of the game I had a shot that would explore into a thousand ice shards, cutting down and freezing the hordes; while Hex shot would continuously increase an enemies vulnerability, and stack. By end game, these skills in combination with insane gear and stats in the hundreds had me at DPS of 5000 and hitting crits as high as 20k. The game always scaled well as well and just fulfilled that loot porn power fantasy to round of the game. It was the complete antithesis to the first game, which had dreadful scaling.
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| The new skills almost singlehandedly redeem the gameplay, I just wish I was able to use more. |
The enemies also improved a lot with cyborg ghouls, floating steampunk octopuses and more. Even though we ended on a high note, I had more than enough of my fill to continue with Van Helsing 3. I was sick of two games of Borgovia and being limited to five abilities, which really holds the game back as it did WH40k Inquisitor Martyr. My curiosity to see where Prison Seven goes is mild at best, the story does not hold any of my attention, and considering the third game has mixed reviews and the first two weren't really my cup of tea despite having positive reviews; I'd hate to see how bad that one is. Instead I think I'll end it here and see the conclusion to his journey elsewhere.
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