Van Helsing - Preview From GamesRadar

GamesRadar has a preview of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing has all the standard action RPG tropes, so anyone familiar with Diablo or Torchlight should feel right at home with the gameplay. You'll travel through the three chapter story campaign, visiting town hubs, getting quests from the locals, and wandering out into the wilderness to kill creatures and gather more powerful loot. As you kill enemies, you'll level up, giving you access to abilities in the melee Warrior, ranged Occult Hunter, and Tricks and Auras skill trees. Each skill earned also has additional buffs which can be activated in combat enabling Van Helsing to chain a lightning bolt magic attack or make a more devastating sweeping broadsword swing.

The story kicks off in the country of Borgovia, as Van Helsing arrives at his destination with his ghost companion Katalina. Katalina is more than just an NPC that you'll have casual conversations with, she also plays a significant role in combat, acting as a pet character of sorts. She can take on different celestial forms that make her useful in either melee combat, ranged attacks, or support buffs and her skills and gear are customizable as you level up. Depending on how you wish to deck out Van Helsing with skills, you can use Katalina to compliment your build. For example, if you wanted to play a close-ranged melee fighter, you could outfit Katalina with ranged or support skills to lay waste to enemies from a distance.

We played through a small portion of the first chapter, which had us disposing of wolf packs and bandits, but it wasn't long before we were battling giant werewolves by the droves. The environments are detailed and dire, and the brutality of the vicious mythological creatures as you pass by slaughtered caravans and stranded villagers. The first town started us off in the forest area, which eventually lead us to a werewolf den and a more supernatural environment. After challenging an armored werewolf boss, he transported us to a dreamworld called the Ink, which tasked us with destroying minion spawning beacons before the boss could reveal himself.

With that, our demo was ended, but The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing looks like a promising experience for those looking for a new action RPG. Be sure to check back for more information on the game as we get closer to its release later this year.