Van Helsing - Thaumaturge DLC Review

Gaming Trend takes a look at the Thaumaturge DLC for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing.

The character itself seems a little like a glass cannon, and I’m not sure that the ghostly sidekick, Katarina, is up to being a full tank. She does well enough with hordes of weaker enemies, but when a named monster appears she doesn’t last too long. In my limited time, I found a surprising multi-class built in – Thauma-jogger. Facing off against weaker enemies, the otherwise-named wizard can more than stand his ground - rage enhancements help take down enemies faster but I found myself running a lot more than I’d expected when larger swarms of enemies appeared.

All in all, the entire skill tree is powerful, and if you’re looking to revisit the game after having beaten it (as I now have), the Thaumaturge DLC is worthwhile. Playing around with the spells is cool, and I get where they couldn’t just tack this on as a third alternative to the hunter class. Also, if you haven’t played Van Helsing, then I’d also recommend getting it, though it is by no means a must-have. If you do pick it up, don’t expect the DLC to fix anything of any significance (that I noticed) from the original game, and you can be sure your wizard will be getting a healthy cardio workout.

I really hope that NeocoreGames puts more polish into the already announced sequel, and looks to allow us to move between classes and reuse existing characters. There is something truly endearing about the world and characters they’ve created. A full retread isn’t going to happen here, but it’s nice to see that they’re expanding the character classes to include magic, and with some fantastic in-game combat visuals, it’s easy enough to lose track of time playing it.