Victor Vran - Tropico devs take on Van Helsing

Haemimont games dips into action-RPG. Coming to Early Access.

Cool, I’ll keep an eye out. Won’t bite in EA though, still have Adventures of Van Helsing to spend some time with.

Interesting. I’ve really enjoyed Van Helsing 1 and 2 (with 3 on the way) so they have some stiff competition. But I’ll keep my eye on this.

Even if the genre did anything for me (it doesn’t) these guys haven’t risen above the mundane since Tropico 3. I see nothing to get excited about here.

So they had quite a few updates now, and I’ve been looking for a fun ARPG I can play with a controller. Has anyone else here played it, or will I have to be the guinea pig here? :)

THERES A VAN HELSING 3??!!!

Not yet, but it comes out in May, I think.

So a big patch for the game dropped today, and it’s pretty much the release version now. Voice acting is in, and the voice of the titular character sounds exactly like Geralt of Rivia. If it’s not the same voice actor, it’s a pretty fantastic impersonator, because it is exactly like Geralt’s voice.

As for the game, I’ll have to play the release version more, but it’s pretty good. I’ll report later.

This is out of early access now.

I’m having a great time playing this game. It plays great with a controller, too.

I’m a sucker for a Diablo clone, so here we go again with just a little bit of encouragement from rhamorim and a couple of reviews I’ve read with the different skill upgrades all sound different enough for me to try for $17.99 at GOG.

I bought this game simply because it’s an ARPG that controls with WASD/gamepad! I bitch about this in pretty much every ARPG thread, click-to-move just has so many limitations and obnoxious pathfinding type issues.

I think I’d rather play a game about Doctor Tran, but this looks like fun too!

Ugh, totally opposite here! I have no idea how you can control movement in an isometric game with WASD keys, it is totally unintuitive to and awkward for me. I pick a point in the map I want to move to with a mouse, my character moves there. Since most RPGs use click to move I’m not sure what the limitations are as it seem to work very well. I won’t buy a game with WASD if it is third person. But different strokes for different folks ad the saying goes.

A goes left, D goes right, W moves forward, S moves back. It’s intuitive to me, it’s no different than a shooter out a third person game like WoW. In any case, it’s playable with a gamepad as well.

The limitations of click to move are that your movements and your attacks are tied to the same mouse location and it also needs to rely on pathfinding to get from A to B, instead of just being able to control which direction you want to go. Say I’m an archer on the bottom left corner of the screen and I’m shooting at a nasty boss with a devastating fireball range attack in the top right of the screen, while the rest of the area is filled with enemies and a few pillars to duck behind for cover. To attack the boss I have to move the mouse cursor all the way to the top right. But I also need to dodge a big fireball, which means I now need to move the mouse to the opposite corner of the screen. Unfortunately, when I do so in haste I accidentally click on one of the monsters chasing me. Instead of moving behind the pillar to avoid the fireball, I now pathfind in front of it because the game thinks I’m trying to shoot the chasing monster on the other side. Now my guy walks into a fireball and dies.

In a situation where I’m controlling with WASD, my mouse is kept on targeting the boss and I can tell the game exactly what I want to do, which is moving down and to the right behind the pillar. No misinterpretation of an attack on a nearby monster, no pathfinding miscalculation sending me up into the path of the fireball, etc.

Having movement location separated from targeting location also opens up things like dodging, rolling, etc.

You guys’ disagreement is totally moot in regards to Victor Vran. You can play with WASD or click to move, a la Diablo. However, I can’t imagine playing Victor Vran using anything other than a gamepad. But all three control schemes are thoroughly supported.

-Tom

I’ve tried both the default and gamepad options. I should check out the mouse sometime too, but for now I’m really enjoying the gamepad. It works great.

Personally, I would like to see builds that aren’t so “weapon focused”, but their system works well and has some interesting synergies based on the specific details for each weapon attack type. They have plans to bring some more caster oriented “weaponry” to the game. I gifted a copy to a friend so I’ll see how well co-op works tonight!

…Development will not end today. We will continue to improve and update Victor Vran with free features and content. Here is what you can expect in the near future:
[ul]
[li]The free Tome of Souls DLC will introduce a brand new weapon type that unlocks new active abilities and a spellcaster playstyle. Of course, there will be legendary tomes of forbidden words and endless power, such as The Nekonomicon and Fifty Shades of Slay.[/li]> [li]The free Highlander Outfit DLC will open even more character build options and an exciting new look for the title character.[/li]> [li]The free Cauldron of Chaos DLC will add a huge new map which will offer a randomized layout, encounters and daily challenges.[/li]> [li]A Local Coop multiplayer mode will allow two players to play together on the same system.[/li]> [/ul]

I’ve been streaming this with a gamepad and loving it. I’m also a big fan of wasd/gamepad movement over point and click in aRPGs.

Does anyone know if there is an “end game” replayability to this title? In typical ARPGs, you’d go up in a higher difficulty and/or hunt for super awesome items or whatever once you’ve beat the game. Does this do something similar, or is it more finite in the sense that once you complete the content you’re done? I’m fine either way, I’ve just had a hard time finding this info.

This is all I could find from a couple weeks ago:

The Bottomless Pit is a randomized arena that scales difficulty with each round of encounters.
The Elite Challenges are a second tier of harder challenges that appear when you finish the story.
You can always test your skills and build against other players in the PvP arena, or grind for items to use in Transmutation.
We’re now working on two other features (Bounties and Treasure Hunts).

EDIT: Bounties and Treasures were added to the game via the update on July 16.