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Van Helsing Preview for Xbox
Posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 @ 05:13:30 pm E.S.TVan Helsing, night-crawling, vampire hunting creature of the night, informal dealer of justice to such murderous beings as the bloodthirsty Count Dracula and interiorly splitting Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, has transcended the dark, gothic world of Bram Stoker’s Dracula to gain a foothold in the new millennium. This May, Van Helsing will not only be slaughtering the box office, but Xbox and PS2 gamers around the world will be able to eradicate monster-kind through Saffire and Vivendi Interactive’s loose interpretation of the upcoming movie.
To put it slightly, Europe is in a state of disarray. Hellish creatures, monsters, and quite generally anything that goes bump in the night have all converged on Europe’s Western front, raiding the countryside, pillaging small villages and cemeteries, and holding entire cities—like Transylvania—under their rule. Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, eradication specialist, has been personally addressed by the Vatican to put a stop to all this madness, and the good Doctor fully intends to do so.
Armed with an array of weapons, such as dual pistols, a crossbow, and tojos— tell-tale buzz saws that spring from Helsing’s arms and reduce enemies to bloody mush—the good Doctor won’t have to deal with Hell’s minions unassisted. Also in Helsing’s arsenal is the classic double-barreled shotgun, accompanied by an old-fashion, hand-cranked gatling gun and a one-shot-kill elephant gun as tall as Frankenstein’s monster. Another unique weapon/tool, the grappling hook, will be present in the game. With this inventive device, Helsing can not only reel monsters in with the expertise of a sea-hardened fisherman, but with it he can also navigate past deep gorges and holes in the earth, much as the also-fictional Spider-Man uses his web-slinging abilities.
All those weapons should come in handy, too; while on his quest from Paris to nineteenth-century Notre Dame and even Transylvania, Van Helsing will encounter enemies of every variety. Minions of larger creatures of yore (like Count Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the silver-fearing Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, and even Igor) will come at Helsing relentlessly throughout the game, sometimes twenty at a time. They’re arranged by a Command and Conquer-esque ranking system, with captains being the most fearsome and powerful, warriors making up the middle-class, and the infantry to serve as Helsing-fodder. When Helsing kills enough of these minions, an on-screen meter will be filled, making the good Doctor’s weapons turn blue. The transfigured weapons allow him to devastate anything in his path, obliterating infantrymen and captains alike.
Though hands-on reports of Van Helsing have deemed its gameplay a bit too similar to that seen in the Devil May Cry series, they’ve also confirmed that the game is spectacularly fun. Helsing will be able to rack up multiple combos at the same time, chaining them together with his ever-useful grappling hook. He’ll also be able to desecrate enemies with Mortal Kombat-style finishing moves, which will change depending on which items you’ve acquired throughout the course of the game. For example, if Helsing has one item, a ‘finishing move’ might include fully decapitating a petrified enemy. Holding a different item, though, Van might be able to cause white-hot light to shoot from every inch of an advancing baddie’s body.
Thus far, Helsing controls well. He can utilize the typical jump and double jump, in addition to an assortment of rolls. Combos can be executed easily; the game only leaves players the task of attacking enemies and pointing the analog stick in the right direction. A number of both fixed and player-adjustable camera angles throughout the game should allow players to navigate Helsing easily through the game’s immense levels, though we can only hope that the game will be able to evade the awkward camera angles provided so often by games in the third-person perspective.
Van Helsing’s excellent lighting and particle effects are nice, but be warned: beyond this, developer Saffire is by no means reaching for the graphical stars on this title. In fact, Saffire predicts the PS2 version of the game will run at about thirty frames per second, while the Xbox version will move a bit faster. And while it doesn’t meet standards set by games like Halo and Prince of Persia, Van Helsing’s graphics should keep the foreboding mood of both the original Dracula novel and the upcoming Van Helsing flick, which, I assume, was Saffire’s goal in the first place.
As far as audio goes, Van Helsing should be enjoyable; not only is the score being performed in full by the acclaimed Seattle Symphonic Orchestra, but all sound effects are straight out of the movie by the same title. In the way of movie-related voice talent, all actors (save Kate Beckinsale, who portrays Anna, Helsing’s vampire-hunting sidekick, in the movie) have agreed to share their talent with the interactive world.
Unfortunately for some, Van Helsing will exclusively be a single-player game; currently, the game features no co-op, LAN, or split-screen play of any kind. And though the Xbox version of the game been made ‘Live Aware,’ it’s safe to say Helsing is built around suiting one player at a time.
If you’re interested in third-person shoot-‘em-ups, if you’re an old horror movie and novel buff, or if you’ve just got a case of ‘Helsing fever’ (as I do), Van Helsing is probably the game for you. Even though it lacks—at the moment anyway—multi-play and it seems rather unremarkable, the game looks extremely solid and should be tons of fun to play. PS2 and Xbox gamers should be looking for this one May 7th.
Preview By: Stealth52 - 702 Reads
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