Victor Vran

I just finished the main quest of Victor Vran and now found out about the treasure hunts (searching clues to get additional rewards) and the bounties (killing specific monsters to get additional rewards) which are not available if you only play offline. I knew that treasure hunts and bounties existed beforehand, but since there was no NPC or whatsoever handing them out during the game, I thought that they would become available once I finished the main quest. And now I find out that no: these things are locked behind some third party account and were basically available from the start if I had know about them. You can understand that this was a very frustrating discovery for three reasons: 1. The game did not explain to me how to access treasure hunts and bounties and let me play through the whole campaign without knowing that they basically have been there all the time. 2. The game does not give me access to treasure hunts and bounties which could extend my time with the game without creating an account with the developer for whatever arbitrary reason. As the game is, I would give it 3 stars which in my rating system means ok (solid game with noticable, fun-diminishing flaws). It starts out fun, but can get a bit tedious in the second half as enemies turn more bullet-spongy and further equipment upgrades are minimal and laborious to craft. However, the fact that there are some game features that could have enticed me to keep playing the game after finishing the campaign but that are locked behind some kind of DRM on a platform like GOG that claims to promote DRM-free games, brings it down to 2 stars for everyone whose stance towards DRM is similar to mine.

Video Review: https://youtu.be/3YRbF77zgkY Victor Vran is an isometric action RPG in the style of the Van Helsing games. It’s actually in that style in multiple ways. They both draw on pretty much the exact same lore, but just change some things around. In Victor Vran you play as a lone hunter of all things monstrous and evil in nature. You get to pick your weapons and learn how to best use their abilities while upgrading your gear. There’s also demon powers as well which are all skills that get dropped by enemies or that you can buy. The game surprisingly lacks an actual skillset of unique character based skills. This surprises me because it has a very similar class system to Van Helsing. It just lacks anything to add any meaning to the classes other than the base stat differences. Most of your time in Victor Vran will be spamming the same 2 weapons abilities over and over with the occasional demon power or potion. It’s very simplistic. The graphics are what you’d expect from an indie ARPG like this. The sounds are all on par, and the voice acting is very interesting. They got the voice actor of Geralt from The Witcher. I find this so funny because no one in the steam reviews seems to know that when they mention it and I see plenty of comments bash on him for being a horrible voice actor. The cutscenes are rare and mediocre and all dialogue is just text on your screen that is read by the voice actors. It’s a very low-budget game in this regard. The story is likely something most ARPG players don’t care about and luckily for you the game doesn’t have much of a story. That’s the thing with these diablo-esque ARPGs. They’re entirely based around fighting and killing a large amount of enemies to improve your gear and get better drops and things like that. (To see the full review, since the full review doesn't fit in the GoG review box, view it on steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Resoula/recommended/345180/ )

Note: It's a shame that a few gamers here rated the game a star not because of the game but because of the 1 time code input. To me if you can write a review then I'm sure you can also enter a one time code and then play offline all you want in your secluded world! A serious facepalm to them!! Anyway, I've been playing this game since it was in early access and it's a very good arcade style action RPG. This is especially fun to play using controllers but K/M is not too bad either. The game is a "weapon based system" instead of a class based so please be aware of that before purchasing. At first few hours it plays simple with only a few selection of attacks to choose from but as you gain level you unlock more like 2 switchable weapon on the fly (can pause to inventory and choose other weapon if desired), 2 demon powers and 2 item slots. The passive in the game is represented by destiny card that also progresses as you level. There's crafting, there's 5 in-game difficulty changer (cursed hex) that you can toggle on/off at anytime, there's a lot of challenges that is separate from achievements. The game has a lot of content for a 20 bucks game. I recommend this to any action RPG fans out there.

Really wanted to like this game but it just doesn't do it for me. Controls are quite ok but just not tight enough. Maybe it's the jumping that feels out of places. On the other Hand it's a bit funny fleeing from enemies jumping over hedges. Combat is ok but doesn't feel heavy. It's too lush. There is no "bam-hit-monster-in-face" Feeling. (No brachial sfx, death/hit animation or a little stop-frame(s)-on-hit in the animation.) I am not feeling like beating hords of cracky old skeletons to pieces. Everything that makes slashing in these kind of games so satisfying it just feels washy. The Animations always move out to slow. Every sword-swings full - there is no on-hit-feeling. Feels like Fruit Ninja :D or a mobile game in general. Really wanted to like the setting and see a fresh take on these games. Gave up after an hour or so. The game does nothing really wrong but everything is not so well executed, at least to my taste. Maybe try I'll again one day. ...out of Nostalgia. Oh G o(h)G. Even in a 15min Diablo2-Session during lunch-break I am still grinning everytime I hit a ghoul in the face! After all those years. If you want to copy the masterpieces analise 'em a bit more and improve on that. Graphics and Animations are one thing but sometimes you have to take a little bit away to get that arcady- and brute-feeling. For my taste to shiny and toony and not so dark/gritty/edgy. It could be much more.

An H&SARPG game, with a more direct control, ability to change your build between the missions, and a very flexible system, with a lot of really good synergies between mechanics. Usual for the genre “hardcore mode” is implemented much better — instead of killing the character, it just makes him softcore. That is a good mechanic to encourage adult people to even try hardcore mode. Online mode is kinda neat, it’s somewhat community driven, but is not strict about it and speeds up the grind. Thematically it is set in the draculoid universe with comical undertones, though most of it’s comedy is just references (and already dead ones — Gangnam Style and Stanley Parable ~2018) and mediocre narrators’ commentary. And the protagonist don’t even interact with them. Controls are somewhat awkward for no reason and reek of peasantry. The implementation of AA is broken, but without it the games works just fine. Overall it belongs to it’s genre, so it can be easily picked up, but also is different enough to be fresh.