This DLC adds a considerable chunk of gameplay to the main game. That chunk is well made, meaningful and on par with the rest of the game so it never feel like an afterthought. You get more quests, story and lore, new items and perhaps most important – more AP to develop your characters.
This is one of those games, where ample amounts of care, thought, talent and even bravery to issue an alternative to mainstream, are obscured by a screen of a probably malfunctioning main component and some bad dev choices. The bases of a captivating experience are all there: a multi-threaded and interesting story, characters that are full of character despite being a bit too stereotypical, voice acting done well, well written dialogs with good humor in appropriate spots, art and graphics that I find fascinating, good RPG elements including char development, nice sense of exploration, battles are for brain-users and can be reversed by on wrong move or failed spell. The frustration roots deep into the very foundations of the above. First, the random numbers generator appears to be broken, which means very frequent series of failed attempts to hit/spell/special ability, despite 90-95% to succeed in said attempts. Combine it with fragility of winning any single battle from the pros section above + only being able to save the game outside of battle + battles can last as long as an hour, and you find yourself wasting a lot of hours due to retry. Second, that good character development is affectively limited because 1. you really should develop your protagonist to be a magic user since redirecting the pre-set development direction of the rest of the party is a complete waste of scares skill points, 2. There are only enough skill points to go one narrow and unfulfilled way and there is no redistribution option. Third, the cheap difficulty spike: the party consist of 5 char for the most of the game – one is killed mid-way but is replaced by another, yet after you spend the second half of the game developing the other to its unique role in a tight 5 members party, it ends up gone before the last series of battles… mind-controlled by the main villain so you are now left with a huge hole in party strength with no alternative. Wait for a greatness-liberating surgical patch…
It has been a while since I played an ARPG of any sort, so this game gave me a very warm welcome back to the genre. The experience is very immersive, the graphics and animations are excellent, the leveling system and abilities for the character type I played are satisfying and able to support different play styles – for both the protagonist and the along sidestar, all dialogs are voiced, nice humor, good soundtrack, smooth game mechanics like the Combo System and smooth overall gameplay. In addition, since this game is focused on that ARPG experience, I did not find any game mechanics that are alien to the core elements of this genre. Sure, the game could have benefit from a little more diversity in quests, extended use of Van Helsing lore, the game is a bit short and the item creation system was not worth the effort even after its full upgrade. Yet in my opinion, for that price tag, these are not issues at all. Personally, I appreciate a marketing plan that does not trick its listeners and is perfectly clear about what are the consumers receiving in the exchange. I enjoyed playing the game ad hope you do as well.
Point-and-click fans, know this: this game uses puzzles as secondary element that is there as a light activity to do while the story progresses. However, this issue actually appears to be intentional, because the emphasis here seems to lay on light gameplay that ultimately enables the devs to convey a sound message. That message conveys through a branching and complex story that holds several good turns, lengthy yet well-written dialogs and thoughtful characters that have intertwining, maturing relationships. The story mixes up global warming, time travel and a rescue mission (don’t worry, this is not a spoiler) and gameplay switches between two playable characters depending on what angle is best in consideration with story progression. Other positive pillars includes beautiful scenery, a welcome use of comic-style story telling and excellent voice acting that manages to successfully convey an urge to take action. Other than that, the game would really befit from spicing up all of that seriousness with even a small dose of humor, the soundtrack is ok with some slips towards not noticing it is there, animations are a bit corky and that lightness-of-puzzles attitude made me, as a fan of challenge, do other stuff while playing. All in all, this game can easily be finished over a weekend, and if you play through it with the right mindset, I think you will earn a nice experience that is intended to be more cerebral in ideology and calls you to make a change.
I will keep it short: total immersion, fun and smooth even today. Enjoy :-)
What a weird game… the premise goes by the usual protagonist-saves-world, but that is just the surface of the story. You quickly finds out that he constantly acts against all warnings, but this reoccurring theme and the way it is delivered to the player annoyed me after a while and really made me wondered why it's done so. Throughout the journey, you will meet characters that will either try to demotivate the protagonist or try to help him. Everybody have a main personality trait that defines them, yet the most of them are witty, funny andor charming. The scenery is beautiful, the voice-acting is well done, the puzzles are ok-ish with little need for external help, the story is flat up until the very end of the game and the meta-ideas for life placed by the dev are humorous. like the two stones, for example. Where the game fails is with the protagonist's attitude himself to world, which is far from positive: his attitude is always look on the bitter side, always complain and moan. The constant elongated whining was way, way too much. It made me hold on to all the good stuff and harshly repress the never-ending negativity, and after push to the end – the ending stroke such a cord within me, moved me and made me cry. Good cry of sympathy and care. My heart goes out to the family this game is its inspiration. I read the reviewers who stopped playing because of the whining issue and I understand completely. I do believe, however, that this game has a lot to offer if you successfully ignore that issue. For me, even though I finished it months ago, this game's ending is not forgotten.
Many good thing went into this game: an interesting story, characters that are full of character despite being a bit too stereotypical, char continuation from the first game, excellent round protagonist, voice acting done well, well written dialogs with good humor at appropriate spots, art and graphics that I find beautifully fascinating, good RPG elements including a well suited char development and leveling system, good gameplay mechanics both in and out of battle, nice sense of exploration, battles are for brain-users and can be reversed by on wrong move or failed spell. There are a few hiccups, though. You cannot effectively explore the char dev system because you really should build the protagonist as a magic user yet the total amount of skill points for is insufficient to make a complete mage, thus limiting gameplay. Secondary char progression in unfulfilled. Only a few side quests. I did not use most of the interesting battle mechanics (playing the organs, mainly) because it took too much to get to them and simply doing damage was better. The progression is quite linear on the world map. There is an issue that made a comeback from the first game: a cheap difficulty spike at the end of the game. Without spoiling anything I can say that a challenge is good, but a forced intervention is a needless frustration that yanks out the fun. It should be noted that the game is rather short and feels like a narrowly focused single campaign. Furthermore, in the second half of the game the content runs out and there is not much to do but battle. Thumbs up to the devs for listening to the feedback and criticism made about the first game, and fixing the vast majority of it. Personally, I enjoyed the game and much like vonFreiwaldau before me, I too hope for a Blackguards 3, which will take the best from both installments.
