Product Description

The third-person action game, Van Helsing, transports players back to the macabre world of 19th-century Transylvania--home to the legendary Dracula, Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster. As the renowned monster hunter Van Helsing, players must hunt down and destroy the evil that inhabits these ancient lands before darkness engulfs the world. As players progress through Transylvania and the strongholds of Castle Frankenstein and Castle Dracula, they'll encounter untold fiends and evil minions including the legendary dark prince Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's Monster and Igor as well as a host of original creatures created for the game including stone gargoyles, fell sprits and banshees. To help turn the tide of darkness, players can dish out double-fisted damage with a devastating arsenal of melee and ranged weapons including tojo blades, scimitars, pistols, a shotgun and a hand-cranked Gatling gun for maximum carnage. Additionally, players will be able to utilise Van Helsing's signature grappling hook to escape impending doom, explore the game-world and unleash devastating fatality attacks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2752 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sierra
• Released on: 2004-05-14
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: PlayStation2

Amazon.co.uk Review
Van Helsing is clearly a movie that was made with a video-game version in mind. Considering the film is an almost non-stop barrage of action sequence after action sequence it translates very well to video-game form--even if it doesn't necessarily make for a classic movie.

The game is very similar to action adventures such as Devil May Cry and Castlevania. Indeed the movie itself seems to borrow deeply from the latter, with its mix of vampires, werewolves and just about everything else that goes bump in the night--not to mention a heady mix of gas-powered weapons and props. The game is more accessible than Konami's classic though and features 14 levels of undemanding but fun entertainment with your various weapons and the Batman-like grappling hook offering plenty of variety even when the bad guys start to get a little samey.

The only real disappointment with the game, if you assume it was always going to be a fairly simplistic action title, is the graphics; although far from substandard, they certainly don't live up to the incredible effects actually seen in the movie. The voice cast, including Hugh Jackman, all provide their talents for the soundtrack though, which does help considerably. If you liked the movie then this game can be recommended fairly easily but if you didn't, or you've never seen it, there is still much worse you can buy for the same money. But then again there's also a lot better. --David Jenkins

Customer Reviews

nice little time-killer
Well, having played this game I can safely say: "Its devil may cry in a new outfit"
Theres the exact same "shopping" system of collecting and then trading orbs - or in this case glyphs - to upgrade your artillery, as well as gun in one hand blades in the other style fighting. The fighting system is the same - you enter an area and a range of bad guys pop up which, the more you kill and in fancy ways, does the same thing as DMC whereby you get a better rating at the end of the level. Its is THE same game but a lil bit slicker, the enemies are better, and as a whole its a better concept

Essentially - if you liked DMC you will LOVE this, but if you arent fond of the 3rd view style - avoid it. It plays quite tricky and infuriating at times, but all in all its a gorgeous game which can be replayed quite a few times as it has a number of cheats built in that you find through the game, as well as difficulty levels.

Holz
Van Helsing takes you hunting for Dracula, The Wolfman And Frankensteins monster in Translyvannia.If you have been to see the film then you'll love the game and you have loads of weapons to fight with like a gattling gun and tojo blades and of course van Helsings grappling hook. The graphics are good and there are fourteen levels of adventure.

Van Helsing
I just beat Van Helsing last night, and to be honest with you my thoughts about the game are a little mixed up. On one hand, I believe individuals' who are interested in gothic things (like vampires of course) will absolutely love playing the game. Now I have never seen the movie (yet) so I can't say what I think of the game graphics as compared to the film, but personally I thought they were all-right. I think the game developers got a bit confused there. In my opinion they put one of the hardest monsters to beat at the end of Mission One-Frankenstein. And I don't even want to think about Demon Aleera again (Mission 11) For me, she was the toughest to beat of them all, and Dracula was easier to vanquish than her! So on the pack of Van Helsing's case it says something like twenty-two monsters to beat. Well, they never said some of those monsters would be repeated over, and over! Like, Frankenstein, Dracula, Velkan. And not to mention the locations of the missions as well. For example if my memory serves me right...Something like Frankensteins' Castle, Return To Castle Frankenstein, and Beseige Castle Frankenstein? I realize the developers were probably only doing that to give us gamers something that seemed 'realistic' but I think they could have given some variety to the locations.