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| Victor Vran by Mischief Maker Yesterday, 4:44pm PDT | ||||
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I've never much liked the Diablo-clone "ARPG" genre because they feel more like RTS games with a single unit than the "action" games the A should stand for. But there is one glorious exception and that is Victor Vran.
It takes place in a vaguely Victorian horror world where you play the titular Victor Vran, a monster-hunter (voiced Doug Cockle, who played Geralt of Rivia) investigating why the kingdom of Zagorovia has been overrun by demons, all the while tormented by a mysterious voice in his head taunting him every step of the way. Part of the reason this game is so much more action-y than the rest of the genre is because it's not based on Diablo, it's based on Supergiant's "Bastion." Then they layered Diablo loot on top of the core action. As a Bastion-clone, the combat is slower and more deliberate than Hades, but VV's creators took things in a different direction. Many of the weapons in Bastion/Hades have a technique to them, usually holding the attack button and releasing at a flash for maximum damage. Victor Vran takes that a step further so every weapon has a unique technique to using it efficiently. The regular sword inflicts the "vulnerable" status on every third hit, meaning the next hit is an automatic crit, and its power attack instantly refreshes if it does a critical hit. The shotgun, if you hit the attack button with a certain rhythm, crits every subsequent hit. The lightning gun is super weird with you launching a slow ball lightning, then painting several enemies with the beam so the ball lightninig is attracted to them and bounces around a mob of demons like a deadly game of ping-pong. And there's several other weapon types each with their own individual techniques. To deal with Victor Vran's superior movement and weapon abilities, the enemies in this game move and attack faster and more aggressively than any Diablo clone. With wraiths zipping around the screen and dropping huge curse circles on the floor, vampires that do hit-and-run ambushes with their invisibility powers, and even the common stupid skeletons, if you don't time your weapon techniques right and gib them with an overkill, they'll reform right back to full health and keep coming for you. 
There's an easy explanation for why so many reviewers and streamers dismiss Victor Vran at first glance. A lot and I mean A LOT of systems are locked behind Victor's level (eg. item crafting isn't unlocked until you're level 15). There are actual builds and theorycrafting to be done in this game, but it doesn't really start until midgame, so I can understand a Diablo fan playing the first hour or two then dismissing the game as shallow. If you buy the game, you should get it with all the DLCs, but I do not recommend playing the actual Motorhead DLC campaign. It was made shortly after Lemmy's death, and despite the speed metal soundtrack the experience has this depressing funereal gloom hanging over the entire thing. Plus it doesn't DJ the motorhead songs very well at all and it can get annoying. Brutal Legend this ain't. But the DLC comes with several must-have skill cards for normal mode, so it's worth having. 
I've been bouncing between Victor Vran and Grim Dawn these last couple months, and while Grim Dawn has incredible build variety and I go gaga theorycrafting the perfect combination of skills and stats and zodiac blessings, the actual minute-to-minute gameplay of grinding out the XP for these theoretical builds made me literally fall asleep in my chair several times. Victor Vran, on the other hand, remains engaging despite me beating the game multiple times, because you've got to move and dodge and execute your weapon's technique properly. Victor Vran does for the repetitive grind of ARPGs what Lords of Xulima did for repetitive blobber combat. |
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Mischief Maker's unique and/or criminally underrated games list by Yesterday, 2:01pm PDT  Oh! Is Anachronox one of those games, MM? NT by Yesterday, 2:04pm PDT I confess I've never played it, but it seems like it would belong. by Yesterday, 2:22pm PDT Victor Vran by Yesterday, 4:44pm PDT |
