14 DAY TRIAL // Victor Vran, Haemimont Games' action role-playing game, came out of nowhere but is very welcome to the party.
The genre suffers from not enough variety, as aside from Torchlight 2, Diablo 3, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2, and Path of Exile, there aren't many games you can pick up and play in case you want something a little different.
Victor Vran, in spite of its perhaps uninspired and cheesy name, manages to deliver and experience that puts a few spins on the classic action role-playing game formula.
For starters, you control your characters using the WASD control scheme, instead of clicking on the ground where you want them to go, like in the examples provided above.
That alone manages to make combat feel fresh, as you can jump, perform dodge rolls, simply move to the side in order to avoid incoming projectiles, and the list goes on.
In addition to this, the mere fact that you can jump means that you no longer have to go around each and every knee-high fence or boulder in the game, but instead jump over obstacles or take shortcuts.
Of course, as with any ARPG, you get a wide assortment of weapons and skills, but this time around, the skills aren't divided by class, but instead each weapon type has two specific abilities on cooldowns, and you can swap between two weapon configurations on the fly, in order to find the one that better suits the engagement.
The game is very engaging so far
In addition to this, the titular Victor Vran can also employ the use of demonic powers, by using a mystical resource gained during battle, and use destiny cards, which bestow certain passive bonuses.
The monsters themselves are pretty varied, from run-of-the-mill skeletons to powerful elementals and huge bosses.
Throughout each "main" level, you can find a couple of secondary dungeons, each of them having a five specific challenges that give you gold and experience bonuses upon completion.
These can range from killing a number of enemies without using potions or getting damaged even once, to killing a boss within a certain time limit.
Overall, the character customization options are pretty satisfying and allow you to approach the game in the manner you prefer, from blasting your foes apart form range with a shotgun, to relying on the finesse of an armor-piercing rapier to get the job done.
There are also certain consumables you can employ in battle, apart from the now classic healing potion on a cooldown, and you can even increase the game's challenge with hexes that you can place on yourself, offering small bonuses such as bonus experience at the cost of deadlier foes.
The game looks good so far and plays pretty well, and it's definitely one to keep an eye on if you're a fan of the genre looking for something new, especially if using a controller instead of the standard mouse and keyboard appeals to you.
