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 TL;DR: Victor Vran is a very polished, multiplayer arpg which focuses on dynamic movement in combat. If you like arpgs you should buy it and play it. Official site Steam store link metacritic page I am a big fan of arpg games, especially diablo 2, diablo 3, torchlight 2, Titan quest, The adventures of Van Helsing, Sacred 2 and Path of exile. I like min/maxing and theorycrafting. I like clicking my mouse a lot. Above all else, I really enjoy being rewarded for clicking my mouse a lot by watching some numbers get higher. Victor Vran has all this and more. Victor Vran is at it's heart a very traditional arpg but it has several massive differences that make it into something very unique and ejoyable. Visually, it looks suspiciously like a much more polished version of "The incredible adventures of van helsing" games, (although that is not really a unique intellectual property for video games) but it's not really a "classic" arpg for several reasons that I will briefly explain. It's very positively reviewed on steam too, if that helps. Focus on movement In Victor Vran, you can dodge and jump. Every enemy attack can be dodged and in fact, this is the main focus of the combat. You can also jump over enemy attacks. You can even jump off walls to get higher and make your way to higher levels in the maps for secret areas, shortcuts, or to gain a vantage point from which to kill your enemies safely. You can even press LMB when mid jump to stomp on the ground and knock enemies back while cancelling any skills they were about to cast. While there are some builds that allow you to tank attacks while standing still, the entire game is really built around this dynamic movement. I personally think it has the most excellent implementation of "movement as defense" in any arpg. Here is a video that does a good job of showing how fluid the combat is in this game as well as a few of the different weapon types. You'll notice how he switches weapons regularly and regularly dodges around and over enemy attacks. It also shows the wall jumping. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gQlkABOBlE Skill timings and different playstyles A lot of weapon skills have various timings and "mini games". The first example that comes to mind is shotguns. If you take the default LMB shot as soon as it comes off cooldown, it applies a vulnerable effect which makes your next shot a crit. If you kill an enemy with your charged shot, it refreshes immediately so shotgun combat ends up being about timing these shots (which, incidentally are timed nicely to work in between dodge rolls).  The tome's LMB shoots magic bullets which cause an enemy to drop charges. Collect these charges and you can consume them to use a special skill without cooldown (There's also a legendary tome which makes laser cats fall from the sky when you collect 10 charges but the less said about that, the better). Combat with tomes ends up being about dashing around the battle collecting charges to keep your powers up indefinitely. The sword’s LMB does a basic attack that can cleave other nearby targets, but every third attack will apply Vulnerability to any target’s hit. Vulnerability in Victor Vran makes the next attack on the target have a 100% chance to be a critical hit. The sword’s Q attack is a heavy damage dealing attack with a good length cooldown, but that cooldown is eliminated if it critically hits. So using the LMB attack three times to apply Vulnerability to ensure a critical hit on the Q attack is a very powerful rotation. The synergy doesn’t stop there. The E skill is a single target stun, but will also stun all nearby enemies if used on an enemy suffering from Vulnerability. There are lots of different weapon types in the game, these are just a few examples. There are also "demon powers" – special defensive or offensive skills that require a build up of overcharge to cast. You can equip two weapons at the same time and switch between them at will. Use one weapon until all the cooldowns are in effect, then switch to another weapon and do the same. By the time you switch back to the original weapon, the cooldowns are refreshed. No classes  Your abilities are determined by the type of weapon you have equipped, your armor, and your destiny cards. While playing through the game you can completely change your playstyle numerous times if you get a great weapon drop, or want to try something new out for variety. Your armor changes your defensive stats but also the way in which you accumulate overcharge. You can accumulate it by attacking which rewards a "beserker" approach, or only via crit which rewards a high crit build and there are more traditional caster builds that accumulate overcharge over time, meaning you can always have your most powerful abilities available when you most need them, such as at the start of boss fights. The destiny cards affect numerous attributes such as armor penetration, crit chance, movement speed, weapon damage, consumable cooldown, health, life steal, crit damage, and lots of very unique and useful effects such as dropping a bomb every time you dodge or causing a massive aoe explosion on crit.  There really are a lot of creative ways to combine these cards with different weapon types and armors and end up with a character that plays in an entirely new way.  Replayability and challenges  Every area of the game (of which there are a LOT) has it's own challenges that reward replayability and give you in-game currency, xp, or high quality weapon drops. There are challenges to use certain weapon types, kill bosses without taking damage, finding all secrets and many more besides. If you want to 100% the game you'll need to do them all. There are also "hexes" which are modifers to make the game more difficult in exchange for more xp and in-game currency and a fair amount of the challenges involve using them. There are PvP zones, epic boss fights, some genuinely humorous interactions and a secret shop owner called Geban who has some steaming hot deals for you. It's polished, has solid netcode, is relatively original in what has become quite a stale genre and I liked it enough to make this post about it. So give it a go yea?
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Jan 10, 2016 11:42
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 00:49 |
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Here's a compilation of the boss fights which may contain spoilers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7toPIBE_RKY And here's a couple of builds to show you how the card/armor/weapon system works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v86WymyOe0M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOols4rn8zU
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Jan 10, 2016 17:26
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Bout to necro the poo poo outta this thread. Just picked this game up in the humble bundle a couple of days ago and haven't heard of it at all beforehand but drat it is fun and the ease of changing playstyles and map challenges keep it constantly fresh. I don't know why this thread was DOA but this game definitely deserves some love.
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Apr 8, 2016 05:13
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This game is great and worth people's time.
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Apr 8, 2016 05:18
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Yeah, it's really good. The game's logo/box art make it look super cheap, which I think is a problem? But it's a game that definitely shouldn't have a one-page thread.
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Apr 8, 2016 07:01
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John Lee posted:Yeah, it's really good. The game's logo/box art make it look super cheap, which I think is a problem? But it's a game that definitely shouldn't have a one-page thread. I passed by it when I saw it on steam because it just reeks of "cheap rear end knock-off." I may have to give it a shot though. I've seen a bit of positive press about it since. It really looks like a z-list diablo clone with the media they chose to represent it. Iron Prince fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Apr 8, 2016 |
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Apr 8, 2016 07:06
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I passed over Victor Vran because I thought it was by the Van Helsing ARPG dudes, but that doesn't appear to be the case? How good is this game on a scale of Van Helsing to 10?
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Apr 8, 2016 07:11
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Iron Prince posted:I passed by it when I saw it on steam because it just reeks of "cheap rear end knock-off." I may have to give it a shot though. I've seen a bit of positive press about it since. It really looks like a z-list diablo clone with the media they chose to represent it. It's on the humble bundle right now and if enhanced steam's price checker is right you can pick it up for the cheapest it's ever been along with a bunch of other games. Usually I get bored super quickly with arpgs and Diablo knock-offs because they're usually just "click on some stuff until it dies and then repeat that until you go insane" but this one is nothing like that. It actually reminds me a lot of Jade Empire with the emphasis on movement and player skill over bigger numbers.
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Apr 8, 2016 17:49
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Got it in the bundle and this game gets my seal of approval. Every weapon except the lightning gun is fun so far (and the lightning gun even seems like it might shine in co-op), and playing on hard mode you can one shot things by setting up good combos, which is very satisfying. The developer's dedication to improving quality of life is amazing as well, with the map showing where you've been and fountains refilling. It's kind of a disappointment that movespeed bonuses take up a card slot, even though that inconvenience is all but expected in other arpgs, just because this game gets so much right.
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Apr 10, 2016 11:53
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This isn't an ARPG in the diablo clone sense. Really its a modern day gauntlet with platforming. Its a cool game and people should buy the bundle and play it.
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Apr 10, 2016 12:48
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 00:49 |
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Agreed, this is very good and each weapon playstyles stand on their own. There's a bunch of challenges and the likes to keep you interested. Like Byolante said this is really more like a modern Gauntlet game (which is extremely my poo poo).
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Apr 10, 2016 16:32
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