Disregarding the risk to repeat the beginning of my TIAVH2 review, let me state that the first Van Helsing game was a pleasant surprise that came out of nowhere, a different Action RPG that had a few cool systems and all-around solid gameplay in general. Let me also state that the second game wasn't as good, bogged down with weird ideas - separate classes, almost identical systems, a dumb cliffhanger, but that I still enjoyed it when it almost came out of nowhere. I had forgotten that there would be a third one, and I wish they hadn't made it - at least, not like that. It's bad, really bad.
Going from one good class with all around abilities, both in melee and ranged combat, able to switch on the fly depending on the situation to three classes - in the second game - that were so-so at best (I'm thinking about the class with a grenade launcher that took forever to fire) and now to six terribly bad classes only feels like a mistake to me. They all have something weird or broken going on. The defensive class has a shield ability that makes you stop moving and you raise your shield to block hits while not being able to do anything else, the mage has three 'wall' spells and a teleportation ability that reserves a percentage of your MP when you use it (???), the mech guy starts with a flamethrower that locks you in place and weird missiles that make no noise when they hit - nor impact, the constructor has this weird UFO that follows it and a beam attack that looks and feels like it's a laser pointer, the bounty hunter's basic pistol attack requires you to charge it for 3 seconds, otherwise it deals 25% damage and the 'rogue' class seems like it's made of construction paper.
Scratch that, all classes seem to be made out of delicate porcelain. Not to jump the shark here, but my character was built mainly defensive, I had a skill that redirected 40% damage to my ghost NPC buddy and I was playing on casual. I still got one-shotted by some random enemy that threw axes at me. I revived by paying gold, and got killed instantaneously, then uninstalled the game. TIAVH3 copies much from its predecessor. The hideout is the same, you still have the terribly boring tower defense mini-game, there is the chimera, your ghost buddy, perks that are mainly the same - from what I've seen - and even if the story and enemies and items are different, it feels like a worse version of the two previous games. Everything feels weird and clunky and there way less customization possible. In the previous games you could get passive buffs from filling skill trees and build your character that way, but with the fixed classes and limited choices, you can't do that anymore.
Is the game in Early Access without telling people? I feel that it's technically broken as hell too. Loading screens with background images that are literally the loading bar texture stretched is one sign of that, for one. The weird balance like I talked early on might be a sign of a rushed game as well. The missiles and beams that do almost no sound and have the physical impact of paper airplanes thrown slightly against the breeze and the targeting that 'sometimes' works. Also, this weird map where the ground is fractured and you need to walk on literally nothing in order to progress. In other games there were maps like that, but bridges of light effects - and comments from the characters about how weird everything was - made it feel like it was actually designed like that. Not just thrown around at the last second, even a quip from the main character would've made this section feel less busted.
I guess on the 'good' side, the humor is still okay. But a few funny lines here and there doesn't fix a bad action RPG. If it's unfinished, I feel a bit insulted for it being sold as-is. If it's the final product, that's even worse. In both cases, I won't jump up and down with joy, credit card in hand, to buy another Van Helsing game anytime soon.
