The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Final Cut

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 10:10 pm

The Van Helsing series of ARPG's consists of three titles (I, II, and III, of course), and this Tuesday they will release the "Final Cut" version which is a consolidated version of all three in one game. I loved the first two. The setting was different - a fictional country in Eastern Europe - Borgovia - inundated with monsters and "mad science" (think crazy steampunk) which our titular hero has to deal with. You are accompanied by a great companion NPC, a ghost Katarina, who keeps Van Helsing in his place with a series of wise cracks and put downs. The game was also full of pop cultural and gaming references. The writing and plot were pretty good for an ARPG given that this seems to be pretty disposable for most of these games, IMO. The games were also a great value, they cost about $15 each, and I put in over 30 hours in each of the first two.

That said, the third was a disappointment. For some reason Neocore totally revamped the game for the third installment. More classes were added but at the cost of you not being able to import your character from the first two. And the skill trees were redone and streamlined with a level cap of 30 (note, I was level 60 when I finished II so you see the problem). This was very disappointing. Because of this I originally did not purchase III.

However, Neocore announced and will release this Tuesday the Final Cut version free to all who purchased the first three. This a reworking of all three games. The complete story is there (though certain side quests have been dropped and other certain missions may not be there, and others added), and the skill tree has been revamped once again. They are also adding a lot of post game content. They promise at least 50 hours of game play through the story with a level cap of 80 for story mode and up to 100 for post game content.

All of the details including a video can be found here:

http://www.neocoregames.com/games/the-i ... /overview/

The first two were my favorite ARPG's and I am looking forward to getting the Final Cut on Tuesday (I finally bought III on sale just to get the Final Cut). If you haven't bought the first three I think the cost if $45 or so.

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 10:52 pm

Well damn, I see the GOG sale is over now.

I knew nothing about the series, but in reading about it, I thought it sounded good, so I picked up the first two games for 75% off ($5 each) this past week. Then, they dropped the third game right in the middle of that sale. It was (and still is at the moment) only $7.49, but I held off due to the bad reviews. Then, I read about the Final Cut, so I grabbed the third game as well, so I could get that.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 11:17 pm

Glad you picked it, hope you enjoy it!

One correction, the release date is 9/23 which is Wed, not Tue. I assumed it would be a normal Tuesday release but I guess I can wait another day

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 11:46 pm

I have VH I & II on steam. If I buy VH III on GOG will I be able to get the Final Cut for free?

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 6:25 am

Enigma wrote:I have VH I & II on steam. If I buy VH III on GOG will I be able to get the Final Cut for free?

From their Q&A on their website:

Q: Will the Final Cut be released on other digital stores?

A: It will be distributed on Steam, the Humble Store, Gamersgate and GOG.com.

I assume this means that if you have all three on GOG you will get the final cut free. But you may want to ask specifically on their forums.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 10:59 am

It's on my wish list (well, the individual games) but I've never pulled the trigger, not even when it was less than 5 bucks.

Being able to get all 3 in one game increases the odds of me picking it up, but I'll still have to wait for an insane deal, because I don't know when if ever I'll get around to playing it.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 9:08 am

Aargh, it's been delayed until Oct 7!

http://press.neocoregames.com/newsletter/122

What will I play until Wasteland 2 Final Cut comes out?!?

Good news is I have verified that if you have the three games on Steam, GOG, or any combination thereof, you'll get the final cut for free:

Anyone who owns the Van Helsing trilogy on GOG or Steam, or GOG and Steam mixed will get Van Helsing: Final Cut for free! No matter what. And there's more: We'd love to give Final Cut for free for those who buy the trilogy after the game is already released...and it seems like we can! It just needs a little more testing.

Jaddison · Post by **Jaddison** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 3:51 pm

Finally playing this and having a bit of fun though like all games like this I felt compelled to try all classes.

So far my favorite is the protector mainly because I get to use Excalibur!

Metal/mechanical suit wearing isn't too bad either.

Anyone else playing? Still haven't found all hidden content in Chapter 1 though I really have no idea where some of it might be.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:14 pm

I was playing it until Fallout 4. I'm about midway through, the rest will have to wait

I was enjoying it very much though.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 11:14 pm

I liked the first two. They didn't grab hold of me and not let go though. I think Ive kinda out grown some of my favorite game types over the years and acquired others. The first game took me two plays to get into and I think i did maybe 1/4 of the game. The second one I started in the lab and once out I took a break and never got back to it. I think Ill skip the first game and just go back and play the second one when Im ready.

In fact I think Ill reinstall it tonight..like right now. Thanks for the heads up.

Oh before I do...any opinions on classes...I like the classic Van Helsing with guns and swords...not really a magic user in this game...is there a summoner? I think I may have been engineer last time.

EDIT: I also get lost picking a character class and the skill system just drives me nuts with SO many options . I never know what to choose.

Jaddison · Post by **Jaddison** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 1:28 pm

I think if you own any of the 3 you get Final Cut for free which is all the games together and all classes.

There is a mechanical summoner class and and separate mechanical suit class, There is a magic class as well. My favorite is the protector because I wield Excalibur! The I am enjoying both the mechanical classes as well. The stealth assassin not so much and magic guy ois not all that fun yet either. Bounty hunter is okay.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 2:56 pm

Jaddison wrote:I think if you own any of the 3 you get Final Cut for free which is all the games together and all classes.

There is a mechanical summoner class and and separate mechanical suit class, There is a magic class as well. My favorite is the protector because I wield Excalibur! The I am enjoying both the mechanical classes as well. The stealth assassin not so much and magic guy ois not all that fun yet either. Bounty hunter is okay.

I don't think u get the final cut for free if you own ANY of them, I think you have to own ALL of them. I have the first 2, like the ranged version of the basic swords and guns class.

Make sure in your skills, you get some AOE, you will run into MANY MANY MANY large packs of numerous mobs. And at least one focus skill for hammering boss/elite types. Though some of the AOE (scattershot type of attack for example) can hit the same target with multiple hits from one attack if they are big enough/you are close enough). And like any of these games, don't ignore your resist/defense/health-mana regen.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:29 pm

Haven't restarted yet....really not sure which class to be or skills to give a go. Can anyone offer up a class to start with thats good for a beginner of this series?

Jaddison · Post by **Jaddison** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:38 pm

The protector class has been the easiest to play so far. Set you companion on ranged and have at it!. Bounty hunter is pretty easy as well.
If you go protector make sure you get the legendary sword you can pick up through exploration and quests.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:05 pm

How is to play a Contraptionist?

EDIT: Oh wait. Im speaking of VH2 not VH3...sorry. I dont own 3. Least I dont think so lol.

Jaddison · Post by **Jaddison** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 5:38 pm

They aren't bad to play. You start with a big whirling gun barge floating behind you. Right now I have mechanical spiders as my second ability. Companion is melee and we pretty much plow through anything,

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 5:20 pm

Awesome! Steam just gave me a 66% off coupon for VH3! Brought it down to $5.10, my price point. Game purchased and downloading now. After that's done, have to look into how I get the final cut. Then... I know what I'm gonna be doing for a while.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:56 am

I got the Final Cut version unlocked easily enough. Mildly annoying that I Have to start over and could not continue with my shooter guy from the first 2 games, but not the end of the world. Playing the summoner guy (after trying all 6 of them through the first part leading up to the first town).

Really like the summoner guy! Missed one of the 3 gems for the statue in the first town. Ended up playing through with another character who find them all so I could figure out where I'd missed one on the summoner. But eventually got that. Now I'm in what was the second game, just got my Chimera tonight. FLUFFY!

Have great fun with this game! Really have to say this is worth a look if you like ARPG games (more like Diablo than Titanquest I think). The ghost companion banter is particularly amusing to me. (Though I can see where it would get seriously annoying if you were not into that sort of thing).

Now I'm just trying to remember what I had to do to unlock the "item melter" that converts items to essences - gotta keep Fluffy fed!

KDH · Post by **KDH** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 5:51 pm

GOG releases The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Final Cut

33% off = $29.99 ... (You save $15.00) ... The 33% discount will last until June 8, 10:59 PM UTC

note:

Monstrous loyalty discounts: get the Final Cut for FREE or almost for free!

The Final Cut has been a long time coming and we know that a lot of monster hunters out there have been anxiously awaiting for its GOG release. To thank you for your unwavering patience we've hunted down some pretty awesome loyalty discounts which will last an entire month:

- If you own even one Van Helsing game on GOG.com, the Final Cut is 90% off
- If you own two games, the Final Cut is 95% off
- If you own all three games in the series, you can get the Final Cut for free!

The loyalty discounts will last until June 30, 12:59 PM UTC.

NOTE: The three Van Helsing games are no longer available for purchase separately but have been added as bonus goodies to the Final Cut. To sweeten the deal even further, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut can also be redeemed for free through GOG Connect until June 8, 10:59 PM UTC.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 6:03 pm

Damn I own 1 and 2 but on Steam.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 7:11 pm

Daehawk wrote:Damn I own 1 and 2 but on Steam.

WIll GOG connect put them on GOG for you too and then you can get the Final Cut for 95% off?

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 8:35 am

Just not sure I want to link my Steam account. I guess Valve wouldn't go for it though if they didn't think it was safe.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:09 pm

Looking at this closely I will have to do a little dancing to get a discount.I own 1 and 2 but on Steam. And even with the GOG Connect those two are not games that are transferable . SO no go there.

BUT...if I buy the code to 1 from G2A and redeem it at GOG then I can get 90% off Final Cut. So FC is 33% off now bringing it to $29.99 . I buy that first game for $8 and get the 90% off $30 that should bring my final cost to around $10 for both 1 and the FC...not bad.

My only problem may be GOG not honoring my G2A code since they no longer sell VH1 now.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Fri Jun 03, 2016 12:20 am

Just did the GOG connect. I had bought all 3 parts individually on Steam and got the free code for the "Final Cut". When I look in my GOG account, I now have all 3 individual games plus the Final Cut.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Jun 03, 2016 12:31 am

Wonder how that worked? The 1-3 ones are not transferable it told me. Maybe since you had Final Cut which is that it gave you the prior ones.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Fri Jun 03, 2016 12:35 am

I think you are correct. It did not tell me it was transferring the individual games, just the Final Cut. On the other end of the spectrum, it transferred Gal Civ3, but none of the DLC.

Fortunately, I'm not relying on this GOG connect for anything, just thought I'd check it out and see what it did.

Hope you get something figured for a good discount Daehawk!

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Fri Jun 03, 2016 12:19 pm

You may need to make sure that you set your Steam profile to Public. I did the GOG Connect thing yesterday and it found 0 games. Remembered that sometimes it can't read your library unless you give access to Public. Did that and it found 14 games. I will set it back to Friends Only now

KDH · Post by **KDH** » Sat Jun 04, 2016 7:05 am

Zenn7 wrote:I think you are correct. It did not tell me it was transferring the individual games, just the Final Cut.

the original 3 games are included as "GOG goodies" in the Final Cut ... and are no longer sold separately at GOG

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sat Jun 04, 2016 9:10 am

I own The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing on Steam and GOG does not give me any kind of discount after connecting my GOG and Steam accounts. I made sure to set my Steam profile to 'public' but nothing happens, it just says it found no games. I don't have the game installed on Steam, currently. Maybe it can't detect games in your Steam library unless you have them installed? That would be dumb but, in any case, it doesn't work which is disappointing. I'd love to have that 90% discount.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Sat Jun 04, 2016 10:17 am

No they don't need to be installed (most of the games it found I didn't have installed on Steam). I think the issue is that they don't sell the other games on GOG anymore. As Zenn7 experienced, I have all the games listed now but only the Final Cut was copied over from Steam (which I got for free on Steam)

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sat Jun 04, 2016 10:57 am

Ah, okay, thanks IceBear. That makes sense.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Sat Jun 04, 2016 12:06 pm

I'm wondering if it's even worth it for the Final Cut? Everything I read says 1 and 2 are great, but 3 is a disaster in comparison, certainly a big step backwards. I'm not sure it wouldn't be better (for those of us who have not played through them) to just play 1 and 2 and call it a day. Final Cut is not exactly getting rave reviews, and it supposedly adds in functionality from the weak 3, so.... ??

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Thu Jul 21, 2016 3:53 pm

The Van Helsing series is on sale again for about can$29 or so.

The tower defense game Death Trap that is included actually looks quite interesting.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Thu Jul 21, 2016 9:50 pm

GreenGoo wrote:The Van Helsing series is on sale again for about can$29 or so.

The tower defense game Death Trap that is included actually looks quite interesting.

I like the Van Helsing series in general (played 1 and 2, and then got 3 for the final cut and played through 1&2 from the beginning, got up to 3 and took a break, need to get back some day) and Tower Defense games. Enjoyed the TD stuff in the VH games. LOVE Deathtrap! Very much fun to me. My kid enjoyed it a fair amount too.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Thu Sep 21, 2017 9:29 pm

Anyone tried to play this lately? I wanted to go back and finish, but the online won't save and my character that was in Act 3 is online.

Someday I'll start a local game to play more, but hoping they fix the online save so I don't have to.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 12:16 am

Sorry no. In fact Ive been playing Path of Exiles for a couple weeks. i have a good character but Im totally lost as theres way more skill options than Helsing.

Jaddison · Post by **Jaddison** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 9:23 am

Haven't played VH in a couple weeks but I did come back to it after a year away a few months ago and I had to delete my characters and restart because the perks weren't there for my characters and a some other things that told me they had updated the game at some point but it had affected my characters in ways I couldn't recover

i was and am enjoying VH- especially after I did a little research about skills and how they can build on each other. One thing I don't like about VH is the limited number of characters you can create- I like trying to play each of the classes but you can't because there aren't enough slots- that said the tank character kind of sucks and the pure caster is too squishy for how VH is setup unless you play on the easiest level

But i got sidetracked by Grim Dawn. which I have been playing the last couple of weeks.

Hyena · Post by **Hyena** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 2:52 pm

Jaddison wrote:Haven't played VH in a couple weeks but I did come back to it after a year away a few months ago and I had to delete my characters and restart because the perks weren't there for my characters and a some other things that told me they had updated the game at some point but it had affected my characters in ways I couldn't recover

i was and am enjoying VH- especially after I did a little research about skills and how they can build on each other. One thing I don't like about VH is the limited number of characters you can create- I like trying to play each of the classes but you can't because there aren't enough slots- that said the tank character kind of sucks and the pure caster is too squishy for how VH is setup unless you play on the easiest level

But i got sidetracked by Grim Dawn. which I have been playing the last couple of weeks.

Haven't been on Grim Dawn for a few months now (been stuck with X-Com 2: Chosen Wars and a few others for a while), but did they ever release the necromancer and inquisitor?

Jaddison · Post by **Jaddison** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 5:38 pm

not yet though if you use your devotion points on the appropriate concentrations you can make a build similar to a necro.

If you have VH you can make a build that at about 30 that has quite an army of creatures running around with you. In Grim Dawn I have a character that has the raven, the dire wolf and the druid thistle beast

Hyena · Post by **Hyena** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 11:14 pm

Jaddison wrote:not yet though if you use your devotion points on the appropriate concentrations you can make a build similar to a necro.

If you have VH you can make a build that at about 30 that has quite an army of creatures running around with you. In Grim Dawn I have a character that has the raven, the dire wolf and the druid thistle beast

Yeah, I've got that build plus the necklace that raises one of those scorpion/bug creatures, too. Beat the game the first time with her. Four pets running around pretty much melting anything near her.