The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2: In-Depth Interview .

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing launched back in May 2013, proving to be a sleeper hit among the gamers with its no-nonsense action combat and dark, Gothic settings. Fast forward a year, and the sequel is now available.

What has changed since the first game? Or rather, are there any major changes given the relatively short 1-year development span? MMOGames’ Robert finds out from the staff of development studio, NeocoreGames.

Q: Hi there, this is Robert from MMOGames. Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

A: Hey, I’m Julia, PR Manager at NeocoreGames, I’ll answer your questions with a little help from the other developers. If you consider them the parents of Van Helsing, I guess I’m like his godmother.

 

Q: Not many people have heard of NeocoreGames. Can you briefly describe the company to us? For example, how many employees are there, where are you located etc.

A: NeocoreGames is a small but growing indie developer in the heart of a small (and not really growing) European country, Hungary. The location and our roots have a lot to do with our beloved imaginary world, Borgovia. At the moment we have 40 people in our team and currently we don’t have any plans for additional expansion in the future. We prefer to keep it low because we’re not just team members but friends, in some cases even family members (married couples, siblings, cousins are also working in the team).

 

Q: I mentioned the first game, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, in my introduction above as a sleeper hit. How true is this?

A: Fortunately it’s true! The first Van Helsing game was on the “10 top sellers” list on Steam for weeks and as an indie developer it was an amazing experience for us. Our fans are devoted and their feedback helps us a lot with polishing the game. We really hope that we can give them more and more of what they like about the Van Helsing trilogy with the second part and next year with the third part of the game.

Q: A year is definitely not long in making a sequel and having it available for sale. When exactly did development for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II started?

A: From the very beginning it was planned to be a trilogy, so the story and the outlines were ready before the first part came out. Although the main part of the development for Van Helsing II started after the release of the first part, it’s more like a continuous development. Our team is quite small, but the workload is shared among smaller groups, which makes it easier to deal with the DLCs, occasionally fix the bugs and develop the next part of the game at the same time. Also there are other (top secret) projects in progress.

 

Q: What was the toughest problem faced during the development phase? And how was it solved?

A: Sometimes the best thing about making bad decisions is that years later you look back and you can ask yourself with some truly honest amusement: “What were we thinking?” The very first incarnation of Van Helsing more or less resembled an anime-style character for various reasons, which we decided to change when we realized that it wouldn’t fit the desired atmosphere anymore. So we let the fans choose from three different characters and the community decided which one they prefered the most. Of course now we love our grim and tough Van Helsing much more than his first incarnation, a way too young and much too blond hero (by the way, you can find him in Van Helsing II as an easter egg).

Q: In terms of storyline, is there a continuation from the first game? Have the settings changed drastically?

A: The story of Van Helsing II picks up right where the first part left off. After Van Helsing defeated Fulmigati with the help of our charming Lady Katarina, it turns out that it was only the beginning of the real war. New enemies make their appearance and your Resistance is willing to face the challenge, so you can expect some serious battles in Van Helsing II. We stick to the gothic-noir-steampunk setting in all parts of the trilogy but the setting got a little more colorful with tons of new places, buildings, mountains and forests. Also we added dynamic weather effect to the game so there are some big changes but they all fit in the Van Helsing universe that we imagined at the very beginning.

 

Q: Why the decision to allow players to import their characters from the first game?

A: Easy question. Since The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is a trilogy with – as you said – quite short development time between the parts we wanted to allow players to play all three parts, the whole game with one character from the very beginning until the final boss fight.

 

Q: What was the one problem most persistent in the original game, which Neocore has fixed/ revamped in the new game?

A: Well, we had problems with the multiplayer mode in the first game because of server problems. During the development of the second part we released patches, and constantly patched it up. Then we decided to implement a brand new netcode and a dedicated server has been set up to handle the communications between players and finally it worked. So basically we fixed the multiplayer problems before we released the second part, which obviously has the new netcode. According to the feedback from our fans it works perfectly now.

Q: What inspired the new character classes in the sequel? And how are they different from each other in terms of uniqueness?

A: With the first game we had a concept about Van Helsing being a Hunter, who can be ranged or melee of course and you can change it any time. But it turned out that our fans wanted more and quite different classes. Why did we choose the Thaumaturge and the Arcane Mechanic? I don’t think we have to explain the mage type character in an action RPG, with spectacular spells. The Arcane Mechanic although fits perfectly in the game’s steam-punk, gothic setting with all his gadgets and unique weapons. Of course all three classes have their own gear, skill trees, spells. The most important is that all three classes require different fight technics and tactics, for example with the Thaumaturge you have to be tactical because he has high damage and low HP, the Arcane Mechanic although has a whole army with himself thanks to his summoning skills.

 

Q: Other than the intense combat, could you briefly guide us through some of the new features which are added?

A: Gladly! In Van Helsing II we extended the Tower Defense mini-game a lot, now it’s more integrated in the game, it has 7 levels and it’s also optional (players can choose other quests instead of TD). We introduced the Trophy system, which allows players to decorate their Lair with trophies that give global modifiers to the game world, like empowering monsters, granting more spellpower to all allies or turning Katarina into a more lethal ghost. The Runecrafting system allows players to alter items to their liking. Beside Katarina, Van Helsing has a pet this time, called Chimera. I’ve already mentioned the Resistance management which is an important new feature in the game.

 

Q: I must say that is an impressive list of new features. About the multiplayer co-op function, why is there a limit of 4 players imposed?

A: The reason to this is not technical it’s more like an aRPG concept. More than 4 players would result in a cluttered game map, if you count in the 4 Katarinas, the Chimeras and the hordes of monsters. It would be a chaos. I guess that’s why they cut down the players in co-op with Diablo 3 too.

Q: How many weapons, armors and gears are there for players to collect?

A: Actually much more than in the first game: there are more than 250 unique weapon models, 50 plus set items and the total item count is more than 1000.

 

Q: Another action RPG game, Diablo III, had its fair share of problem regarding to loot drop since launch. Will it be a potential problem in the game?

A: We really don’t think that it can be a problem in Van Helsing II. The class specific loot dropping is balanced well.

 

Q: Will players get to face the nemesis of Van Helsing, Count Dracula, in the game?

A: Without spoiling anything, let’s just say that Van Helsing will finally have his chance to face not one, but more of his traditional enemies.

 

Q: Are there any features of the game you will like to specifically highlight to our readers and convince them The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II is “the” game?

A: I think the humor is what makes it “the” game. The Easter Eggs and pop-cultural references in the first part were a big success according to the feedback and humor is a really important part of the game anyway, we put much more of it in the second game. Hope you’ll like it!

Q: Now that the game has launched, what is next for the Van Helsing universe, both short term and long term?

A: We just released the first DLC (Ink Hunt) for Van Helsing II and there will be a couple more DLCs in the near future. We also have another top secret (and very exciting) project to announce before the release of the third part of the game that you can expect sometime next year!

 

Thank you for your time!