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"Doesn't it get a bit old, Victor, doing the same things over and over? Slaying monsters. Looting chests."Humour is dangerous stuff for games, particularly this kind of humour - and particularly this kind of game. Victor Vran's a fairly classical ARPG, a problematic genre when things starts to become self-aware. ARPGs are all about hitting things in order to kill them and in the hope that they will cough up magical trousers while dying which, if worn, will allow you to hit things a bit harder and kill them a bit quicker. People who don't like ARPGs sometimes argue that they represent the video game void staring right back at you - endless escalation, empty acquisition - which is why it's always weirdly embarrassing when onlookers gather near you as you play Diablo or Titan Quest. The crowd never seems to get the appeal: it's just hitting stuff and collecting loot? Yes, it is just hitting stuff and collecting loot. But that can feel fabulous.
And it feels fabulous in Victor Vran, thankfully, so the game gets away with its jokes. At times it even earns them. While this is a very recognisable genre piece from the off, it has a range of interesting ideas at its core that makes it well worth checking out, even if you're hot off the back of Van Helsing 2 or other relatively similar games.
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