PlayStation 2

Van Helsing

Last week I went to see an interesting film. The film, which was number-one at the box office for one weekend, looked dark and gritty, starred two spectacular actors (one of which happens to be the super-hot Kate Beckinsale), and appeared to be drenched in computer imagery. How in the world could anyone resist a film like that?

Still, despite these shortcomings, Van Helsing manages to maintain a tongue-in-cheek cheese factor that makes the journey entertaining enough...in that shameless softcore kind of way.

Van Helsing is never bad. Anyone who loved Devil May Cry will recognise the similarities and relish the flamboyant combat sequences. It's just that the true stars of the game are the monsters and the only fleeting glances you get of them are in the frenetic boss battles. Poor old Van upstaged by Vlad even in his own game?

There are your garden variety games, your oddities, your top achievers, and your stinky butt losers. Then there are the movie games. These are the ones that are commonly predictable to fall into the middle, squished between the lessers and the mores. Sometimes they're bad, sometimes they're good, but they usually never achieve that level of brilliance or distinction that non-liscensed titles do. Vivendi Universal's Van Helsing is really no different. Ever since Spider-Man hit it big two years ago, basing games on movies became the "thing to do" for game makers. Just like last year's disappointment Hulk, in both movie and video game format, Universal came back on track with another movie-to-game combo.

Van Helsing, the game, can make for a pretty entertaining time if you don't go in expecting too much and just want a few hours of gothic-styled action. The game based on the new action horror blockbuster Van Helsing doesn't earn too many points for originality--but the same can probably be said of the movie. Likewise, the game can make for a pretty entertaining time if you don't go in expecting too much and just want a few hours of none-too-serious, gothic-styled action.

Today is a glorious day for all the monster freaks out there with the simultaneous release of the Van Helsing movie and the game with the same name. We'll leave the review of the movie to the critics who are already having a field day with it, but the game is a surprisingly competent action title with lots of Devil May Cry elements. There are lots of monsters to hunt, tons of secret items, and horrible camera angles to muck it up, but it's a fairly fun outing. The big problem is that after the initial burst of going through the game once there's little to hold your interest.

Voici un fac-similé de DMC qui est loin d'être exempt de défauts. Problèmes de caméra beaucoup trop nombreux, durée de vie un peu faiblarde, difficulté mal pensée et gérée, ce clone de Devil May Cry 2 n’en possède pas moins une ambiance qui ne peut que plaire à l’amateur des films fantastiques des années 30 de la major hollywoodienne (et bien entendu aux œuvres de Burton ou aux films de la Hammer) et à ceux qui ne jurent que par l’action. Un titre qui ne révolutionne nullement le genre mais qu’on a plaisir à découvrir le temps d'une petite journée, et ce malgré ses gros problèmes de gameplay.

Games based on movies. They're all rubbish, right? There are obvious exceptions of course, but as a general rule, for every GoldenEye-style title which takes a film franchise and artfully applies it to a stunning example of its resident genre, there'll be a hundred uninspired but well made cash-ins like EA's Lord of the Rings games, and twenty outright stinkers like Shiny's abysmal Enter The Matrix.

Forget about The Ring, 28 Days Later, or Blair Witch. The scariest thing about movies today is the games based on them. For every great Lord of the Rings or James Bond title, gamers have to suffer through a million Blade IIs, Mission: Impossibles, and whatnot. Vivendi Universal's Van Helsing could have been a cheap and sleazy way to cash in on this summer's big screen creature feature, but instead of the typical, bug-ridden, unplayable movie-based game, the Dual Shock crowd gets to whack away in a fun and challenging Goth-tinged romp. It's not the most original or innovative of games, but when was the last time you got to face off against Dracula, the Wolfman, and the Frankenstein monster in the same sitting?

Don't get me wrong, I actually had a great deal of fun playing through Van Helsing. Gunning down wave after wave of Dwergers was oddly fulfilling, though not enough to warrant a purchase. No matter how you slice it, the game is far too short - the game clock read 2:37 when I beat it. Give it a rental or pick it up after the eventual price drop, but under no circumstances should one pay full price for Van Helsing.

Some misguided fools think the best horror movie of the 1980’s was Freddy’s first in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Others prefer the artsy creepiness of The Shining or the undeniable tension of Aliens. But too few dare mention what is certainly the cream of the 80’s crop - and my personal favorite - The Monster Squad.