Dealing with backlog: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - Final Cut

I played the first and second Van Helsing games in 2013 and 2014 respectively. The first game was probably one of the first games I ever bought on Steam. Then the third installment completely fell off my radar and I discovered this Final Cut several years later. Final Cut is a compilation of the three installments with a few things added and some other things removed to spice it up for returning players.

So this is a Diablo-esque action RPG in a gothic noir setting and I'm all for it. You know every monster and legend and weird science in the gothic stories of the 19th century (and the early 20th century)? You'll get to immerse yourself in a world full of them; fight most of them and help some of them. There are mad scientists and steampunk-y cyborgs and legends come to life. The humour is sarcastic and witty and the game is full of references to pop culture. I love everything about this. 

As for the classes you can be a gun-toting hunter or a sword-wielding knight or sorcerer (scientific sorcerer) or summoner. I played this as the classic gunner and based my own build on poison damage with ice as back-up in case of poison resistance. With a bit of summoning on the side.

As for the story it's a simple monster slaying story with the gothic noir twist I love. You are Van Helsing, son of the legendary Van Helsing. Your father was sent a message asking for assistance from the country of Borgovia, but since he doesn't take cases anymore you get to go off on this adventure, and with you is Lady Katarina - a ghost bound to serve the Van Helsing family. 

In the first installment you fight the mad scientist Fulmigati and his minions created by weird science. Alongside them are several different kinds of mythical creatures and if you pay attention you get to pull the Excalibur out of the stone, you get to fight the murderous rabbit from Monty Python's Holy Grail (this rabbit show up in every installment), and a whole lot of other things.

In the second installment you create the Resistance and fight General Harker and his cyborg minions. You have an unusual ally throughout this part. The Resistance offers war table missions, which I'm all for. If you pay attention you can find Gandalf, and Sherlock Holmes' home among other things.

In the third installment you fight Koschei the Deathless and this part binds all of them together beautifully. This installment takes you through the Underworld and you also find out Katarina's backstory. Here you can, among other things, find out the truth about Hansel and Gretel.

After I had finished the mainstory of the Final Cut I went back and played the third Van Helsing game separately. There's also a game called Deathtrap that's based on the Van Helsing game but only the Tower Defense parts of it. So Deathtrap is simply a Tower Defense game in the same style and universe as the Van Helsing games. 

I started to write this review when I felt done with the Final Cut, but having written this... I kind of want to go back and play through the whole thing again. This gothic-noir action-RPG with tower defense elements is one of my absolute favourites.