Victor Vran carves itself a healthy niche in the aRPG genre, making up for a silly story with excellent (and addictive) combat. "Click-and-watch-things-die" has never felt this good.
It's not just weapon types. As you explore the mysterious, monster-choked citadel where the game is set - Victor Vran's a demon hunter with a dark secret, incidentally, and the game tasks you with finding out why everything around him has suddenly gone to Hell - you'll also collect Destiny cards that can be equipped to provide passive bonuses, gems, which give you super-powered Overdrive attacks, and outfits, which change the way in which you collect the Overdrive energy to power those attacks - whether you gather it by dealing damage, say, or build it up as time goes by.
there's online co-op for teams of up to four - the browser's a bit basic, but I had fun nonetheless - and there's a wave-based endless area to unlock if you're after an end-game. Victor Vran's clearly been made on a fairly tight budget, then, but the design does a lot with a little, and its dark fantasy world is filled with character, from cobbled streets and autumnal slums, to playful Elites such as The King of the Pumpkins that Explode - a king whom, it must be said, lives up to his name quite beautifully - and probably makes for some memorable first days of parliament.
More than all that, the game's just extremely personable. The story is forgettable, but it's delivered via Victor's schlocky pronouncements and a playful, teasing, taunting voice in his head that seeks to unsettle you at every turn. ("Victor, you need a vigilante name. How about Hatman?") Equally, alongside the swamps and crypts you're expecting, you get standout locations like the Forlorn Chateau, a haunted mansion with a seriously unpleasant attic that delivers one of the most charismatic ARPG maps I've visited in quite a while. Sure, even middling ARPGs are almost always fun for an hour or so, but Victor Vran will keep you hitting stuff and collecting loot for a lot longer than you might expect.
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