VGU checked out the Action RPG Victor Vran: Overkill Edition:

Victor Vran: Overkill Edition Review

Victor Vran, originally released in 2015, left little impression on nearly anybody. Labelled a Diablo clone and thrown into the cultural waste paper basket, a small cult following eventually formed around the Van Helsing-esque ARPG. Haemimont Games have decided Victor Vran deserves another chance at mainstream success, collecting the base game and it’s DLC’s into Victor Vran: Overkill Edition.

Borderlands would be a more apt comparison to make over Diablo. Sure, the isometric camera and gothic underpinnings are 100% Blizzard’s demonic wheelhouse. However, take that away and you have the raw beating heart of an action heavy, loot driven, murder-fest.

Victor Vran is a simple beast. Plow through undead hordes, get loot. Rinse, repeat. Further fleshing it out is a roster of a dozen or so weapon types, each with two special abilities, as well as dozens of enemy types. Trading depth for variety, it’s this balance that keeps Victor Vran compelling after dozens of hours.

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Thankfully Haemimont are imaginative enough to make interesting encounters with the tools they created. New enemy types are thrown at the player thick and fast, with their own quirks to figure out. Skeletons must be killed twice unless you can score an ‘Overkill’ on them. Elemental types may split into something more dangerous after death. Weaknesses and strengths must be measured to prioritize targets.

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Victor Vran: Overkill Edition has a wealth of content. The various weapons, enemy types, and challenges kept me engaged for the hours I sunk into it. While the production values aren’t highest, Haemimont have created a hyperactive gothic hellscape to explore. I’m glad Victor Vran was given a second chance in the spotlight, or I may have missed this diamond in the rough.

Thanks Farflame!

True Achievements reviewed the Victor Vran: Overkill Edition:

Victor Vran Review

Isometric RPGs are somewhat niche. The likes of Diablo and, more recently, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing tailored themselves to this style of play; for them, it worked very well for the most part, at least. Another game that followed this path was Victor Vran back in 2015 on Steam. Players have had to wait an extra couple of years before the title made its way onto Xbox, but it is now ours to play as we wish. The question is, was it worth the wait for us?

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Summary

Victor Vran is a title that initially feels like it's going to be more indie fodder but is much more than that. Despite the voice actors that were used, underneath a relatively bland story lies extremely addictive and highly enjoyable gameplay. Utilising all the weapons and accessories at your disposal regularly yields fantastic results, and unleashing your fury on the hordes of enemies that swarm the screen never gets old. Facing off against the bosses scattered throughout the dungeon also adds an extra layer of challenge. The addition of online play and two expansions provides even more content for the game, so there's an abundance of stuff to enjoy. While the game does suffer from the odd technical problem, it's still worth a look for dungeon crawler and RPG fans alike.

Positives

•     Plenty of content
•     Highly enjoyable and addictive gameplay
•     Lots of variety in weaponry, gear and accessories
•     Easily accessible online play for those who want it

Negatives

•     Fairly bland story and characters
•     Occasional lag

Score: 4/5

Gameractore has reviewed the Victor Vran: Overkill Edition:

Victor Vran: Overkill Edition

A solid alternative to Diablo III, now on consoles

Victor Vran had its original release on PC in 2015, but Haemimont's RPG is only now coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, being adapted for console in a similar manner to Diablo III. It's an action-RPG that plays out from an isometric perspective, where you decimate hordes of enemies as you search for the best loot. As such, it's a good alternative if you like games like Diablo, that said, it's not fantastic.

Victor Vran is essentially an unlicensed Van Helsing, here voiced by Doug Cockle. Who is Doug Cockle, we hear you ask? Well, he's Geralt's voice actor from the Witcher series, and that turns out to be a downside. The tone and rhythm the actor uses for Victor Vran is very similar to the one used for Geralt, and if you've played as many hours of The Witcher as we have, the chances are you'll immediately be taken out of the game as soon as you hear him speak. Each time Victor opens his mouth, all we can think about is "oh, right that's Geralt's voice," which turned out to be a great distraction from what was actually being said.

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This version of the game, the Overkill Edition, also includes the two expansions that have also landed for the already released PC version: Motorhead: Through the Ages, and Fractured Worlds. As the name suggests, Motorhead is heavily inspired by and made in collaboration with the heavy metal band, with suits and cards based on their albums, licensed music, and special appearances all adding to the experience. Fractured Worlds, however, allows you to travel to an alternate dimension, and it has been designed specifically for experienced hunters. Here you will find four randomly created dungeons to play through, and they change every day. You can also discover a new type of item (talismans), new enemies, and evolve your character to level 60.

Despite being a decent game in its own right, Victor Vran is not quite at Diablo III's level (which in our opinion it's still the best game of this kind, especially on consoles). However, for those looking for similar thrills, it is a valid alternative, with a price point suitable for the content it offers. The progression system whereby you're defined by your weapons and gear won't be for everyone, the design isn't always good, and some players may feel it's lacking in terms of customisation options, but at the end of the day, if you're looking for an action RPG to play on console, it's worth taking a look.

Score 7/10

Positive

Fluid gameplay, Lots of content, Unique character progression, Online and local multiplayer.

Negative

Impossible not to hear Geralt from The Witcher as Victor Vran, Design with ups and downs, Not a fan of the suit system.

GodIsAGeek has reviewed the Action-RPG Victor Vran: Overkill Edition:

Victor Vran: Overkill Edition Review

Right, let’s get this out of the way up front: Victor Vran is voiced by Doug Cockle, famous for voicing The Witcher series’ Geralt of Rivia. This is both a blessing and a curse, as although his work is great, all I could hear throughout my time with Victor Vran was Geralt’s voice. His tone and inflection are exactly the same, and the character himself is essentially a Witcher, only in a more Steampunk setting. Wait, I just described Van Helsing, didn’t I?
 
Anyway, Victor is a hunter, paid to kill monsters using any and all weapons at his disposal. These range from shotguns and swords, to giant hammers and lightning guns, all with their own pros and cons. This is a dungeon crawler akin to Diablo, so get ready to fight swarms of enemies and loot their corpses for new weapons and gold. Lots and lots of gold. Seriously, I barely even spent anything during my playthrough, so ended up with hundreds of thousands in gold. It just doesn’t have any real use, because the game hands out weapons like Halloween candy to a child.

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Each stage comes with special bonus objectives too, ranging from killing a set number of enemies within a set time, to taking no damage or using no health potions. Some introduce the use of Hexes, which are modifiers that can be applied for extra challenge, but you really have to be excellent at the game for that. This adds a bit of variety to each stage (and there are tonnes of those) and even a little replayability. Much like the games that inspired it, Victor Vran has a lot of content to keep you playing after completion, from the expansion content to the optional dungeons and post-completion bonus challenges, and will keep going well beyond the 8-9 hours of the base game’s story.

Positives

• Decent humour
• Bonus challenges for each stage
• Fun, rewarding gameplay

Negatives

• Boss battles are huge slogs
• Slowdown during particularly busy scenes

Score: 8/10

A new video about the Victor Vran: Overkill Edition that is dedicated to Motörhead:

Motörhead Through The Ages: Living up to Lemmy's Legacy

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Lloyd Kaufman sat down with Haemimont CEO Gabriel Dobrev and Producers Bisser Dyankov, Achim Heidelauf to talk about living up to Lemmy's Legacy and making a game worthy of Motörhead! With a few words from Motörhead legend, Phil Campbell!

The Victor Vran: Overkill Edition will be released on May 30:

Victor Vran Motörhead Through the Ages Trailer

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Enter the world of “Motörhead: Through the Ages”, a wild tour through the mythos of the loudest band in the world! Harness the powers of the immortal Motörhead to defeat deadly new adversaries in three demon-infested worlds intertwined with the songs of the band.

Farflame spotted this Wccftech-Interview about Victor Vran: Overkill Edition with Haemimont CEO Gabriel Dobrev and Producer Bisser Dyankov:

Victor Vran: Overkill Edition – Chatting with Haemimont on Consoles, Motörhead & More

Haemimont Games, the largest Bulgarian development studio, is mostly known for the last three Tropico games. However, their most recent title is Action RPG Victor Vran, originally launched on Steam in July 2015 to overwhelmingly positive user feedback (90% of the total user reviews are positive).

The game is now about to get an ‘Overkill Edition’ which will launch on consoles (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) as well as PC. This version of Victor Vran comes with two brand new adventures: Fractured Worlds and Motörhead: Through the Ages, the latter clearly inspired by the famous English rock band.

We were able to send a few questions to Haemimont CEO Gabriel Dobrev and Producer Bisser Dyankov to learn more about Victor Vran: Overkill Edition ahead of the upcoming release.

Victor Vran launched almost two years ago on PC. Are you satisfied with the game’s performance and user feedback? Why is it the right time now to launch on consoles?

When we first launched on Early Access we didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but we knew something was going to happen and that paid out really well for Victor Vran.
The players had a lot of involvement in what the game became later on. Initially, we weren’t really planning to add as much content as we did, but the direct comparison that everybody was doing with Diablo just more or less gave us the input to do something that can stand up next to Diablo in terms of playtime and amount of content.

We’re combining the launch on consoles with the launch of the new content on PC and because we couldn’t launch it on consoles originally we believe that now is a really good time to do it. Console players will have access to content at the same time of PC players.

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Creative Producer Achim Heidelauf presents Motörhead Through the Ages:

Victor Vran Motörhead Through The Ages, Play through live from EGX Rezzed

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Live from EGX Rezzed, Creative Producer Achim Heidelauf went live with Victor Vran and showed off Motörhead Through the Ages!

I didn't get to see anything in action for the new Victor Vran: Motörhead Through the Ages add-on, so it ended up to be an interview only, in which we talked a bit about Victor Vran and about the Motorhead add-on.

At the time, they started talking about the soundtrack and licensing certain songs to use them in the game and during that talk they really, really started to like the game and asked Haemimont Games if it wouldn't be something that could be built upon to make it bigger.
What Haemimont didn't want to do, is put the Motörhead thing on just something as they didn't want to look bad to the fans and they also don't want to mess up their own brand, Victor Vran. So out of licensing the songs it became an entire big expansion to Victor Vran, that will have a big long story line with three very huge levels/worlds that will feel very different. Several dungeons. New weapons, New monsters, and new special attacks