As we already know, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And – as we already know – the games industry is full of flatterers. In the case of Victor Vran it feels a little mean calling it a copycat; as a click-heavy, loot-driven action RPG it’s unavoidably part of a genre more commonly described as ‘Diablo clones’. But for all intents and purposes, that is what Haemimont’s latest is, taking the improvements and innovations of Blizzard’s Diablo III and adding its own twist – albeit a twist that doesn’t do nearly enough to get Victor Vran to tumble out of the behemoth shadow that it’s trying to mimic.
There are some differences worth noting, though. For one, you don’t select a class from the start. Instead, your abilities are directly tied to the weapon, demon powers and passive tarot cards that you equip. This alone mixes up the central gameplay, with each class of weapon coming with two abilities and the option to equip two different weapons at any one time. This means that as the loot keeps coming you’ll change your playstyle as often as your most powerful weapon. There’s a great deal of customisation and, again, it’s all driven by equippable randomised loot drops, and makes for an ever-changing game. This ties into the very core compulsion of the genre itself, and gives players a reason to replay areas on harder difficulties.
Sadly, that’s where the randomised elements end. Rather than the procedurally generated dungeons of Diablo, Victor Vran features hand-designed maps and specifically placed enemies. Though it helps tell its story and guide the player’s exploration, it affects the game’s longevity. This is doubly so for the lack of variety in enemy types, with new beasts and monsters being introduced too slowly and the roster rotated far too rarely. You’ll find yourself smashing through the same spiders and skeletons at the end that you encountered at the start of the game, just with minor changes in colour palette, abilities and strength.
These problems are rectified a little by its challenge system, where each area has five optional tasks that you can take on, increasing in difficulty as you progress through the game. It’s enough to get you playing in a very particular way, or even returning at a later date to tick off those that were initially just too tough. Again, none of this really does much to separate it from its obvious reference points; even much of the visual design – from its UI to flourishes such as the way gold erupts from the ground after downing tougher enemies – harkens back to Blizzard’s efforts with Diablo III. Unoriginal might be the best way of describing Victor Vran, but as far as Diablo clones go, there are much worse to lose your time to.
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