EXCLUSIVE REVIEW: Victor Vran: Overkill Edition - Xbox One

Victor Vran Overkill Edition is coming to PS4 and Xbox on June 6th

Victor Vran is coming to Xbox One, originally a PC game, console owners get this new "Overkill Edition" which is basically the original game with a few tweaks as well as two expansion packs.

Synoposis
"Overkill Edition includes the fully updated and award winning Action RPG Victor Vran, the expansive Fractured Worlds & the legendary Motörhead: Through The Ages. Look your very best and reinforce your play style with a monumental arsenal of powerful weapons, game-changing outfits, wicked demon powers and fate-binding destiny cards. 

Redefine how you play at any moment, even in the heat of battle. Modify your demon slaying loadout as you dodge deadly attacks, leap from towering locations and take on hordes of hideous beasts and cunning boss monsters. Fedora or no fedora, you decide! Slaying demons doesn't have to be a lonely affair - Form a pack and find even greater strength in numbers, to explore the story of the dark world together."

I have had the game about a week, and have played about 13 hours and reached Level 27 with my character, to give you an idea of how far into the game I reached.

Now I never played the original PC game (75 on Metacritic.), so I am coming at this as a complete newbie, with little knowledge of the game, and I am not a big fan of these isometric action-RPG games. However it is hard for me to say that I disliked anything in the game, it did take me a while to figure out all the mechanics of the character, but this comes with time, that or you read the manual.

You have two slots on your character for weapons, of which there are things like Swords, Guns, Lasers and Hammers to be assigned, then there are demon powers, which you can activate once filling up an on screen bar that fills as you hit people with your weapons. There also your usual items like health potions and bombs that you can use mid battle.

One major thing about this game I did like is that on each level you have various challenges you need to complete. These are mainly optional, but with 200 in total to get, that means plenty of replay potential as you go back to get them all. From finding secret chests, to killing certain enemies within a time limit, there is plenty to come back and do once you have completed the game, or even if you get stuck, to just go back and try to build up your character so that you can beat that annoying boss you just cant seem to beat.

There is a Casual Mode (for people who prefer story) or a Normal Mode. These can be switched at any time, although some of the challenges are dependent on being on Normal Mode. It is worth noting though that Casual Mode is no walk over, and you will still find that you are easily killed if not prepared, so don't think you will just zoom through the whole game.

One thing that did annoy me is that there are a few bugs in this game, a few frame rate issues, which really shouldn't be a factor in 2017 and on what is a very powerful console, but the biggest bug and one that I really hope they fix before release date (June 6, 2017) is that sometimes the game will just freeze, the camera can still be moved about, I have uploaded a video below so you can see exactly what I mean.

Bug


Now this is frustrating as hell, especially in the middle of a big boss battle as you can see I was on in the video above. The only way to fix this was to quit the game completely, and restart it fresh, then it played ok. This happened to me about 5 times, and I can only hope they are aware of it and are working on a fix, since I've had this pre-release review copy, there has been one forced update, lets hope they get this sorted before the mass roll out, or else the various gaming forums will be full of people complaining.

Back to the game, and it is incredibly satisfying killing multiple enemies at once with big moves, or demon powers, although things can get a little bit repetitive at times, and some levels seem quite similar.

The graphics are beautiful however, they remind me of some of the older Final Fantasy games.

The voice over narrator can be a bit annoying, as they are trying to be funny with him but I found an easy solution to that, its called the mute button.

The game will cost you roughly £30 on both Xbox One and PS4 and you can purchase from the links below if you so choose.

Buy from Amazon UK
Victor Vran: Overkill Edition (Xbox One)
Victor Vran: Overkill Edition - PS4
of Amazon USA
Victor Vran: Overkill Edition (Xbox One)
Victor Vran: Overkill Edition - PS4

On the PC the original game won many awards. Will it also win awards on the XBOX? That I don't know.
Personally I enjoyed the game, and knowing that any bugs will soon be fixed I am sure, this is definitely a game I could see myself coming back to time and time again just to complete all of the challenges.

I would give this game a strong 8/10 on the Gaming Couch Potato score board.

Even if you are not a fan of this type of game usually, give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.

By Jon Donnis
Follow me on Twitter @JonDonnis