Whenever there is a blockbuster movie about to hit the theatres, there is usually a simultaneous release of the, expected to be, blockbuster game to go along with it. More often than not though, the game lacks game play, graphics, basically anything special, and seems to be a half-assed attempt at game development done in a rush. Van Helsing is no exception and sadly this is more often then not the result of what happens when movies become video games. For those not in the know, Gabriel Van Helsing, voiced by his big screen counterpart Hugh Jackman, is part of a secret society of monster hunters who travels the country side looking for monsters from classic literature such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Mr. Hyde and takes them down as a medieval bounty hunter.

The style of Van Helsing is one that you will be familiar with if you are a fan of Devil May Cry. The camera control is non-existent and only moves automatically when you move through one area to the next. Also like DMC, Van Helsing also features an auto-aim feature which helps to get past the frustration of not being able to see where you want when you want, but not totally. When you enter each section, there will be a group of enemies, be it skeletons, gargoyles, or midget German trolls that appear and come looking for some action. The oddest part of the fighting is that you don’t actually have to fight most of the time if you don’t want to. Sometimes there will be a red force field blocking the entrance to the next area, but not always and you can just run past all the creatures without laying a hand on them or them you. When you do have to fight, the fighting gets old real quick. All you need to do is keep pulling the trigger while jumping around and decide which weapon you want to use. When you do kill the swarm of enemies, they will drop red globes for health and green globes called glyphs that can be used at the end of a mission to purchase things from an armory such as new moves, special attacks for weapons or just regular items such as health and ammo.

There are plenty of weapons that you can use in your hunt, ranging from crossbows, to scimitars, to the power house gatling gun, all of which have an alternate ammo supply that you can find to do more damage and each weapon affects the assorted creatures differently. In addition to your weapons, you also have a grappling hook which can be used in various ways. For the most part it is used to get across wide gaps and up cliffs when a bright red marker appeared indicating to use it, but it can be used in battle as well to pull enemies towards you or to get out of their way. There is a neat little feature during battles where if Van Helsing’s hat falls off, you can pick it up and is counted whether or not you finish the level with it. One problem was that when the hat fell off and wasn’t picked up, for the remainder of the game, the hat would float 2 feet beside Van Helsing in the air and he wasn’t able to grab it again.

The bosses in the game are what you would expect if you have seen the movie, or even the trailer that is included on the disc. Dracula, the werewolf, Frankenstein and the other bosses are fought multiple times at the end of several levels and their attacks remain mostly the same so the battles don’t increase dramatically in difficulty from the previous time you fought them. Once you make your way through the 12 missions, you can replay through the game to unlock secret areas that you couldn’t reach the first time through without the proper weapons, but since on the second trip through, you will have the gatling gun, there is absolutely no challenge whatsoever.

All in all, if you are looking to play a mindless shoot ‘em up in a typical and depthless game that has no multiplayer and a rather short single player campaign, than Van Helsing may be what the doctor ordered, but you will definitely want to give this game a renting before handing over your hard earned cash to buy it just so you can see what happens when good movies make bad videogames.