Beat on Fearless as the protector. I enjoyed the mechanic of timing blocks with the shield and then hitting back for boosted damage. I found the difficulty of the enemies to vary wildly, from so trivial that I could spam my standard attack, to having to block most attacks in a minutes long fight, all the way to backing in a corner and carefully watching enemies so I could get off a single attack without getting wrecked. I mostly used the standard single target attack, and the short range area attack. There were 2 charge type abilities that I used occasionally but never felt the need to put more than 1 point in; viper leap was ok for closing the distance while smite was more for getting out of a sticky situation. I tried warcry but since you cannot use it while fighting or blocking I got rid of it. The frost aura however could be used mid swing or block for a little extra damage, but I did not have the points to improve it. I quickly learned that turtling behind the shield for long enough triggers out of combat health regen. That shield is so OP, it blocks 100% of damage from any enemy to the front, including areas like poison gas, corrupted ground and meteors. Fighting too many enemies at once allowed them to get behind me though. Even a single enemy hitting for minor damage disrupted that health regen. It sometimes got tricky with Katarina as enemies would break off after her and then attack me again from behind. For about the 1st half of the game I kept her in ghost mode with a luck passive boost build, only allowing her to fight after I had pulled. She was a tank. I found her much better able to survive, and my own damage output much higher, than in Van Helsing 1. I would often let her tank melee enemies while I burned down the ranged.

The game was quite difficult but doable. I did die but was always able to win using the corner turtling strategy. Until the circus. There I found a mini boss hollow lord who summoned minions, healed himself and they all had homing paralyze attacks. I did not have enough damage per second to kill him so I moved on to the ringmaster boss, which was the most ridiculous and frustrating part of the entire game. The circular arena had no corners so I could not use my turtle strategy. Then the bastard infinitely summons adds from totems that I can't destroy fast enough, if I could even survive long enough to get close. There were hollow lords that took too long to kill; I had to run before being swarmed and by the time I could attack again they had healed. If I got hit by a homing paralyze shot I just died before it wore off. There were 100s of enemy corpses on the ground and dozens more chasing me, to the point the framerate slowed a bit. The clown adds could teleport and at one point I had like 40+ of them teleporting on top of me all hitting at the same time for like 90% of my health. I spent probably an hour kiting around using my short range area attack to very slowly kill the big guys and wear down the boss to about half. Died a lot and tried fighting from outside the arena, but that was not helpful. Eventually I gave up and stopped trying to survive. Just die and respawn. I lost all of my gold, to the point where it was costing single digit gold to respawn on the spot. I had already lost a lot of gold from trying to fight properly! How is this guy not the final boss? How has he not already conquered the entire game world if he can summon infinite minions so quickly? This was a very poorly designed fight, even worse than the ones in the 1st game. I respecced Katarina into ranged dps for this fight. It didn't really help because she would die in seconds. It did allow me to kill that Hollow Lord boss. I got 3 levels up during that Ringmaster fight from killing so many adds!

I left Katarina in ranged dps and stopped bothering to put her in ghost form. We wrecked the rest of the game. I gave her a scatter luck point and she could easily solo enemies, even the toughest ones. The only other part that gave me trouble were the tree enemies in the frozen zone who summon infinite adds. God damn infinite adds. I did 1 scenario after beating the game where I had to kill enemies to spawn the little treasure guys that flee. I was backed into a corner with those tree enemies and their adds, killing so many adds that more treasure guys than I needed spawned. And they could not get past all the adds. The final boss was pretty good. There were infinite adds but not so many that I could not handle them; they seemed to be reasonably paced for a change! I did a few scenarios but was not impressed. I regularly sent the chimera on hunts, though I found it annoying to have to go back to town to deal with stuff. Rather stay out in the field and let Katarina handle the shopping. I put on a totem that gave increased magic find at the cost of increasing enemy hp, and promptly forgot about that entire system for the rest of the game. I actually bothered to learn the alchemy system just before the final boss fight, slightly improving a couple items. I did a single tower defense mission but there was no way I was winning that as a slow and steady tank on Fearless. For the rest I had the npcs handle it. I did like the tactical aspect of sending captains on missions, but it should have been a repeatable thing like the chimera. 3 missions were failed, including the 2 end ones.

I tried out the other classes by doing the 1st area on Fearless. The mech suit was the most interesting class conceptually, but it was not fun to play. The Halo style regenerating shield was cool, but both starting attacks cost mana, making it feel like a mage rather than warrior. It really needs a gun attack that does not use mana. I preferred the missiles over the flamethrower, but they have a cooldown. Other abilities do not look too interesting. I would have to invest in lowering the cooldown of the missiles and swapping the hp steal aura for the mana steal one; that might make the flamethrower a viable base attack. The bounty hunter's base attack requires standing in place holding a button for 3 seconds before shooting a massive damage shot. On one hand it helps Katarina tank, but on the other it is not very engaging gameplay. Would definitely have to invest in lowering that aiming time. The elementalist has a basic magic missile type spell that does not cast mana. What? How come the mage gets this instead of the mech? The hydra and fire wall abilities remind me of the Diablo 2 sorceress, but not being able to strategically aim them like on PC is bad. Unlike the bounty hunter, the enemies bee line for you once you start casting spells, which makes play a huge kite fest. I spent my level up on ice wall to help with that and I don't think stationary attacks like the hydra and fire wall work well with how much you need to kite. The rogue was surprisingly effective with a short ranged area attack that did not pull aggro from Kat. Both starting abilities build up shadow marks, which work like the combo marks for rogues in WoW. So I spent my level up to learn a single target finisher that consumes marks for big damage, instead of the area one which has a cooldown.

The constructor was the only class for which I did not reduce the difficulty. The robot pets work very well and I spent my level up on the flying ranged little helicopters. I like the ghostbuster style energy attack that also directs who the minions focus, but the machine gun is lackluster; seems like what the mech should have for a basic free attack. Got Diablo 2 necromancer vibes from this class, and I like that. I played through the rest of the game changing the difficulty as I saw fit. I left it on Fearless most of the time, and this class did much better than the protector. I dropped it down to Casual or Normal any time it got too difficult. I did the 1st boss on casual long enough to destroy the add generators, then put it back on Fearless. The Ringmaster died in seconds on casual; heh screw that fight and screw the tree enemies in the frozen level. I had trouble with some area damage enemies because Kat would stop tanking and bring the enemies to me. Don't do that! I'm a glass cannon minion master! This was caused by the giant poison aura undead, and the rock golems + mages in the crystal level. I beat the 1st and 3rd phases of the final boss on Fearless without trouble. 2nd phase was done on Casual because I could not target the totems with the beam attack thus I could not kill the one that heals the boss fast enough. Once I reached max level I rushed through the final stage on Casual to get finished faster. I really enjoyed controlling the battles with minions. I found the ice turrets and helicopters the most useful for their ranged dps, and used my beam to direct them to kill what I wanted; sometimes just burning down the melee and sometimes flanking to get the ranged. The melee bots were the least useful, despite putting skill points into their hp early on. The gun platform and rocket turret were good, but I did not have the skill points to max them. Combat was mostly about keeping track of which minions died and replacing them in between shooting. I split my attributes evenly between body and dex, and prioritized minion stats on gear. The biggest problem was the lack of precise aiming, which often seen me summoning my minions right on top of enemies, behind their lines, or outside the playable area. Never bothered with the tower defense missions. Still only used the magic find + enemy health trophy. Still used the chimera. Still failed the last 2 captain missions even though I told the npc to choose who goes.

Overall liked this game a bit more than the 1st due to actually having classes and the high difficulties being better balanced. Pretty much the same game though with the same flaws.

7.6/10

Protector

Perks: Bully, precise, golem, survivor, spirit guide, wight, wraith, teacher, master, veteran hunter.

Skills:

Smashing blow 15/15, with + damage 1/1, lifesteal 3/3 and slow 3/3

Spike strike 15/15, with + damage 1/1, + boss damage 3/3 and area 3/3

Aura of vigilance 9/15

Shield block 7/15 with 1/3 max retaliation

Frost sphere 1/15

Viper leap 1/15

Smite 1/15

Ward wisdom 12/15, with +armor defense 1/1

Hunter's rejuvenation 1/15

Goliath slayer 5/15, with + defense 1/1

Gear:

Magmaforged espada: level 30 yellow with 111 fire damage, +13% weapon damage, +4 weapon damage, +31% crit damage, 5 rage. Enchant 9 body

Lion guardian armor: level 30 yellow with 9 body, 17 physical resist, +88 defense, +95% defense. Enchant +12% hp

Praetorian captain helmet: level 30 yellow with +4% all damage, 22% gold find, 16 physical resist, 139 lightning damage, 25% magic find. Enchant 8 luck

Tinted leather belt: level 30 yellow with 5% elemental damage reduction, 17 elemental resist, 10 all resist, 9 body. Enchant 18 physical resist

Dragon shield: level 30 yellow with 9 body, 3 mana on hit, 23% magic find, 49 hp, 15 elemental resist. Enchant 6% physical damage reduction

Dusk strider boots: level 30 yellow with +12% hp, 10 dex, 8 body, 22% magic find, 38 defense. Enchant 11 all resist

Fire ruby amulet: level 30 yellow with 17 dodge, +7% ice damage, +28% crit damage, 16 poison resist, 9 body. Essence 6 body. Enchant 4 mana on hit

Lorekeeper ring: level 29 yellow with 17 elemental resist, 81 poison damage, 9 will, 9 body, 10 dex. Essence 2 body. Enchant 17 poison resist

Lorekeeper ring: level 30 yellow with 18 physical resist, 93 lightning damage, 17 mana, 10 body. Enchant 8 dex

Shadow scales: level 22 yellow with 5% physical damage reduction, 5% poison damage, 63 lightning damage, 15 physical resist, 5% attack speed. Enchant +4% all damage

Kat

Defense for Van 6/15, Attack speed for Van 2/8, Resist for Van 1/8, Damage for Van 4/8, Attack speed 6/15, Explosion on death 2/8, Avoid injury 1/15, Damage 8/8, Paralyze 1/15, Chillwave 1/8, Hp steal for Van 1/8, Curse blast 1/8

Ranged: level 28 yellow with 92 ice damage, 7% attack speed, 8 hp steal, +11% weapon damage

Crimson terror wraithcloak: level 30 green with 100 hp, 33 defense, 9 luck, 20 essence capacity

Rubik pendant: level 18 yellow with +18% crit damage, 12% magic find, 4% all damage, 9 poison resist

Carbuncle ring: level 25 yellow with 92 ice damage, 9 body, 9 will, 16 poison resist

Lorekeeper ring: level 28 yellow with 6% lightning damage, 9 luck, 82 lightning damage, 17 physical resist, 23% magic find

Constructor

Perks: teacher, wraith, wight, bloodthirsty ghost, bond of fury, veteran hunter, spirit guide, slayer, gunslinger, ghost whisperer.

Skills:

Ornithopter patrol 15/15 with +1 spawn 3/3 and flamethrower damage 3/3

Ice turret 15/15 with + damage 1/1, max charge damage 3/3, range 3/3

Gun platform 7/15 with missiles 3/3, heat ray 3/3, melee blades 2/3

Rocket turret 7/15 with damage 1/1, rockets 3/3, range 2/3

Dismember bots 7/15 with hp 3/3

Transmodulator ray 2/15 with hp steal 1/3, vulnerability 1/3

Lead storm 1/15 (could not unlearn this)

Mechanoid building 1/15

Perimeter defense 1/15

Telekinetic aura 1/15

Gear:

Xerxes ultramax discharger: level 20 gold with +25% crit damage, 42 lightning damage, 8 dex, 25% minion hp, 10% minion damage, 3 weapon damage

Orichalcum fiber suit: level 24 yellow with 8 all resists, +86% defense, +11% hp, 8 dex, 19% magic find

Cyclops machine helmet: level 22 yellow with 11 poison resist, 27% minion hp, 11 physical resist, 61 lightning damage, 9% minion damage

Outlander chargepack: level 29 gold with 12% minion hp, 10 dex, 10 body, +37% crit damage, 8% physical damage reduction, 13% minion damage

Devout pilgrim belt: level 15 gold with 7 dex, 9 luck, 8 mana regen, 3 hp regen, 6% slow on weapon hit

Praetorian gauntlets: level 29 yellow with 52 hp, 13 resist all, 5% all damage, 9 dex, +29% crit damage

Sylvan chief boots: level 23 yellow with 15 dodge, 15 physical resist, 8 dex, 48 hp

Fire ruby amulet: level 29 yellow with 9% fire damage, 3 mana on hit, 8 dex, 9 body

Mand highborn ring: level 28 yellow with 99 ice damage, 8 dex, 8 will, 9 luck, 24% gold find

Lorekeeper ring: level 28 yellow with 78 ice damage, 6% lightning damage, 8 dex, 17 poison resist

Ceremonial cane: level 12 yellow with 7 dex, 16 lightning damage, 3% all damage, 7 elemental resist

Kat

Defense for Van 1/15, Attack speed 1/15, Hp 8/8, Explosion on death 1/8, Hp regen 1/5, Avoid injury 1/15, Resists 2/8, Damage 7/8, Crit chance 1/5, Paralyze 1/15, Mana steal for Van 1/8, Chillwave 1/8, Lightning damage 2/5, Hp steal for Van 1/8, Curse blast 1/8, Rage 1/8, Touch of death 1/5

Melee: level 23 yellow with 60 ice damage, 3 weapon damage, 13 essence capacity, 13 elemental resist

Armor: level 22 yellow with 8 body, 27 defense, 11 poison resist, 8 resist all

Amulet: level 18 yellow with 8 luck, 8 body, 8 physical resist, +20% crit damage, 14% magic find

Ring: level 25 yellow with 9 body, 87 ice damage, 6% fire damage, 18 poison resist

Ring: level 24 yellow with 19% gold find, 5% lightning damage, 9 luck, 59 fire damage, 7 body