Vivendi Universal announces Van Helsing for PS2

February 3, 2004

Vivendi Universal today announced Van Helsing for the PlayStation 2, a high octane action-adventure title inspired by the upcoming film release (starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale) from writer/director Stephen Somers of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns fame. Players will face off with some of the literary and movie world’s most horrific and renowned abominations from Bram Stoker’s legendary novel and other remarkable works—Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man all appear in supporting roles as villains in the game.

Van Helsing will allow players to gear up as Bram Stoker’s fabled monster hunter Abraham Van Helsing in 19th century Transylvania. Van Helsing’s quest is to turn the tide of evil that is ravishing all of Transylvania—closely collaborating with the film’s production, Van Helsing developer Saffire Studios promises to place players interactively in the chaotic fray of key moments and battles that will be drawn straight from the movie. As an added feature, the game will flesh out and treat Stoker’s Dracula mythos and Van Helsing back story more attentively than the epic adventure film will for moviegoers.

"The Van Helsing game puts a fresh, exciting and contemporary twist on some of the most legendary characters to ever appear in print or film," said says Luc Vanhal, President and Chief Operating Officer, North America, Vivendi Universal Games. "Paralleling and expanding on the epic events of the film, the game offers players a cinematic action experience packed with nightmarish creatures, furious combat and daring escapes."

"Van Helsing builds on the legacy of Universal's monster franchise, while bringing a new, dark hero simultaneously to movie and video game screens," said Bill Kispert, vice president, Interactive, Universal Studios Consumer Products Group. "The haunting world created by the filmmakers, and the interpretation of these legendary characters as we have never seen them before, offers a fantastic jumping off point to develop an emotional and atmospheric action game experience."

Enemies running rampant in the Transylvanian countryside will include such fantastic minions as stone gargoyles and banshees. Van Helsing’s most noteworthy opponents will be the legendary horror corps of Frankenstein, Igor, Dracula, and the Wolf-Man. Range weapons such as shotguns, pistols, and gatling guns will light up the darkness that engulfs Van Helsing’s universe—it will also light up the undead in a flurry of epic-scaled gunfire. Scimitar and Tojo blades will allow Van Helsing to engage the undead masses intimately, while his gatling hook will get him out of “hairy” circumstances.

Van Helsing will be available in the Spring of 2004, coinciding with the release of the film to present gothic gore and mayhem to monster lovers’ nationwide.

-Ramón V.

Related Pages: None

Back to News Home Page