A solid tribute to Motörhead, Through the Ages which builds on the Victor Vran formula with new, wildly-varied locations, and new weapons.
You’re likely here for one of two reasons; the first, you’ve played the original Victor Vran (now called Victor Vran ARPG) and were looking to get an opinion on the Motörhead expansion, in which case, please read on. Alternately, you might be here because you’ve never played Victor Vran before, but were interested in this expansion; as a word of warning, I won’t be revisiting the systems of the first in great details, so you might want to read our recent article on the core game in order to get to grips with it. You can find that here.
If Lloyd Kaufman, co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio and bartender at the end of the universe, is to be believed, Motörhead’s frontman Lemmy set off into three chaotic, demonic worlds, heading up a gang of rebel rocker fighters to push back evil, finally sealing them away with the help of his trusty hound Snaggletooth.
The fire in Snaggletooth’s eyes have gone out, however, and so Lloyd has put out a call for Demon Hunter #1 Victor Vran, who promptly pops up to help solve the mystery. As it turns out three great evils have reclaimed the shattered lands around the bar and re-purposed the great beast’s power for… well, evil.
There’s an area devastated by seemingly endless hordes of skeletal and spectral warriors, a haunted rendition of an European town stuck in an unending WWII occupation, with enemies headed up by ‘The Führer’ (Lemmy hates fascists); there’s a weird west area overrun by corrupted preachers, scorpions, and undead cowboys (Lemmy hates corrupted religion), and -finally- there’s a gothic town and keep overrun with vampires, thralls, and there’s also some scorpions there too, they’re all headed up by The Queen of the Damned. (Lemmy hates… demons and vampires, as does Victor.)
Each of the areas completely take on their own form, as you might imagine from the descriptions above; and come complete with their own enemy types and bosses. There is arguably a lot more diversity in enemies and levels in the first hour of Motörhead than there there is in the first four or five of the core game. That said, the expansion is short, with more dedicated players who have already specialised their character, probably being able to clear their first playthrough in less than eight hours.
There’s a few new elements added to the game; two new weapons in the form of rapid firing revolvers, and -definitely the real take-away- guitars. Guiitars are outstanding ranged weapons, with the main attack firing forward three projectiles in an arc, while others do a heavier attack, or send Victor sliding forward in full solo mode, doing massive damage to what the passes or -should you manage to deliberately catch yourself on something- dealing incredible damage if held in proximity to the enemy. New overcharges and destiny cards join them too.
What is perhaps most impressive about the three components of the Overkill Edition is that players can move their character through the three worlds simply by changing an option on the main menu. This means that anybody who did buy the Motörhead version first, but then dips toes into the core game will find that they can take their level X Victor, complete with air-strike overcharge attacks, and lucky guitar, straight into the main story of Victor Vran ARPG, or even Fractured Worlds.
As would be expected from a game revolving around Motörhead, the soundtrack is comprised of quite a few of their songs, all cleverly interlaced with metal riffs as fillers; the transition is very rarely rough, and while clearing the memorials to the rebels does have a habit of drumming up the same few songs there’s no point where the songs feel like they’ve been pushed too hard. Well, okay, there is one point; when fighting The Queen of the Damned the associated song plays continuously until she is defeated; it’s a long fight which requires you to damage her, then track down three moving objects to beat, and then repeat three or four times. It’s a bit of a slog, and could do with less phases, but otherwise, nothing in the game dragged, and the music never felt too overused.
Motörhead Through the Ages is an impressive tribute to the band, gaming and metal has always gone together exceptionally well, and this expansion just proves it. If anyone has been waiting the full two years since the announcement, then I’m sure they’ll enjoy the game, as will any fan of Victor Vran ARPG.
We’ll be running our article on Fractured Worlds over the next week, so keep your eyes peeled.
Victor Vran: Motörhead Through the Ages is available as an expansion pack on the PC, or as part of the Overkill Edition. The Overkill Edition also launched on PS4 & Xbox One.
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