Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
I was excited about Dracula vs Van Helsing. I’m a big fan of Korean publisher Mandoo Games. They put out beautiful and unusual games, games that stay with me long after the box is back on the shelf. It’s easy to feel like publishers exist to extrude content, which, well, the necessities of capitalism mean that they do, like it or not. Mandoo Games is in that rarified circle of publishers who feel like they take risks, even if those risks don’t always pan out.
The brand on the side of the box was enough to get me going, but Dracula vs Van Helsing was also sold as a trick-taking game, and as we all know, I’m a fan. Having now played it, I’m not so sure, but we’ll get back to that.
The early impression is strong. Weberson Santiago’s art is striking. I’d read that comic, and I’d certainly watch that movie. The box, which 25th Century has faithfully reproduced for the American market, is high-quality. That sounds stupid, sure, like I’m grasping for straws, but it’s a nice box. Maybe this is just where I’m at these days. My first thought about The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth was that the box is larger and flimsier than I want. Dracula vs Van Helsing, though, I feel like I could defend myself with a copy of this.
Then you open it up, and discover that the cards are thick enough to qualify as tokens, and the sturdy wooden player trays are emblazoned with the game’s logo. This is quintessential Mandoo. Lux without tipping into Kickstarter levels of indulgence. Two years ago, when I talked to Mandoo about 12 Chip Trick, the owner chuckled to himself before saying, “Very low margin product.” I believed it then, and I’ll tell you what, I believe it now. It’s a shame that, this time, the present doesn’t live up to the wrapping.
Dracula, that rascal, is menacing the town of Whitby, and Van Helsing is on his trail. Whitby here is represented by a board divided into five sections, and its denizens are tokens, four to a section. Both Dracula and Mr. Helsing have five cards in front of them, set on stands so they are hidden from the opponent. The cards come in four suits, valued from 1-8, and their positions on the player stands are fixed. Each card corresponds to a region on the board.
On your turn, you draw a card and either discard it or replace one of your other cards. The discarded card triggers an effect. It might reveal one of the player cards, or allow you to swap two of your cards’ locations, or trade with your opponent. As soon as one player or the other is satisfied with their hand, they call the round, allowing their opponent one final turn before the “trick-taking” portion of the game begins.
Each player reveals their card for region one. The higher card wins, unless either card is part of the trump suit. If Dracula wins, he flips a townsfolk token in the first section over to its vampire side. If Van Helsing wins, he scores damage, taking one of Dracula’s hit points. This process repeats for each of the five sections. Dracula wins immediately if any one section has four vampires in it, while Van Helsing takes it if Dracula runs out of health points. If neither player has won, the cards are all shuffled and the next round begins.
The tension is meant to come from the tradeoffs of deciding which card to discard on each turn, but that decision is largely rote. The decision points become slightly more acute as the game progresses, as Dracula gains a foothold in one region or another, but Dracula has to flip four tokens in one location and has only five rounds in which to do so. There isn’t enough time for Dracula to lull Van Helsing into a false sense of security, or pull off a pivot. As Dracula, you have to focus your resources into the places where they’re already working, and as Van Helsing, you know where Dracula is likely to be strongest. As my friend Kit said after a game, “I feel like there needs to be one more level to the decision making.
As for “trick-taking,” sure. I guess. The higher card wins and the suits do matter, albeit mostly as edge cases. To the side of the board is a rank of the suits, and some cards allow you to shuffle those suits around. With the exception of the trump suit, though, suits only matter for breaking ties, and there aren’t many of those.
I love Mandoo because they take risks. It’s part and parcel that those risks don’t always pan out. For me, Dracula vs Van Helsing falls pretty flat. That’s alright. I’ll still line up for the next one.
Dracula vs Van Helsing details
- Designer: Maxime Rambourg, Théo Rivière
- Artists: Weberson Santiago
- Publishers: 25th Century Games, Blackrock Games, Games7Days, Geronimo Games, Lavka Games, Maldito Games, Mandoo Games, MM-Spiele, Muduko, Reflexshop
- Release Date: 2023
- Player count : 2
- Age range : 10+
- Time range : 20 - 45 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Area Majority / Influence, Hand Management
- BGG Geek Rating: 7.35882 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
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