User Rating: 7.5 | BloodRayne XBOX
Created by Majesco, BloodRayne is your average action/horror/adventure game in Third Person View. The levels are fairly straightforward with your numerous boss characters, the enemies that plague your screen, and those annoying platform jumps. This game has all that. But what separates BloodRayne from the rest of the… pack is its heroine, Rayne. Being a Dahmpire (half human – half vampire) Rayne was born with all the strengths and none of the weaknesses. Just think Blade. This allows you to go where no vampire would tread, and makes you stand out from the rest. Our story starts in 1932 where we find Rayne on the hunt for the vampires that killed her family. She’s taken into a secret organization whose sole objective is to save the world from supernatural forces. We humans don’t need to bother with this sort of stuff. That’s Rayne’s job. She finds a lead on a man who later turns out to be a high ranking Nazi Officer. Fast forward to 1938, before the start of the Second World War. Hitler is on the move, powering up his forces, and looking for relics that will aid him in his quest. Rayne don’t like that. Rayne hates that. Even more, Rayne hates the guy in charge of finding said relics. Rayne mean. Rayne bad. Rayne is your anti-hero doing anti-heroic things like chopping people’s arms off, and licking the blade afterwards. Rayne bad. I like it. On her first mission with the Organization, she’s teamed with a fellow Dahmpire to find a cause for an outbreak in Louisiana. Upon arrival, Rayne learns of a much bigger plan put into full force – namely the Nazi Invasion. From here on out, you’ll make discoveries of how twisted this storyline goes. Think Indiana Jones and Marilyn Manson teaming together.. you’ll begin to get an idea. Rayne isn’t alone in this game. She has her two best friends joining her on her quest; Lefty and Righty. Twin blades on each of her wrists that do a nice job of cutting. Very sharp, and very dangerous, Rayne uses these two with full effect. Along your journey, you’ll find enhancements for these blades that make you an even more unstoppable killing machine. If she’s a Dahmpire, what about her teeth? Oh, she has teeth, and she’ll use them. Primarily used to regain health, you can jump on or mount a fallen victim and suck their blood for health. When biting someone, you can use them as a shield against gunfire, or even fire a weapon while sucking. Weapon? Blades don’t fire.. or do they? No, they don’t. But you can pick up the weapons of your dead enemies to use for more carnage. You’ll find most of the standard weapons of the period like the Grease Gun or a Panzerfaust. Shotguns, ZZG33s, and so much much more. Eventually you’ll gain a harpoon that you can use to reel in a victim to bite – or just bring them much closer to your blades. While fighting off the bad guys, you’ll raise your Blood Rage Meter. When full, you can unleash very harsh attacks in slow-mo (Matrix Style) and use special moves and combos for fighting. But be quick, once activated, a timer starts, lowering your meter, when depleted, you are no longer in Blood Rage mode. However, one nice feature is that you can turn off this mode at anytime, saving for future uses. We’ve played Vampire Type games before. What makes this one so much more special is the 4 Vision Modes. You have your Standard Mode – Basic vision. There’s Enhanced Vision – acts as a heat vision, allowing you to see heat in dark, also gives you sight of your objective. However, only shows the direct location. You can’t always go straight to get there. Extruded Vision – allows you to see much further away, basically s****er view. Last but not least (and my personal favorite), Dilated Perception – when activated, you begin to process sensory information so fast, time slows down. In English this means slow motion. Like the Blood Rage I mentioned earlier, you move Matrix style, or Max Payne-like. However this isn’t just used for dodging or jumping, you can use it anytime, everytime. Sometimes I just leave it on. You can get some really neat camera angles while slowly slicing and dicing, jumping between the enemies like you see in the movies. Very fast, very cool. This alone almost warrants a purchase. The graphics for the game are a mixed bag of sorts. On one hand, everything looks a little.. blah. The textures in some levels could have used some more tightening. The water looks.. well, some of it may as well be ansi. Some rooms you go into are so plain, you wonder if the developers just couldn’t think anything up to fill in the blanks. On the other hand – other levels look damn sweet. The Castle Levels, the Mine Levels and so on. The modeling is pretty good, if not basic. The effects of the guns and the weather are nice. Even nicer in slow motion. I had a level running with snow. When I went into Dilated Perception, the snow flakes themselves actually slowed down too. I was able to run in between them, and dodge gun fire, like it was nothing. Little touches like this are what can make or break a game. Thankfully Majesco knew this, and used those touches to their farthest extent. But all of that could be just all a big waste of time if the Dev Team doesn’t do one certain thing right. The question everyone’s yelling at the screen right now. “How does Rayne look?” Short answer – for you 13-20 some odd year old boys out there, she looks sexy as all hell. Long answer – for everyone else, she’s “fully” detailed in everyway. From the bottom of her black high boots, to the top of her sun red hair. Doing jumps, kicks, swinging her arms, you can see her move in full realistic fashion, though it does tend to get downright strange at times. She’ll go from standing perfectly still, to an inverted 180 degree twirling scissor kick. Kind of odd, but doesn’t really detract from the game itself. Also, as a nifty bonus, the Dev Team put “Bounce” in her step, if you know what I mean. Unrealistic though, you’ll find “them” jumping more humorous than sexy. The sound for the game, although in Dolby Digital 5.1, is somewhat lacking. The game does feature a nice soundtrack, though it’s more of a simple beat to get your heart racing. The death cries you’ll hear from the Nazi’s could have been a little better as well. Often you’ll hear the same three or for screams in a row. Kind of tiring after a short while. Another odd instance, is BloodRayne herself. While dishing out the whoopings, you’ll hear her say two or three different lines. But it’s the way she says them that gets to you. She sounds almost like she’s half asleep, even though you just ninja kicked your way through 15 baddies. She also says the same three or four lines which gets real old after a while. I found myself just turning the sound down and my music up. The game does have some other flaws. First off, almost no camera AI. You control the camera from the start. Not so bad, you do get used to it real quick, and it does make for some interesting screen captures. However, which leads into the second main flaw, platform jumping. There are one or two levels where you do have to platform jump. This is not the kind of game for that. Can get annoying. More so is the camera. The one thing the camera does do by itself is return to the position behind you. A good combination this doesn’t make. Some levels are rather bleak looking while others are extremely detailed and provide nice eye candy. The sound itself could be better, but the surround sound is put to good use here. Rayne’s powers are a super sweet touch to the game, along with her weapons and the different styles you can use to take the bad guys out. Rayne herself is one sexy woman, giving Lara Croft something to think about, and keeping all the fanboy’s mouthes watering for years to come. I’d recommend this game to anyone who likes action, adventure, or horror. The game is very bloody, there is some harsh language in it. So it can’t be for everyone. But for those of you who either enjoy that or who can look past all that – this game is for you. One final note; this game has a lot going for it, but like I said, there are flaws. However, there will be a sequel i’m sure of. That’s the game that will take the gaming community by storm. This version of the series, is just a look at what’s to come.
