Vampire Rain literally takes a bite out off your X-Box 360 completely by being a total pain in the neck.
Platform: X-Box 360
Developer: Artoon
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Genre: Stealth
Age Rating: 18+ PEGI (15+ BBFC)
Release Date: 29th June 2007
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Game Score: 2.5/10
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Summery:
Vampire Rain literally takes a bite out off your X-Box 360 completely by being a total pain in the neck.
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With Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell being the top hit titles in the Stealth Genre how about a Stealth/Horror title where you have to avoid Vampires that's after your Blood. That's pretty much the concept you got for Vampire Rain but unfortunately Vampire Rain literally takes a bite out off your X-Box 360 completely by being a total pain in the neck.
The American country has been taken over by Vampire-like monsters called Nightwalkers that are rapidly spreading across the country. You play as John Lloyd a member of an Elite Black Ops Government who has one rainy night to find out the truth about the Nightwalkers, eliminate them and also rescue a kidnapped Professor. Although the concept of having Vampires invading seems decent but however some of storyline doesn't make any logical sense. Why do the Nightwalkers even bother to Kidnap some old Professor when they quick to kill everyone else? Anyway the story and script are awfully written with a poor translated effort that's basically all you need to know.
Vampire Rain has a Singleplayer mode which has 24 different story missions each with different trial missions in between. With most levels involving you moving from point A to point B without being spotted by Nightwalker petrol and eliminating groups of enemies when given the chance. Trial Levels are mostly pointless, some involve difficult sneaking objectives while some others restrict you to a small area while you face few waves of Nightwalkers. How about one where you have to clear a rooftop for a helicopter to land, you might be inspecting to take down Nightwalkers you climb the building only to find a bunch of crates. Yes that's right the whole mission is to shoot crates. Who came up with that idea? The main campaign will mostly take around nearly 20 Hours to complete thanks to the game's Blood sucking trial and error Gameplay.
Vampire Rain also has a set of Multi-player modes like simple Deathmatches, Death or Nightwalkers and Capture the Flame. There are also some Achievements to unlock in the game as well but honestly they are not even worth bothering.
Vampire Rain's graphics are really nothing too special, although the raining effects are decent but environment details are generic looking and uninspiring. The Night-walkers animations are downright creepy they can simply rush in with popping animations and even more crazy they can jump up to roof tops and I'm not joking. The music just has a few that just gives the game some cheap scares along with some gruesome sound effects. The voicework suffers from blend writing and bad dialogue that seems laughable.
Now I've saved the worst of this game for last and that's it's Gameplay. Unlike Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell you don't have detection meters to watch and sticking to any shadows doesn't help you escape any confrontation against a Nightwalker. You simply need to stay out of their field of view to avoid being spotted, if you do get spotted then you're more or less screwed because they can kill you just in one or two hits were it takes 20 or more bullets from you to take one down making your Pistol and Rifle hardly much use, forcing you to avoid confrontations most of the time. You will have to wonder around each level trying to find the best path to avoid the Nightwalkers. Sometimes you will end up having to die several times to find the correct path as you will often alert Nightwalkers that you just didn't know were there killing you instantly. It's all about trial and error trying to stay alive for the most part which makes the game really difficult. Later on some missions will give you access to a Sniper Rifle and a Shotgun which are the only weapons in the game that are effective. However once you complete a mission with them they are taken away from you and for a game that takes place over a course of a single rainy night it doesn't make any sense. If a Shotgun is the only Weapon needed to survive against the Nightwalkers then why would you ever walk around without one? You're also equipped with a U.V Knife in which you can stab an enemy from behind, however your Knife requires ammo which comes in forms of charges and there are only a few charges in each level, also it can be difficult to sneak up on Nightwalkers when there's no sound effects to indicate that your footsteps are too loud.
With standard enemies that can kill you easily you'd probably would expected boss battles to be nearly impossible. However the Boss fights are just easy to read making them a total joke. Edward the game's first boss for example carries a shotgun but prefers to walk over to kick you and blindly stepping onto traps in his path. When he does bring out the firepower his attack pattern is just plain obvious.
Vampire Rain is simply missing the ingredients that make for a great stealth game. The Gameplay is just too punishing with ridiculous trial and error formats. It has far to many issues for any player to comprehend. Avoid this game at all costs. If you want to hunt down Vampires pick up a G-Con 2 Light Gun and Vampire Night for the PlayStation 2 instead. This is one Vampire slaying stealth game that just sucks the genres blood out completely.
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The Pros:
1. The concept idea is not bad I guess
The Bads:
1. Cheap and annoying difficulty requires trial and error in order to progress
2. Multiplayer modes are not worth bothering
3. Only few levels allow you access to Weapons capable of eliminating Nightwalkers
4. Boss Battles are a complete joke.
5. Creepy Animations
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (BlaZer91)
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