Bite me Rayne!
Violence, blood, swear words, furious shooting are protagonists in Bloodrayne, and if you’re sensitive to this kind of stuff you’d better avoid it.
When Rayne, appropriately nicknamed “BloodRayne”, was a child, here parents were attacked by a vampire, and, as Blade, she began a Dampyr, half a human, half a vampire: she is as strong and fierce as the second one, but she can stay at the sunlight without damages for her health, as a human being.
Anyway, she needs blood to survive.
She is searching for her father, she knows he’s still alive and, during her search, she kills all of the vampires and monsters she meets on her path; actually, she works for a secret organisation, the “Brimstone Society”.
That’s the story.
There are three main locations:
1) Lousiana marshes, where Rayne’s opponents are rotten zombies and strange, gigantic insects;
2) a secret Nazi base in Argentina, where Rayne can slash Nazi soldiers, both as human being (if we consider Nazis as humans) and as monster without flesh, but only a skull driven in the spinal column;
3) obscure buildings similar to castles and cathedrals in Germany, where opponents are Nazis and vampires.
Environments are generally quite wide and with many details, you can interact with them, for instance slicing flags and tables, in the secret base in Argentina too you’ll move in large rooms, but unluckily the camera is not so quick and careful to exactly follow Rayne’s movements, and it’s annoying to continuously move the right stick to find the best angle-shot.
Graphically the engine is not the best a Xbox could support: during the most frenetic action it’s possible to notice some slowing down in frame-rate.
Colours are not very brilliant in all the game, indeed, they seem to be permanently covered with a light mist: this could be considered as a good visual effect in some stages, like for instance in Lousiana, because increases gloomy atmosphere, but in different locations it’s not good to see.
Anyway, Rayne is a fantastic character: charismatic, dressed in a red and black leather costume, she is as sexy as lethal and fast; her moves and fighting skills include lateral and back jumps, and when she needs blood to feed herself she can jump over an opponent and pierce its throat with her teeth to suck vital lymph.
To make this job easier she’s equipped with an arpoon.
When Rayne attacks her foes you’ll see a real slaughter, because using two blades fastened to her arms she’s able to literally cut off arms, legs, heads, and to eviscerate… it’s a violent and gory vision, but it gives a morbid pleasure also.
Enemies also are graphically convincing, maybe vampires’ attacks could have been made better; sometimes Nazi soldiers seem to be clumsy.
Music is another good point of the game: always suitable to environments and situations, it communicates fear, anxiety or restlessness in player’s spirit.
Rayne’s voice is convincing, not the same could be said for other characters, but anyway it’s enough. Sound effects produced by items, weapons and environments are good.
A lack of the game is its system control: in developers’ and programmers’ intentions this was supposed to be an action game, something similar to Devil May Cry, and of course the final result could have been very better if controls were more immediate and easy.
No problem when you have to shoot: Rayne, realizing there’s a foe around, will immediately aim, and you just have to push the right trigger, but when you want to slice the opponent with your blades it gets uncomfortable to push the left trigger, you can customize your controls even if you’re left-handed, but for physical attack you’ll always have to use the trigger, while according to me it was better the a, b, x or y button on the pad, using the thumb more than the forefinger!
Combos, after you get practised, are always similar.
To be even more lethal our heroine owns other special abilities:
1) she can slow down the time so that she’s able to avoid enemies’ bullets and attacks (as in Max Payne and The Matrix), a very useful and spectacular ability;
2) she owns thermic vision, so that she can feel foes even if outside her visual field;
3) when Rayne’s anger gets a certain level she can attack with more fury and strength: you’ll see body-parts and blood literally flying in the air.
4) if sometimes you find yourself lost and don’t know your way, just follow direction shown by the compass.
The game is full of bosses, but they are not really challenging if you are able to properly use powerful Rayne’s skills and techniques.
Bloodrayne is a good third-person action game, Rayne’s cool enough to make up for temporary lack of gameplay, and it’s recommendable if you’re looking for pure action with no worries.