BloodRayne is the type of game
that I should like, but I just cant get into it. It is filled with
blood and gore and features an incredibly cool vampire chick as the main
character, but I dont need to be constantly reminded Hey! Look at that
woman. Shes t3h sexy! and I could definitely do without hearing a
curse word in practically every piece of dialogue. The combat is fun and
sucking blood to regain your health is pretty awesome, but there isnt
really anything that stands out in BloodRayne that puts it a step above
any of the dozens of other hack and slash and shoot games available now.
The PC version of the game is made even more disappointing by the
horrendous control and high specs required to actually run the game.
This is one game that maybe should have stayed on the consoles because
the PC port is pretty poor.
The story follows a
half-vampire named BloodRayne who works for a secret organization in the
1930s known as the Brimstone Society. The Brimstone Societys
responsibility is to protect humanity from all of the creepy crawlies
that go bump in the night. Over the course of the game, youll travel
from the Louisiana bayou to Argentina to Germany and try to snuff out a
Nazi conspiracy all while fighting monsters and sucking the blood of
your enemies.
Playing through the game as
agent BloodRayne is rather fun because there are so many different
weapons and moves to take advantage of. BloodRayne has blades attached
to her wrists that can be upgraded as you play through the game, but
there are also a host of guns at your disposal. This mix of melee and
projectile weapons means that there are a lot of different ways to take
out your enemies. You are encouraged to use the blades more than the
guns, though, because using the blades will build up BloodRaynes blood
lust and give you special powered up attacks. The way you restore your
health is by sucking the blood of the enemies, and it is pretty
thrilling to watch BloodRayne jump on an enemy, wrap her legs around
them, and have a little snack. You can also use a grappling hook attack
that grabs enemies from a distance and drags them over to you so you can
feast on them without having them put up too much of a fight. Other
moves include the ability to change vision modes, make incredible jumps,
and tightrope walk across wires so you can reach new areas of the map.
Despite having a seemingly
large arsenal at your disposal, BloodRayne plays pretty much like every
other action game on the market. There are dozens of enemies spread
throughout the levels, and it is your job to kill them all. There isnt
anything in the game that could be really be considered a puzzle because
the only pauses in the action are tedious fetch quests where you know
exactly where to find the item or sections in levels where you have to
find your way over a wall or something. You spend most of your time
fighting enemies, which is fun as much for the gore as it is just
watching BloodRayne do her work, but it gets old after a while. You are
pretty much unstoppable since it is so easy to mince up your enemies and
you can top off your health bar whenever there is an enemy around, so
the game fails to provide a decent challenge.
Trying to control the game,
either with a keyboard and mouse setup or a controller, is an exercise
in frustration and the main reason why the PC version of BloodRayne
isnt all that much fun to play. With a keyboard and a mouse, the game
controls like a first person shooter despite being a third person action
game. You move with W,A,S,D and move the camera with the mouse, but it
is hard to be precise with your movements and the camera manages to be
awful even though you have control of it. It is too spazzy and it is
hard to consistently position it so you get the best view of everything.
With a controller, the game is a little bit better but the camera is
still an issue. I also had trouble using the in-game calibration process
with my controller, and once I got it working the minimal improvement in
control was hardly worth the effort. Whether you are using a keyboard
and mouse setup or a controller, actually performing the moves you want
is wildly inconsistent, and it is frustrating when you have to use a
certain move to destroy an enemy and you cant seem to do it.
The graphics in BloodRayne are
impressive, provided you have a computer powerful enough to handle it.
Even if you meet the 2.53 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, and GeForce 4
(or higher) recommended specs, good luck getting the game to run
smoothly. The game looks very good overall, and there is a lot of detail
in the environments and the character models, especially the model for
BloodRayne. The lighting effects in the game are excellent, as well as
the fact that many items in the environments can be destroyed and come
with their own unique physics. The gore is also exceptionally well done
and looks entirely realistic. It is pretty satisfying to look back on a
room you just had a bit battle in and see the walls splattered with
blood and the floor littered with body parts. Where the graphics fail to
impress is in the animation. The enemies are incredibly jerky in their
movements and BloodRayne looks absolutely horrible as she herks and
jerks her way through combos. The game looks pretty good, but the
animation is flat out horrible. It is pretty pathetic when the breasts
of the female characters so obviously had more attention paid to their
animation than anything else in the game. The sound is good enough to
get the job done but nothing more. The music and sound effects suit the
environments, but they arent anything you havent heard before.
Overall, the PC version of
BloodRayne is a disappointing port of a console game that was already a
bit hit or miss. If you dig B-rate horror flicks, youll probably like
it, but there is so much in the game that goes beyond being a mere send
up to campy horror that it instead comes across as being simply stupid.
I dont need innuendo so thick you can cut it with a knife and I dont
need curse words in nearly every line of dialogue. The gameplay is fun,
even though it is a bit on the easy side and doesnt present anything
radically different from other action games. Controlling the game on the
PC is a lot more difficult than it should be and the high system
requirements and overall poor performance make this title more trouble
than it is worth. If you really want to check out BloodRayne, get one of
the console versions because the PC version isnt worth your time.
Eric Qualls (12/28/2003) |