BloodRayne

Published by Vivendi
Developed by Terminal Reality
Platform: PlayStation 2
Released - Out Now
Price : £39.99

Games based on vampires are nothing new but games based on half-vampires, well now that is original. BloodRayne is ultimately about Agent BloodRayne and her quest to stop the evil Jurgen Wulf in his quest to enable Nazi Germany to rule the world. BloodRayne, often just called Rayne in the game, is a tall athletic half-human, half-vampire woman who has obviously been physically designed, and dressed, to appeal to the young male audience out there. That's not to say she can't look after herself though and this truly is a gore fest that horror fans will really enjoy.

The story goes that during the gap between the World Wars, BloodRayne has been working for a secret fraternity who hunts and kills supernatural threats. It soon becomes obvious that one man has been behind a couple of these threats and that this one man has to be stopped. This one man is Jurgen Wulf. Wulf is concerned with finding powerful relics that will give Nazi Germany the power to dominate the world. The game begins with BloodRayne on her way to Louisiana to combat some Mutates and Biological masses. During the course of the game she will also travel to places such as Argentina and Germany. As the game progresses the plot thickens and the action quickens but essentially is still a hack 'n' slash experience.

Being half-human, half-vampire puts BloodRayne in a unique position. Water can only hurt her, not kill her, and she's not afraid to go into a church and come face to face with a crucifix. She's already equipped with some fearsome blades that are attached to her arms (which can be upgraded during the game) but that doesn't stop her from picking up a variety of weapons that she can use against her enemies. Of course she can always throw her legs around the waist and her fangs around the neck of an enemy to finish them off and this is also a way for her to recover strength. BloodRayne, as we mentioned at the top of the review, is also very athletic and she can jump fantastically and use telegraph wires to tightrope walk on amongst other things.

Controlling BloodRayne is very straightforward to anyone who has ever played an action game before. The game offers a choice of two control schemes. There is a third person and a first person control scheme. I personally found the first person control scheme to be the best choice as it makes use of both analogue sticks and I found it a more comfortable control scheme. Should you need it there is a small tutorial that explains how to control BloodRayne. The tutorial also leads smoothly into the main game so there is no need to return to the main menu once you've completed it. The tutorial is useful because it introduces you to the some of BloodRayne's abilities such as her aura vision that enables her to see enemies, which are represented as a blue glow, through walls etc. BloodRayne can even use a slow motion ability that is not dissimilar from the Bullet time that was used in Max Payne, and she can also go into an increased speed rage mode that enables her to go berserk.

Graphically BloodRayne looks OK although the dark setting often leads to textures look extremely dull. Whilst BloodRayne herself animates very nicely the same cannot be said about most of her enemies. The graphical effects that are used for her special powers, such as aura vision, are impressive too. The game also goes into slow motion when you perform a dismemberment of an enemy or when there are explosions, which adds to the dramatic effect. The camera for the most part is OK but there are times where it becomes a pain. There are some occurrences of clipping which do spoil the aesthetic look of the game at times but it doesn't really hinder the gameplay. I didn't find too many framerate problems with BloodRayne, although dips did occur.

When I first loaded up the game and the introduction rolled, I was dismayed to see that there wasn't any subtitling for it. After the introduction I went to the options menu to enable subtitles but there wasn't an option to do so. Fearing the worst I started the tutorial. Thankfully on beginning the tutorial I found it to be subtitled. The game is subtitled too and what's more the text is clear and easy to read. So why wasn't the introduction subtitled?

As action games go BloodRayne is a good one. There isn't anything here that's spectacular but it's enjoyable nevertheless. If you enjoyed titles such as Blood Omen II then you will probably also enjoy BloodRayne. In fact with its superior control system BloodRayne is probably the better of the two titles and it's certainly the gorier of the two.

Overall Game Rating: 7.2/10
A good if not spectacular action game, BloodRayne will satisfy those gamers with a preference for gore.

Deaf Gamers comment:
The introduction isn't subtitled but the rest of the game is.