At a glance...

Reviewer	Platform	Publisher	Developer	Players	Screenshots
Neil Smith (Former team member)	PlayStation 2	Vivendi Universal Games	Terminal Reality	1	Here
Requirements				Also on...	Buy from Amazon.co.uk
64kb free memory card space.				PC, Mac, GameCube, Xbox	Click here to buy BloodRayne.

BloodRayne review

The box blurb states; "Behold Agent BloodRayne. Half Human. Half Vampire" (Remind you of anything yet?) "All Woman." Oh well, maybe not, but this does have very striking similarities to another PS2 game, Blade 2. Same background, same type of game, although Blade 2 was a very big let down, is this the game that addresses Blade's issues and gives us the game that Blade 2 should of been?

Well, the blurb goes on to say; "Let this wickedly sexy heroine escort you into the terrifying world of the occult"; Again, nothing different from that promised by Blade 2, except for the fact that its based on a female lead character rather than a butch male. After all, how many games can you remember that are focused on a super-hot half vampire female agent who hunted Nazis in pre-WW2 Germany? The answer is most probably "none". Yet despite the intriguing premise, BloodRayne never quite lives up to its promise, again, sharing a similarity with Blade 2.

So, how then? Well, though there's plenty of action and blood to be found throughout the game's many detailed levels, the repetitive action never quite seems to move beyond "shoot" and "bite", which at first can be quite fun, knocking down your foe then sucking the blood from his neck, but it does get quite repetitive after some time through this longish game. So, whether you're using Agent BloodRayne's dual pistols, wristblades, or sizeable incisors, it won't take long before you realize that you've experienced all this before in countless other action titles.

Take into account a rather unco-operative camera and rather dosile opponents (who often wait in line while you take care of their friends), the power laden heroine's adventures grow stale a little too quickly for my taste.

To the game's credit, the cinema cutscenes and progressive storyline did keep me entertained for longer than I expected, and the atmospheric nature of the game and its level design is a distinct notch above the rest in terms of quality. Old hands of games like Soul Reaver, Tomb Raider, Shadowman etc.. will, however, be thoroughly familiar with just about anything that BloodRayne throws at them, and encounter little, if any, new challenge as a result.

All in all, it comes together as a rather low key venture into an already over populated 3rd person action market; which is really too bad, as after seeing so many excellent trailers for the game, I was really looking forward to something with a bit more potential than was accomplished with the concept. As it stands, BloodRayne is the perfect example of a decent game with a lot of wasted potential.

Ratings

Graphics	The environments are spooky enough to provide chills, with good cutscenes, and fairly smooth frame rate.	8/10
Gameplay	Sorry, but it just lacks enough of the thrills that the environments chills promise. Much of a muchness with other better done games of its ilk, although it is better than its "male" counterpart Blade 2. Gets repetitive after only a short time.	6/10
Value	At the time of writing, we did not have a value for money ranking.	0/10
Lifespan	One of its plus points is that it is a pretty long game, which is rare with games of this type, but I'd imagine you'd only play this once, due yet again to the repetitiveness.	6/10
Audio	Good spot effects, cutscenes are accompanied by a decent atmoshperic soundtrack. Another of its plus points.	8/10
Overall	Well, its okay, but could of been much better. It has an excellent premise and LOTS of swear words, but they still aren't enough to raise this basic vampire romp to the heights it could so easily of achieved considering the nearly limitless potential the developers had with the concept.	7/10

Click here to buy BloodRayne from Amazon.co.uk.

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