BloodRayne 2 - Original a rental, maybe a keeper

[Olvelsper]

With my recent move from my hometown of all my life, many new changes made themselves apparent in my new home. One of the more salient for this board is that now I can rent videogames at a Blockbuster a block and a half away.

Applying for membership, I then went on to try out a game that I had been somewhat curious to see play out. It's name was BloodRayne 2 and I decided to check out my theory that games that hype up sex appeal to the masses would be inheriently the suck.

Color me surprised when after a few days I found out that it wasn't the case. In fact this game had a solid foundation with platforming and action genres, blending both styles of game smoothly together. It's like Prince of Persia meets Devil May Cry, with the female heroine of the game responding smoothly to your controls.

Speaking of which, the game makes sure to provide a laundry list of techniques Rayne can use in and out of combat, helping you keep track of every new ability you learn throughout the adventure from fallen vampire lords and ladies.

The gameplay is tight, responding to you instantly in most situations, I've noticed that things usually get muggy during fights with human sized bosses, however. Another situation that the controls don't exactly react as desired is whenever you try and use your hookshot on enemies to throw them around.

For the hook shot, you must make sure the enemy is far away from wherever you want you specifically launch him or her at. If you don't, the enemy won't get the air time needed to cross and crash wherever you want them to. This is troublesome as the game relies on Rayne using her hookshot to fling enemies into specific items to plug them up/destroy them/or knock them down.

On an audio note, the soundtrack is passable, but not nearly as wide spanning as I hoped. The same tune played throughout most stages and another for boss fights. The voice acting is good, with lots of good one liners thrown throughout the game just like the good action film parallel it is.

Enough of the plot from the first game is explained in this game so you don't have to start with that one (thank god), and the game's villians are numerous and fun. Each of them have their own style and pinache going for them, and with the exception of the returning sub-bosses, they must all be fought in unique ways.

This is a game that'll keep you on your toes, keeping the difficulty up by limiting you to powering up your life, your mystic strength, or the ammo of your guns. Never all three, but the good thing is that enemies are plentiful enough that you can make sure you're always up to snuff all around. Unfortunately this is a sort of double edged sword, because most of the puzzles enjoy siccing wave after wave of enemies until you finish them, which gets a bit annoying as you go on.

Overall, I'd give this game an 8.0, while it has its flaws, it still is a genuinely fun game. Considering my horrible expectations for this game, I am surprised I'm considering finding it somewhere to buy it.

[Dracos]

Neat review. =)

Dracos
Finishes reading.

[Kwokinator]

On the other side of the opinion scale, I don't think this game kept the difficulty up by any means.  I beat the game by 99% hand-to-hand combat and only used guns when absolutely necessary, so ammo wasn't a problem.  Hand-to-hand is also not a problem, since Rayne so badly outranks most of the people she fights.  The abundance of what amounts to essentially cannon fodder or free health recharges also bring the difficulty amount down a fair bit ^_^

I find this game to be generally on the easy side, save for a few select scenes ^_^

I do love the million different fatalities and puzzles where I can fling people into to have them die horribly though =)

[Dracos]

Hey Kwok, why don't you do an opposing review so we can have two in the system on it?

Dracos

[Kwokinator]

No, 'cause I'm lazy ^_^

I might think about it if I'm bored enough ^_^

[Dracos]

Olg, can you please add this here: http://www.soulriders.org/index.php?module=writereview ?

We're looking to remove this step soon, but coding only happens so fast.

Dracos