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Platform: PC, XBox, PS2, GC |
Developer: Terminal Reality |
Publisher: Majesco |
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Genre: 3rd Person Action |
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Release Date: Fall 2002 |
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BloodRayne
How hard do you think it is to get a date with a female half-vampire, half-human? At the moment, you’ll have a tough time, but come Fall 2002 your chances exponentially increase with BloodRayne from Terminal Reality and Majesco.
Vampire games – even half-human, half-vampire games – are nothing new. Whatever originality the genre once held wore off long ago. Same with Nazis. How many more games are going to be centered on killing Nazis? I suppose some subject matter is as ageless as a vampire.
BloodRayne takes us back to South America (probably Brazil or Argentina) in the 1930s and ‘40s as those goose-stepping fascists try to get their hands on an ancient evil to be used, no doubt, to take over the world. To anyone that has seen Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, the setup seems a bit “samey.” So too with the plethora of Nazi-generated mutants that BloodRayne has to cut into little bits (think Return to Castle Wolfenstien). And besides the obvious titular reference to Max Payne, BloodRayne has a host of supernatural moves – one that is akin to Max’s bullet-time effect. Is there anything original about BloodRayne?
Originality seems to be beside the point. Most gamers loved Halo, but it was obvious to some the heavy influence of the Alien movies and Half-Life. Terminal Reality’s goal seems to be making an enjoyable, albeit bloody, game by meshing identifiable elements from other sources. Like many action games, BloodRayne has access to a number of melee weapons, high-powered guns (circa. 1940), and the aforementioned supernatural abilities. The 3rd Person view facilitates melee action, but it’s unknown what kind of targeting system the game will use for projectile weapons. But how accurate will BloodRayne’s machine guns be as she runs down a hallway? Hopefully, Terminal Reality decides on the Z-targeting system, which became vogue after The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but it's more likely to handle like Max Payne.
Any good vampire-human hybrid should be able to consume vast quantities of blood and it looks like BloodRayne is going to attempt a record. Even while Nazi goons are firing blindly, BloodRayne can grab on and drain her victims. Not only is this an effective way of restoring hit points, suck up enough of the red stuff and BloodRayne enters “Bloodlust” and then “Bloodrage” which is probably like giving a cat too much catnip.
With the potential for various mission types (infiltrate, search and destroy, etc.) and a promising main character, BloodRayne might be a good Hallowe’en game when it arrives Fall 2002 for all the major gaming platforms.
- Omni
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