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Blade
II
Score: 5.0 / 10
Blade, one of the cooler Marvel Comics
characters, get his second videogame to coincide with the release of
Blade II on DVD and VHS. And it’s too damn bad he has yet to score a
“must play” incarnation. Blade II (B2), the game, suffers from poor
controls, insufferable repetition, and a decided lack of fun.
I don’t like to slag any game. I don’t revel in saying that a company
has given up 18 months of their lives to create a game that’s less than
“good” and flopping somewhere just below “average.” It may be my
Canadian nature of trying to be nice, playing fair and looking for the
silver lining. But it’s the duty of every reviewer to be honest with the
reader about a game – whether it is bad or good. It’s not that I put
much weight on my own opinion. I’m sure there aren’t any developers out
there losing sleep wondering if I’ll like their new game.
B2 is simply “blah!” The main culprit is mix of wonky control and a
bizarre limitation, but I’ll go over the limitation first.
Blade himself features a sword strapped to his back. No, he can’t use
it. At least not whenever he wants to. He has to wait until his Rage
meter is built up before he can unsheathe his mighty weapon and hack
vampires and other ne’er-do-wells to bits.
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This makes zero sense. If I’ve got a big
sword strapped to my back and I’m being rushed by a gang of six
vampires, I’m going to use the friggin’ sword – Rage meter be damned! If
the sword could have been used on a consistent basis I would have been
able to draw more comparisons with Obi-Wan (XB), but as B2 is, I can
draw some comparisons with Blood Omen 2 (BO2).
But I’m jumping ahead of myself – I was going to |
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talk about the control.
I can classify the whole control scheme as poor. Most of the action has
Blade going hand-to-hand with gangs of bad guys and the method of
kicking and punching is horrendous. One stick controls Blade’s basic
movement while the other functions as his attack “button.” This really
does work in games like Smash TV, Hunter: The Reckoning (XB), or
Robotron, but it fails here. B2 has quite an “old school” influence,
with never-ending baddies to crush, so what the hell happened to button
mashing? Blade can execute combos but it’s incredibly difficult to get
them working properly because you can’t button mash anything. You’re
stuck with pressing “up” then “up” then “down”, spacing each with a
split second pause. It turns pure action into a methodical exercise.
Then there is the plethora of other attack options available – some
useless and some not fully realized.
Blade can jump. Yipee! But using it as an attack strategy is wasted.
Plus, with all his half-vampire enhanced abilities, shouldn’t he be able
to jump higher?
The glaive – a vampire decapitating boomerang – should have just been
eliminated or at least relegated to power-up. It does come in handy,
maybe once. The problem is that it takes a moment to charge-up and
during that time Blade can’t move, leaving him open to attack from
behind (or left or right) and eliminating the charge built on the
glaive. And 10 times out of 10 Blade will get hit before he has a chance
to actually throw it. If it’s a boomerang why can’t it just be thrown?
Last time I threw a boomerang I didn’t have to charge it up.
The other ranged weapons don’t do much to increase the action but there
are instances of magic moments. Blasting an oil barrel from across the
screen results in a satisfying explosion – taking out any undead
creatures along the way. The UV grenade – bad sunburns are proven to
kill vampires – is a satisfying weapon but it’s just not around enough.
Before each level starts you have a chance to equip Blade with weapons
and ammo. Not all the equipment is available from the start – most of
them must be unlocked by meeting a set score (by killing vampires,
collecting glyphs, etc.).
The design and objectives of each level are of the classic variety: kill
everything, protect this guy, flip this switch, open this door. This is
similar to BO2 but B2 lacks a good story – this time centering around a
possible link between organized crime and the Vampire Nation (or
something) – and it doesn’t follow the movie. It’s not as interesting as
BO2’s complicated characters and their motivations.
Something the two games share is the repetitious nature of some aspects.
There are a few “fatality” moves where Blade gets even more up close and
personal. (Q: What’s the shortest route to vampire’s heart? A: Through
the top of its head.) Emphasis on few. They happen again and again,
which is much like watching Kain suck blood in BO2. It loses any shock
value, especially when there are only a few catchphrases to accompany it
that are repeated to death. Most annoying is when Blade is in a location
that puts the camera behind a solid object. Then you get a gruesome
snippet of a cutscene that can’t be skipped or seen.
Graphically, you really have to work to notice much in the way of
differences between the Xbox and PS2 version. On it’s own, I don’t have
anything against B2's graphics. In fact, it’s a real highlight as Mucky
Foot has thrown in lots of small details. Hacking off limbs with the
sword, the way the vampires evaporate into dust, interacting with the
environments, etc. It brings Blades world to life – too bad it’s such a
pain in the ass to get around.
And if you think I've used more than enough curse words during the
course of this review, blame B2. It's extremely potty-mouthed --
especially Whistler, Blade's trainer and buddy.
Ultimately, Blade II can’t be recommended to anyone other than die-hard
Blade II fans and even some of them will be turned off by the clunky
control, repetition, and lack of real fun. To its credit, Blade II is
loaded with action across all of its levels – but the fun is totally
blocked by the controls, which could have been streamlined.
- Omni
(January 1, 2003) |
