I cautiously walked into the room. Blood painted the walls; asickening glaze over the marble and crown molding. Several bodieswere strewn over the statues that dotted the perimeter. I heard thedistinctive “clack” of stiletto heels on fine polishedgranite. Apprehension crept up my spine as I walked deeper into thedarkened room. There were dismembered limbs everywhere, or at leastI think they were limbs. It is very dark now. This was one heck ofa dinner party. Then I had to hit pause — my dog wanted to belet out.
Gore is not my thing. The game is, of course, BloodRayne2, the sequel to 2002’s wildly popular BloodRayne.The action is set 60 years after the original and our dhampir(half-vampire, half-human) anti-heroine is wreaking vengeance onher family tree. Systematically destroying her vampiric anddhampiric brethren in decades-long crusade, Rayne stumbles on acult that is dedicated to her father, Kagan. She then learns of aplot of powerful vampires to subjugate humanity, blot out the sunand generally bring hell on earth. How very Blade.
The Look
BloodRayne 2 looks pretty good. Movement is very fluidand believable (Hey, I’d believe a super-acrobatic dhampircould move that way). Blood squirts, sprays and oozes in everypossible manner from every possible place. The character models arepretty impressive, lots of articulation and motion for minorcharacters and bosses are a sight to see. Every character can havelimbs and heads removed, they can be eviscerated, sliced, diced;any way a player could think to destroy a baddie has been included.The levels seem to channel Anne Rice, though they are a bit linearfor my taste.
The Feel
The game struck me as fairly repetitive. After the initialcoolness factor of being able to cut down everything in sight, thefact that you are cutting down everything in sight, over and overand over again sinks in. A nice side effect of the game beingvampire-themed is the absence of health packs. Every baddie youencounter is a walking fighting health pack, waiting to be drainedof their blood. Another cool feature is “Aura Vision.”Basically it operates as a heads up display, allowing you to seelevel goals and the health meter of enemies. Anything alive glowsred, indicating how much blood is left in their body. As you feedoff the baddies, they slowly turn grey and die. Speaking of dyingenemies, BloodRayne 2 isn’t particularly hard, either.Though I had cheat codes at my disposal, I didn’t need to usethem at all (well, except for the “unlock all costumes”code). As long as you can mash one button, it is almost impossibleto die.
Overall
Other than enhanced graphics and some improved play controlthere is nothing new under the, um, blotted-out sun. This isstandard action fare. There are some cool parts, and the story isgood, if unoriginal. The CG cut scenes are nice and well placed,and overall the game is paced well. I would recommend the game toanyone that has a thing for vampires, gothic horror or troublegetting a date.
The Guildhall at SMU is an intense 18-month certificateprogram in digital game development. The curriculum was designed byexpert teachers working with leaders in the gaming industry toprovide students with a solid foundation in game development. Visithttp://guildhall.smu.edu.
Gaming Briefs
Game preview tour heading to Frisco Mall
Teens, young adults, children and families will get a‘first look’ at the Holiday season’s hottestvideo games and PC games, as well as unreleased demos of thisyear’s new titles when the “2004 Holiday PreviewTour” hits Frisco’s Stonebriar Mall, on Nov. 20.
Twenty new titles will be featured on a state-of-the-art,45-screen Game Live interactive ‘GamePort’ system frompublishing partners Electronic Arts, Vivendi Universal Games,Midway(R) and Konami.
Admission is free and game play is unlimited. For completedetails of the tour, including tour locations, event times and thelatest list of games included on the tour, visitgameliveevents.com.
Critical Mass Completes `USAF: Air Dominance’ MilitaryAction Flight Simulator
Austin-based Critical Mass Interactive says it’s completedwork on “USAF: AIR DOMINANCE,” a government-fundedpromotional game intended to raise awareness and perpetuate thehigh-tech image of the Air Force.
In “USAF: AIR DOMINANCE,” the player must completethree specific missions: saving a pilot from an allied nation,delivering supplies inside hostile territory and completing acovert surveillance raid.
Each mission is meant to provide the player with a variedperspective of many of the different responsibilities associatedwith the United States Air Force.
