BloodRayne 2
- October 06, 2004 00:00 AM PST
Rayne returns to bloody action looking as dashing and deadly as ever. Could this be love at first bite?
If buxom babes and buckets of blood seem to be requisite ingredients for most commercially successful video games, then BloodRayne 2�s dark combination of these tacky traits should make for one hell of a hit. BloodRayne 2 looked promising at this year�s E3, but the leap forward in visual quality from that version to this playable beta version is impressive with developer Terminal Reality promising even greater improvements in frame rate and animation in the final build. Though still unfinished, BloodRayne 2 looked about as beautiful as a game full of dismembered bodies and crimson arterial sprays ever could with excellent lighting and shadow effects creating a creepily believable cityscape that gives a sexy sheen to Rayne�s red leather duds and lethal blades. The combat animations also showed an unexpected level of polish and fluidity and clearly rendered Rayne�s violence in all its vicious glory�which is, of course, the crux of BloodRayne 2�s gameplay.As in the first game, Rayne (the half-vampire, half-human heroine) uses a cool combination of kung-fu kicks, harpoon stabs, and sword attacks to annihilate her enemies up close while she relies on her blood pistols to alleviate distant threats and massacre mindless minions in myriad ways. In particular, the gruesome ability to harpoon your enemies and throw them into deadly level-specific traps (like giant fans and garbage compactors) called �kill puzzles� or toss them into one another to create pileups adds nicely to an already deep fighting engine complete with a dozen fatality-style finishing moves. And because there are no health or ammo pickups lying around the levels, it�s up to you to refill Rayne�s pistols and vitality by feeding on the fresh blood of fallen adversaries, making calculated combat moves just as important as the wanton destruction of fleshy foes.
