BloodRayne 2

Something to sink your teeth into

The Game
Rayne, the half human, half vampire is back to battle the dark forces in her never ending quest for revenge on the vampire that created her. While continuing her quest to kill off all the remaining offspring of the original vampire that created her, Rayne stumbles upon a new plot by the vampires to overtake mankind’s slot at the top of the food chain, and now it’s up to her to put a stop to it!
The original game was set in Nazi war-time Germany. This time around, Rayne is in modern times and looking just as good as she shoots and slashes her way through the hordes of the night.

Gameplay
Rayne’s move set has expanded since the first game. She now can slash, kick and shoot, as well as pick up new special abilities along the way. Combos can be pulled off with the pressing the right combination of buttons, but most of the time you’ll probably just be mashing one button combos as the enemies really don’t give you much space to be technical.
The levels can be big and confusing at times. You follow a fixed path, but often times you’ll come to dead ends and need to figure out ways to get across obstacles, like tossing a certain number of enemies into a wall to break it open. You can switch Rayne’s vision to see where your supposed to be heading if you get lost though, but the challenge of how to get there still remains at times.

She also has a host of athletic abilities like climbing poles, and sliding down them upside down and shot at the same time! Learning these abilities are a must to get further into the game and luckilly there is a tutorial to show you the ropes as well as when to use them.
The camera angles could use some work though. You can control the camera, but it’s a pain when most of the time the enemies like to attack you from behind, so you have to keep moving and find an opening to swing around for an attack.

Graphics & Sound

Needless to say that Rayne looks great, and the same could be said for the backdrop of the game, with its dark, gritty city-scaping. It’s actually reminiscent of the Max Payne games, even down to the sneaking up to walls to listening to the funny conversations of enemies! May not be original, but looks good anyways.
The audio goes from silent to heavy metal to some goth. The voice acting is passable, with Rayne having the best voice acting compared to the other characters in the game. Her one-liners could use some help though.

Miscellaneous
This game can be REALLY difficult at times, especially the boss battles. Even some of the normal enemies can be really annoying cause they attack from all sides and you can’t damage them until you disarm them.

The camera can be a problem too cause the enemies like to attack from behind and you have a hard time adjusting the camera to get them in view that you need to run away to get some space between you. Bit of a hassle, but that’s probably the strategy of the game the developers were looking for.

Overall
BloodRayne 2 might not be the best or most original game to come out, and it even has been said to have a few bugs in the game. But it should appeal to fans of the original, and hardcore action gamer who were fans of Max Payne and Dead to Rights.
Here’s hoping they do a better job with BloodRayne 3 if they decide to make it.

Game Ratings:
Graphics – 8
Sound – 7
Gameplay – 7
Lifespan – 6
Overall – 7