Blood Rayne Review - PC Game Reviews

Blood Rayne Review

However since this gives you the excuse to run around biting terrified guards, sucking their very life-blood and generally creating mayhem, I somehow don’t think anyone will complain.

The opening scenes show Rayne hunting a number of vampires, in order to find and kill her vampire father. She is adopted by a top-secret order called the Brimstone Society, dedicated to protecting the world from evil and the occult. Agent BloodRayne and her guide Mynce are initially sent to Louisiana where they must investigate some bizarre activities in a flooded area in the bayou. This is a tutorial, where you can practise your incredible acrobatic moves and jumps, and get familiar with your Sense powers. Using these, you can zoom in on a distant object or use Dilated Perception to slow time down Matrix-style, in order to dodge bullets as was seen in Max Payne’s Bullet-Time. One of the games better features is the goal/spiritual radar. Once you activate it, all your goals are marked bright blue and your enemies are marked red. This really helps you to stay on track in the dark and shadowy levels while you slice through your enemies with your twin blades. You also have the ability to fire at two different enemies at the same time, raining down death from across the room using more than thirty-one guns and explosives, most of which are ‘supplied’ to you by your dead enemies. The more enemies you kill using your sword attacks, the more your Bloodlust Meter fills up. Once it’s full you can enter the ‘Berserker Blood Rage’ mode in which you deal out double the damage at half the expense. This is most useful against multiple enemies, as most are armed to the teeth. Berserker mode is also useful against tougher bosses like The Butcheress. Defeating certain bosses improves Rayne's blade attack and adds new moves to her Berserker mode. You’ll need to perfect all your moves in order to overcome the sheer number of enemies. You battle mad Nazis, zombies, mutants, vampires, swamp creatures and ancient monsters through three huge areas- Louisiana, Argentina and Germany.


The areas are rendered with smooth textures and detailed environments. Visually the game is splendid, with advanced fog and lighting effects. For example, in the first level, you can actually see the moonlight filtering through the mist! The movements of the characters, especially BloodRayne are fluid and lifelike. The sound effects are suitably creepy, with background music that makes you hair stand. Small touches like the clinking of bullets as they hit the floor or the howling of wolves as you battle through the swamps are brilliantly done. Sound in the title is top-notch and should be enjoyed with some good speakers.
This game is a fast paced blood fest where the action just doesn’t let up. No matter how many of Hitler’s minions you despatch to the wide blue yonder, there are always many, many more where they came from. Since you’re a walking war machine, this rarely poses a problem, as you can just feed on the nearest guard every time your health drops a tad. You can even use a harpoon from a great distance to pull your enemy closer to drain his blood. The entire game consists of pulling off fantastic moves that are cinematic in quality. This is one game you play in the dark with your sound turned all the way up! This game is available on both the top consoles, the X-BOX and the PS 2 as well as on the PC. Enjoy!

HIGHS: Unlimited Bullet-Time, Fast-Paced Action, Perfect Sound
LOWS: Slightly Repetitive game-play
NUTSHELL: A Good Time, While It Lasts
Christof Rating: 88%