Majesco never really stood out as a really good game
publisher in the past. They started out as a re distributor of SNES,
Genesis and Game Boy games in the mid 90's. Eventually, the started
publishing games such as Rainbow Six for the Dreamcast. Further along
Majesco's lifespan, they became a more formidable company, and
Bloodrayne may be one of the best games they have published. Though not
the best game around, Bloodrayne is suprisngly entertaining in it's own
right, which is one thing that counts in a video game.
Bloodrayne is a game that has a title that can best be
described as "truth in labeling". The amounts of blood in this game is
pretty plentiful. You pretty much slice, dice, shoot, blow up and even
suck the blood of your enemies. Of course, this is just a video game,
but it's still pretty graphic in terms of bloodshed. To compliment the
pervasive violence is pervasive language. While not exactly Die Hard
Vendetta, there's still some F-words to be heard. And it's funny too,
in an accidental kind of way. The voice acting is kind of low key,
especially from the person who voices Bloodrayne. When you hear her say
"What the f**k?", you can't help but to laugh because of the delivery.
Everything in Bloodrayne is not taken too seriously, and tends to have
a tounge-in-cheek attitude at times. Perhaps this is one reason why I
found this game enjoyable.
The story behind this game is about someone from the
pre-Nazi regime (they weren't as much of a prevalent force in Germany
at the time this game takes place) want this artifact that enables him
to rule the world. But, you as Bloodrayne must stop this man from
taking over, as a part of this vampire militant group of some sort. For
vampires, they seem pretty nice to normal people, as you'll see during
the Louisiana stage. When you first start out, you fight against
strange mutations in the swamps of Louisiana in the earlier 20th
century. I can't remember if this had to do with the Nazi guy, but why
else would you be there? And if you haven't realized by now, I can't
tell the plot of a game well. Check the game's website or visit an
online retailer for more info.
The game design seems rather basic. In a way, it's kind
of like a mix of Syphon Filter, Nightmare Creatures and elements pretty
much ripped off from the Matrix. But then there are a couple of
elements that make this game seem like it's own. First, there's the
blood sucking. I'm not sure how often this was done before, but in the
case of this game, it's beneficial. Sucking blood from enemies can
replenish your health, as well as finish them off. There's also another
function called the "Aural Sense", in which the world turns blue, and
your objective as well as enemies are shaded in a different color.
Sometimes it's helpful, but it doesn't always point you out in the
right direction. You pretty much go through the stages, trying to
complete a stated objective or just try to find your way to the other
side. And it does prove to be challenging, but like I said, everything
felt so standard about the game play design.
Keeping up with the theme of being "standard" is the
graphics. Not highly impressive, but not awful. The textures are
adequate, the player models are fine, but the frame rate is
inconsistent at times. The indoor stages have a better frame rate than
the outdoor ones, and I think the reason why the frame rate goes a
little haywire at times is because of a lot of effects. The swamps
stages have a lot of fog, and there is some decent lighting effects.
But for a GCN game, I think the game could have functioned smoothly
without frame rate hiccups. It doesn't hinder the game play, but it is
noticeable.
The sound is fairly good. The voice acting is kind of
funny, whether it was intentional or not. Also, the voice overs were
played at a rather low volume. The sound effects are pretty basic, with
the hacking and slashing sounds, as well as gunfire and explosions.
There is a little popping in the sound, but it didn't occur too often.
Overall, Bloodrayne, while bowing down to many of it's
standard design issues, is still a pretty fun game. At times, the
action seems mindless, but hacking Nazis are pretty fun. It's something
you weren't able to do in the Medal Of Honor games. Perhaps if there
was a little more innovation infused into the design, the game would be
even better. As it is, it won't throw Metroid Prime or Halo off the
action throne, but I did find it more entertaining than Enter The
Matrix.