September 16th, 2007

BloodRayne 2 – Video Game Review

Here we are again, following the sexy redhead-dhampir lady in her latest adventures throughout the second title from the series and probably the last one (Terminal Reality hasn’t shown any signs of continuing the franchise due to the issues in distribution of the game and that caused financial issues). This game was launched on the 2nd of August, 2005 and it is loaded with action scenes, just as the previous one, but the graphics and the game engine have improved significantly.

The PC requirements are 1Ghz CPU, 256MB RAM, 200 MB virtual memory, CD/DVD-ROM Drive for installation, a DirectX8.1 video card and 500MB-1GB hard disk space. The game is not really demanding – even at the time of the launch – it was quite playable on the decent configurations from that period and the game has been rated M (mature) by ESRB for “obvious reasons”.

The Game Story:
Last time, Rayne joined forces in 1935 with the Brimstone Society in order to destroy a supernatural Nazi plan of world dominance. Her father who was an influential Nazi collaborator was “allegedly” killed in an accident and the end of the War. Rayne was angry that she wasn’t given the chance to kill Kagan (the father) with her blades, but instead she spent the last 60 years hunting down and destroying the many of his offspring – who were also her siblings. That fact has added some weight to the dramatic effect.

These “children” have formed together the cult of Kagan, which was meant to carry on his legacy of creating a new age of vampire supremacy where humans are just cattle for the thirsty blood-suckers who hunt them. These vampires have created the “Shroud”, a very powerful substance that (when released) rendered the sun’s lethal rays harmless to vampires and has very weird effects on the surrounding natural environments.

And that brings us to the action in game, where Rayne has to prevent the end of the world from happening. Here are a few special characters that you will meet throughout the game: Severin – he’s Rayne’s “sidekick” who seems to be fearful at times and he’s the one giving the indications to Rayne (where to go or what to do next); Kagan (Rayne’s father and her most important target) – apparently he survived and waited a little over 60 years to strike again; Ephemera is Rayne’s half-sister – she masters the secrets of the shadow and has big regenerating abilities; Ferril is the half-sister of Ephemera and Rayne – and is known as a very annoying F-Bomb; Zerensky is another “half-brother” who owns a mansion where Rayne goes into at the beginning of the game; Xerx is a complicated mad scientist who spent his time creating the very “Shroud” mentioned above – he works for Kagan and has some personal plans as well.

The Levels:
The game has seven big Acts with some small sub-levels and extra missions and it is pretty linear – so from this point of view there isn’t really a need for a special guide – perhaps for special skills, combos or bonus content. The action begins in “The Zerensky Mansion” where you get to meet the first of Rayne’s big targets. This is also the place where you gain some upgrades for skills in combat, finishing moves and some super-ownage guns as well: the Carpathian Dragons (well now, aren’t I proud to be Romanian? – in every vampire movie or video-game there is at least one small reference to Romania – as the place with vampire legends – and since there is also the flag in the images below – it’s quite obvious).

These legendary Carpathian Dragons (named after the Carpathian Mountains where Transilvania – “land of vampires” - is located on the Romanian territory) are blood-powered weapons of mass destruction, with 6 fire modes, each mode being acquired as you progress through the game: bloodshot (max ammunition: 55, acquired: Zerensky Mansion), bloodstream (max ammunition: 40, acquired: after defeating kestrel in meatpacking area), bloodspray (max ammunition: 10, acquired: after defeating kestrel in the sewers), blood bomb (max ammunition: 5, acquired: after defeating dhampir at wetworks), blood flame (max ammunition: 5, acquired: after defeating dhampir at the house of reptiles) and the bloodhammer (max ammunition: 8, acquired: inside Xerx's laboratory).

The other weapons of Rayne, beside the sexy fangs, are the harpoon (that works pretty much in the same way as in the first game of the series, but now also gives you the ability to grab and throw enemies into very sharp objects, into various machines to provoke explosions or just out of the way), and the dual-blades (you can count on them as “never-ending ammo”, but they remain pretty much the same throughout the game, the damage they produce is amplified by the combat-combo moves – they are not upgraded in any way – but you should use BloodRage as often as possible).

Zerensky is not really difficult to defeat – just use the scaffoldings and the platforming elements from this area to reach him, and as soon as you are close use rapidly BloodRage and then switch fast to the Aura Vision to shoot him as he turns into bats in order to fly off.

The next stop is the “Meat-Packing District” , where you will get to perform some on-the-go-speed-combos. This is also where you get to meet the sub-boss-level Kestrels (a very weird combination of human-bird-beasts) in the “Union Station” level. The big target here will be Ephemera, but you cannot kill her yet – you just have to fight and dodge her blades until a cut-scene movie comes in.

“The Sewers” level comes next and you just have to follow the path to reach a burning canister – you cannot jump over it, but you can climb the pipe on the wall at the other end and then jump over to the upper walkway. Be careful not to dive into the water from the areas in this level – quoting Mynce from the previous game “a little can bite you, a lot can kill you”.

At the end you reach a very big room with a huge and ugly beast called Slezz (the name sounds like an Internet nickname). Here, you just have to use Dilated Perception – pull the switch to start the water flow and when a suicide bomber is thrown at you, just go into the “slow motion” and harpoon the bomber back to Slezz’s belly. Try this a few more times and it should do the trick. After you kill the beast and break its belly – go inside and use the harpoon to get the heart.

In the “Wetworks” level is where you get to use the harpoon “abusively” – you will have to throw many enemies into various devices and sharp edges in order to go through heavily fortified doors – the basic principle is that you need to blow something up that would also release the blocked doors. Here you will also meet and fight with Foremen and other silly “goons” who also happen to have very bad language – go ahead teach them a lesson. At the end of the level you will get to fight against Ferril, when you destroy the mechanisms of the furnaces that distribute the “Shroud” into the sky.

Just as with the previous game, you get to fight in various surroundings – and what other place to take a nice walk than in “The Twisted Park”? There are lots of boom-bangs right from the beginning when you will have to keep throwing ninjas with the harpoon into a crashed helicopter in order to move on. You also go to the Zoo and you meet some more warriors with their “dead languages” as Rayne says (I have studied languages – I can tell that the language of the warriors and of the dhampir fighter from the Zerensky’s mansion sounds a lot like Russian).

Ephemera waits for Rayne in her garden, and when you reach that area – destroy all sources of shadow so that she will not be able to recharge health. Make sure you use all your favorite combos and give her the taste of blades under the BloodRage. The Dragons don’t do much damage – so just use the magic abilities as well.

“Kagan’s towers” is the last stage with a lot of sub-level missions, most of them being centered on getting through to the next area in line. Among the bosses you will meet the “Unraveler” – with a very bad smell according to Rayne, and you should use the Blood Hammer shooting mode of the Dragons in order to finish him off. This is also where you get to see Ferril “resurrected” for a few moments only - but she is killed by Xerx’s ugly exo-suite with the sun-ray cannon. That big outfit of his has 4 weak spots that are not hard to notice. Use the Blood Hammer again and aim for those weak spots. When they turn green – use your harpoon on them and thus you will terminate Xerx.

The next area is where the final battle will happen and you need to get ready to use all your powers and combos. If you want to finish Kagan as fast as possible, make sure you use Dilated Perception and BloodRage a lot and do not let him go into the pool of blood as his health (and yours as well!) will restore and you‘ll keep fighting like this forever. After you defeat him, just watch the cinematic ending – it looks pretty neat.

In the end I would like to thank Terminal Reality for developing such a nice game, packed with action, with an interesting plot. I remember one of the lines of Rayne in the first game, from the first act, when a scared sheriff (thinking it might be one of the beasts) threatens: “Stay away from me you ugly thing or I’ll shoot you!” but then he sees it was Rayne there, near the wall, and she says: ”Easy with that thing… And who did you call ugly?!” – which means she is very much aware of her appeal and she is using it all the time. Also she has many “one-liners” that humiliate and put the enemies to their place in ownage style while she slashes them. But how can one not notice the voice of Rayne, played by the wonderful actress-model Laura Bailey? It is the same one in the first game and it is just as charming.

I also would like to give a big thanks to a special fan of the game series, McTronken as he calls himself, who came up with a very recent patch that improves visibly very much the quality of the shiny graphics and rendering in the game – I used it when I created the screen-shots that can be seen above. It’s a shame really that the developers are not thinking yet of creating a third game to continue the story – the ending of this second game suggests that there might be room for some more action!

I’ll add just a few words about the 2 movies that have been based on the game, namely “BloodRayne” and “BloodRayne II Deliverance” (I just watched the second one a few days ago!): I will blame the director Uwe Boll for literally damaging the entire concept that the fans got used to within the game. The first, let’s say it has a bonus as Kristanna Loken plays as Rayne, but other than that – the script lacks substance. The second movie is totally blown off by mixing the concept of vampires with cowboys – that may be hilarious on a Saturday morning comic gag but that’s as far as it should go.

The sound in the game:
I was pleasantly surprised again by the quality of the sound and of the music. I enjoyed very much the realistic effects of the wielding of the blades and of the environmental sounds. The stimulating music is very well adapted according to the level or the situation where you are within the game.