Sound:  
The sound is, to put it bluntly, average. The voice actors do a fine job of portraying the characters, guns, grenades and monsters all sound convincing. Most importantly, when Rayne is feeding on a victim, she really, really sounds like she’s enjoying herself.
Rayne does make some sassy comments while fighting, but with all the action going on, her words are deafened. I think I heard her say the “F” word once, though.

Music isn’t all that bad. The themes do match their corresponding levels, and do heighten the intensity a bit. Nothing incredibly special, but again, not all that bad.

Gameplay:  
Let’s get something straight here – if you are expecting a Metal Gear Solid-esque gaming experience, let me snuff those expectations. Bloodrayne is balls-out, guns blazing body parts flying action. Do not bother sneaking up on your enemies, just run at them with everything you’ve got. Besides – it’s more fun slicing a Nazi into shards than it is sneaking up behind him and snapping his neck.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s a lowdown of the storyline:

Rayne is a half-human, half-vampire whose sole purpose in life is to hunt down and kill her biological vampire father. The Brimstone Society – a group, whose sole purpose is to destroy threats of supernatural origins, recruits her. So, while looking for her father, she also protects humanity from things that go bump. Nice girl.

Sometime between World War I and II, Agent Bloodrayne is called upon to investigate some strange occurrences in Louisiana, and later, Argentina. She learns that the Nazi army is attempting to use evil powers not of the living world to attain world domination. Obviously, it’s up to her to stop them.

There aren’t a whole lot of thought-provoking puzzles in Bloodrayne. Sure, you’ll have to figure out how to get from point A to point B just like in any other game, but this game does not rely heavily on adventure-style procedures. Basically, your job is to complete one objective, kill as many people as possible, drink blood, and continue on to the next objective.

Sounds menial, but believe me – this game is far from boring. Rayne has so many moves and weapons at her disposal, that slicing baddies never gets tedious. Some of the many moves at Rayne’s disposal include a Predator-like Aura vision, where Rayne can see enemies and destinations in a heat vision-like fashion, Extruded view, which helps Rayne see from afar (and doubles as a real handy sniper scope), and the ever-popular Dilated Perception, which slows down time (much like the bullet time in Max Payne). Rayne also has a harpoon, with which she can grab enemies from afar, pull them close, and go in for a well-deserved feeding. Now only if she yelled, “Get over here!” while using the harpoon, that would be a treat.

There is not much you can do after beating the game, which does take away from the replay factor, but Majesco makes up for this by including cheats. Hey – everyone loves cheats!

Control:
It is somewhat difficult to get used to the controls in Bloodrayne, but once you do get used to them, you’ll be hacking and slashing like a pro. I am so accustomed to the targeting system made popular by The Ocarina of Time that a game that uses auto-aim like Bloodrayne seems foreign at first. Controls are pretty easy; A is to jump, B is to use the harpoon, X is to pull of a 180 degrees turn, Y button activates your Blood Rage (in which you can cause some major gory damage) L is to attack and hit switches, R is to fire your weapon, and Z is to scroll through your available weapons. Of course, the controls can be modified in the options menu.

The controls aren’t perfect. Often times, you’ll be running at someone, firing your weapon, and find yourself running past him and end up with your back to him. You need to get used to the intricacies of the controls, so don’t get frustrated if you can’t seem to pull anything off. You’ll learn.

Multiplayer:
Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer mode in Bloodrayne. This does take away a bit from the replay, but not many 3-rd person action games have multiplayer modes these days.

OVERALL:
At the risk of sounding unbelievably cheesy, Bloodrayne is a bloody good game. Gore lovers like myself will thoroughly enjoy seeing little pieces of Nazi flying all over the screen, and teenage boys everywhere will not get enough of Rayne’s many “acrobatic” moves. Is it worth a purchase? Perhaps. A rental? Definitely. If you’re sick of all those spy games, and just want to run around chopping heads off, well, my friend, this game is definitely for you.

 

The Lowdown on  Bloodrayne Aesthetics: Above Average Control: Above Average Gameplay: Very Good Multiplayer: Sound: Average Innovation: 4/6 Lasting Appeal: 4/6 Overall: Above Average! "A Quality Game"