Brikar

Anyone getting this game today? My roommate should be getting the PS2 version on his way back from work tonight, so I'll prolly check it out then. All the previews have been positive, and game footage I saw last night looked really sweet, and the voice-work seems spot on (SMG and Alyson Hannigan are absent, though Nicholas Brendan, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head, Eliza Dushku and some others are all there).

I wonder if the market would be good for an Angel game? I'd love to roam around Los Angeles, taking Gunn into his old neighborhood to fight vamps, or Lorne's powers to read some minds, and just being plain cool with Angel and his coat.

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Brikar

So we got the game. Here's my "official" review:

"Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds" (PS2)
Released: August 26, 2003
Developed by: Eurocom ("James Bond 007: Nightfire")

After the previous "Buffy" game was snatched up by the Halo-to-TV-Adapter by Microsoft, I was eagerly awaiting the new game, which would actually be coming to real, worthwhile gaming systems.

Starring the voice-talents of several of the show's major stars (and some rather obscure guest stars, strangely) "Chaos Bleeds" takes place during the show's 5th season (though there is, as yet, no mention made of Dawn or Glory) and finds the Scooby Gang finding the Magic Box under siege from a gang of vampires, with Tara and Anya missing somewhere within.

The first stage is very fast paced, as the characters split up to search the various areas of the shop. In the first part, Buffy clears the lobby of vampires. Next up, Willow must search for a must-needed magic book so she can learn spells to defend herself. Next, Xander finds himself surrounded in the training room. The vampires advance on him, and, backing against the wall, he mutters, "Aww, monkey-poop..." in what is the game's first of many great one-liners. The final bit finds Spike in the basement, finding Anya and Willow trapped in a cage.

The whole point of this first level is clearly to get the player acclimated to playing the various characters, learning how they move, and understanding how the different situations work. You'll learn straight combat, searching for items, using weapons, puzzle-solving, and Willow's basic magics.

The levels of the game, mostly inspired by locations from the show, look great. I say inspired because while they are faithfully translated from real sets into video-game areas, they've also been adapted to fit the needs of the game. As such, previously cramped areas like the lobby of the Magic Box are opened up, and rather more spacious. The library looks about right until you go into the stacks of the second level, which becomes basically a huge open area with a few scattered book-cases. The cage where Oz normally spent a few nights a month is actually an entirely separate room. Of course, some of this can be explained by the fact that much of the game takes place in alternate dimensions.

But back to the important stuff: even on the aging PS2, this game looks great. Particle effects are impressive to say the least, and the "dusting" effect of killing a vampire is spot-on. Character models are great, though a few of them don't really look quite like their live-counterparts (Faith for one. When she talks, you can tell it's her from Dushku's distinct voice, but if not for that, I might not have known it was her except from the dialogue and Dushku's picture on the cover). Textures and lighting effects for objects and characters are great, as well, with real-time shadows. Walk past a lamp on the wall, and the angle of shadow on the floor will change accordingly.

The story is good, and the dialogue displays the usual wit and style of the Buffyverse that we've all come to expect. The producers of the game were trying to make this game like a lost episode of the show, and they've definitely succeeded.

Are there any drawbacks? Alas, yes. This is not a perfect game, though it is quite a good one. Firstly, the camera. Controlled by the right analog stick, the camera refuses to move through walls or solid objects, which can become something of a nuisance when in tight places like hallways, cells, or elevators. It's not that bad, but there are a few places where it can be a bit of a problem.

Secondly, playing as Willow can be a bit frustrating. Arguably the weakest character, she must rely mostly on her magics and spells to survive. She can punch, but not kick, the magic replaces the kick button. The problem is that she must often wave her hands to summon the magic, and during this one or two seconds, she's vulnerable to attack, and should an enemy decide to attack her, the summoning is disrupted, and Willow is knocked to the ground. I can't tell you the number of times I was quite frustrated trying to survive even one-on-one fights as Willow, to say nothing of the two- or three-on-one fights that occur in the game.

Lastly, there's the problem of finding items to solve puzzles: it's often quite easy to over-look a vital clue, or to trick yourself into thinking that you should be doing one thing in order to solve a puzzle, when, in actuality, you should be doing something else entirely. This can lead to long stretches of time where you'll wander from room to room, trapped in a short hallway of locked doors. In one particular instance, as Xander, I played through several sections of the closed-down Sunnydale High, and the final section has you pulling bunnies out of a magical top-hat, and placing them on growing pentagrams to disrupt the evil energy of alternate Anyanka demon. Well, four of the five pentagrams are in this section, but the final one is allllll the way back at the beginning of the level, and I mean RIGHT at the beginning, BEHIND where your character spawns when you begin playing.

Overall, the game is great fun. The story is good, the dialogue is often hilarious ("Ooh, a med-pack! Time to find Anya and play "Evil Nurse!") the graphics and gameplay are spot-on.

8.5 out of 10.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com