Gaming Target - Xbox: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Written by John Scalzo on February 08, 2002

First Impressions: "Well this is just... neat!"

There are some things that I just can't be unbiased about: the New York Mets, the Indiana Jones trilogy, Catcher in the Rye, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I admit it, I am a man in my twenties, and I'm obsessed with this show. I watch every episode and then discuss it on a message board, I bought the DVD set the day it came out, and this game will eventually be the sole reason I buy an Xbox.

There, now that that's out of the way, let's see if I can get into the game without being too much of a gushing fanboy. Continuity-wise, the game will take place sometime after the third season. And from some of the screenshots we see Spike, a badass vampire, who didn't come back to the show until the fourth season. So for all those that follow the show, let's say early fourth season. Buffy the Vampire Slayer will take the form of a third-person action-adventure that plays off all of Buffy's Slayer super-powers.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer seems to be very faithful to the show in its vampire killing ways. This is definitely a good thing because Buffy fans are just a little crazy when someone messes with their show. Trust me, I know. That clerk from Best Buy is still hurting from the glare I gave him when he insulted the show at the time I bought the DVD set. The developers, called The Collective (the name of a Buffy big bad if I ever head one), are really getting into the way the show is portrayed. A lot of things can be picked up as weapons. This is especially important for wooden items, which can be broken and used as stakes. They even managed to snag Sarah Michelle Gellar's stunt double to do the motion capturing. Definitely going the extra mile. And all the actors (except Sarah Michelle Gellar) have signed on to provide the voices for their characters. Though, the Slayer still better spout out one of her УBuffy-ismsФ after a vampire goes all dusty or I'll sic a vengeance demon on The Collective.

Like any standard hack-Сn-slash, Buffy's main goal in the game is to slay as many vampires as she can, but that doesn't mean we aren't going to slay in style. The graphics are sharp, I commented on the nice motion capturing before, but the character models are very impressive as well. So far, all the recognizable characters areЕ well, recognizable. They look right and more importantly, they look cool (but what's angel doing in this game, he left the show after the third season). Even the clothes are coming off as in character. The Collective have no doubt done their homework. The things that go bump in the night are coming along nicely as well. Vampires even turn to dust with the exact same dissolve, first to a skeleton and then to dust just like on the show. Sunnydale also manages to come alive through the recreation of some favorite Buffy The Vampire Slayer hangouts. The cemetery, The Bronze Nightclub, and strangely, even the high school makes a digitally accurate appearance. This is weird because the high school was blown up after the third season.

Buffy is also going to encounter a few puzzle elements, although The Collective hasn't made clear what those are yet. What they have made clear though is that Buffy has a few tricks up her sleeveless shirt (seriously, none of the screenshots show her with sleeves). Giles, her ever trusty Watcher, will supply Buffy with power-ups to increase her Slayer strength. And the more experienced she gets at battling vamps, the more she'll be able to pull off some wild looking combos that make the slaying that much cooler.