Blood Wake

First and foremost, Blood Wake's gameplay really shines. It's set throughout 28 single player missions, with three difficulty levels to choose from. In each mission you are given a task, normally involving you to escort someone, destroy stuff, recover something, or some variation of them all. Although the goals largely remain the same, successfully completing those goals is a whole new experience each time. Some of the missions are quite difficult, even on the easiest difficulty setting. Thankfully, the game's controls are simple and responsive. The left trigger fires your primary weapon and the opposite trigger fires your secondary weapon. Secondary weapons range from cannons, to rockets, to wave guns. Each are powerful in their own unique way, and switching weapons for different enemies is a must if you want to get anywhere in the game. Overall, the gameplay is challenging, fun, and will have you coming back for more.

Blood Wake also features a Battle Mode. With this, you can battle by yourself against the computer or with up to 3 other players in various challenges. The multiplayer is quite fun and you will unlock new battle modes as you progress through the Story Mode on the different difficulty levels.

Graphically, Blood Wake is stunning. The environments look sharp and detailed, and the boat models are very impressive, as well, they animate smoothly. Most remarkable, however, is the water in the game. It is by far the best recreation of water, graphically and physically. Just watch as water shoots out the back of the boat as you speed off into the night to do battle, it truly looks jaw dropping. The only real problem graphically is the cut scenes. They are shown through a series of drawings, rather than actual animations. This takes away from the storyline a great deal, but then again, the story isn't the main focus of this game.

The music is set to a sort of tribal beat sound. It is cool, and goes along well with the pirate theme. Though, sound effects vary from awesome to horrible. Your ears will be pleased with the detail in the sounds of the cannons, torpedoes, and the boats moving through the water. However, the sounds of boats crashing and the rockets effects aren't in the same league.

Blood Wake is one of those few games that will keep you entertained for months to come. The tough missions will take you awhile to complete, and you will still have two difficulty levels left if you want to unlock all the extra modes and boats. Additionally, the multiplayer adds to the replay value exponentially. There is nothing like a four-player rumble through the waters.