BloodRayne 2

The first BloodRayne combined many aspects of many entertainment mediums I find particularly interesting Ц you've got your vampires, your zombies and other gothic creatures, your Nazi killing, your superhuman powers, awesome melee AND running and gunning action, good graphics, cool sound, and rather fun (albeit gory) gameplay. I personally thought the game was pretty underrated and while it did have its fair share of faults, it was by no means anything less than an extremely enjoyable gameplay experience. Well, much to my excitement, Terminal Reality is hard at work on a sequel that looks to be one of the games I've been unknowingly waiting for -- for a long time.

For the uninformed, Rayne is a "Dhampir" Ц half human and half vampire. She's still got the good ol' blood lust, and water really does sting like nothing else, but then again she's got vampire powers that you get to control, including the ability to use two weapons at once on different enemies (ooh, ahh) and she's got these nifty little (and by little I mean around 3 feet long) blades that she can use to dismember enemies in various ways and shapes. Luckily she's on humanities side, at least to some degree.

What makes the second game in what is now a series better than the first when both are clearly based on semi-mindless killing of enemies? Time, effort and a critical eye, that's what. No longer are the days of the "key-finding" based gameplay, and Rayne's powers have been greatly improved Ц she's more acrobatic, more powerful, and has a better model, texture and more motion capture to back it all up. Pulling over giant crates, telephone poles and metal beams are now a possibility, as are flips and bounds off of walls and combat moves that look more realistic (relatively speaking of course). The combat system has been revamped (no pun intended), implementing attacks at different height levels (low, medium and high) and attacks vary depending on whether you're actually locked onto an enemy or just fighting free-hand.

In a somewhat odd and extremely improbable twist, your weapons (of which there will be many) will now be reloaded with blood, which you'll naturally be drawing from enemies as a health source anyways. Odd as that may be, the old favorites of the games are still intact Ц time slowing, a predator-esque vision mode, and of course the good ol' blood lust moves. As in the first game, however, you'll receive these powers and abilities as you progress through the game, not right away.

The story is set in the present day with a good ol' fashioned vampire feud. Rayne's father, in fact, is trying to rid the world of us pesky humans by completely and utterly blocking out the sun, but Rayne takes on a somewhat Blade oriented view on the situation and takes pity on us, which means rather than endless waves of Nazis you'll be fighting some of your vampiric cousins, which should make for some rather fun (if challenging) duels. Of course another neat new trick in Rayne's bag is the ability to climb and walk along poles while firing her weapons, meaning the combat is going to be rather, well, 3D, something that's taken full advantage of in the new and improved level design.

Rayne herself has had a 1,000 polygon boost (for a grand total of around 5,000) for her remodeling, and she now looks smoother and more feminine than ever. Her hair's still going to flow with that impressive grace as in the first game, but she easily looks ten times better than before. As well as being far more interactive, the environments also look significantly better, adding to the game's atmosphere quite a bit. Naturally there will still be an incredibly insane amount of blood gushing everywhere 90% of the time, so the game's still going to be a somewhat guilty pleasure, but it's going to be a hell of a good looking one.