Game #1098: BloodRayne 2

  Well, this means that Rayne has a decent couple of... games.

 So, I was really happy that BloodRayne aged so well, since I used to love that game to bits way back when. I got BloodRayne 2 during my PC gaming days and... I can't remember why, but I never played beyond the intro stages, never got past it either. Lack of interest? Maybe the game didn't run very well? I'm not so sure, regardless, I enjoyed the first one so much this last time I replayed it I decided to take its sequel for a spin right away.

 A lot has improved, at least on a surface level. Voice acting is fantastic, Rayne sounds sassy and full of life. The graphics are much improved too, the first game was no slouch, but Rayne looks better than ever. A few of the finer details, like how they managed to simulate cutting threads, were removed, but character models are much better. Instead of fighting a ton of generic nazis, now you fight Rayne's sisters and brothers, and they sport their own designs. They are pretty lame since they are pretty much 90's scantily clad females, but hey, having these unique designs add more personality to the game.

 Combat has been streamlined, square slashes and circle kicks, with combos looking better and feeling a bit better... but cutting of limbs mid-combat doesn't happen as often. Rayne can still maim her opponents, but mostly as a finisher from her feeding. Combat also becomes rather formulaic. Enemies holding weapons? Kick them and slash them. Enemies with guns? Feed on them or just slash them. Anything else? Sidestep and slash and sidestep and slash, etc. The first game had easier enemies, but it never became monotonous, here you are slashing enemies that are constantly trying to escape or blocking your attacks, making their lives needlessly longer. Sadly, feeding is still a bit too easy to abuse, and why wouldn't you? You can feed on gun-toting enemies or weaponless enemies, they provide you with their bodies as shields and heals you. Plus, now ammo is tied to feeding, so you've got even more reasons to feed than before.

 I really don't like what they did with guns. In the previous game, Rayne would grab any gun she'd come across and dual wield them according to their weight. Gun combat didn't add much to the game, but it was there and got the job done. Now... you only have a single pair of guns, kinda, but you earn more after you defeat certain bosses, so slowly you get new 'types' of guns. Ammo is blood, and you have a certain 'storage' of extra blood shared between all types, for instance, this storage means 40 bullets for the 'gun' type, 4 for the 'flamethrower' type and 3 for the rocket type. When it runs out, using guns costs you life. You can refill your guns by feeding on an enemy and pressing R1, to fill your guns instead of your life, or, if your health is full, the excess blood you drink goes towards this storage. To be honest, guns are even more useless than in the first game, I only had to use them a few types during the final stages of the game. They level up with use, but the new shared blood/ammo thingie didn't do it for me.

 Rayne also added a few new moves to her arsenal. She can vault on horizontal poles or climb vertical poles, as well as shoot on either. She can also grind down rails. I guess the few new platforming sections add some spice to the game, but not much. She also earns enhanced versions of her Rage and Speed powers from the previous game. Oh, and they added ragdoll physics to the hook, so now you can pull or push enemies in different directions.

 And that's what really killed the game for me. Seems they were very proud of these physics, because 90% of the game puzzles are about hooking enemies and pushing them towards something. The game will spawn endless enemies in these sections, and they plague game. There's no challenge, no fun, no variations to this. Just "Throw 6-10 enemies into this thing to proceed", and they never stop. I was tired of them by the second time they happened, but they NEVER stop pushing these sections into the player, and they are so dull that they kill most of the enjoyment you were getting out of the combat.

 BloodRayne 2 does offer some fairly decent improvements over the already great first entry, but the game's over-reliance on the boring hook-pull mechanics make every improvement moot, because instead of having fun defeating enemies... you are just praying that these pushing 'puzzles' stop coming. That said, it's not awful, whenever you aren't pulling and pushing the game IS actually fun.

 6.0