75% discount sounds good but I may buy this in the next sale.

Gave in and bought it, at $2.50 that's fine, less than if I'd bought it using microsoft points for the 360 :P

So first impressions after playing chapters 1-4

Titlescreen looks like it was programmed in flash.

Seems to play well enough.

The various special moves are infuriating. To do a backflip jump while skidding, so I try it and 9 out of 10 times I'm flipping to the left with no obvious explanation what I'm doing wrong.

Then a little later there's throwing an enemy in the air and kicking him into saw blades, which is annoying since you can't just point to the right where you want to kick, you have to have completely stopped using the thumbstick and then you can press right to throw him.

Minor inconsistencies of why dashing across the ground suddenly fails and throws me into spikes vs say dashing in mid air...

A little too Arcadey... by that I mean you get locked to a screen and 2-6 enemies appear until you kill them, then rinse and repeat 4-6 times to clear the area and move on.

The red skulls and treasure collectables don't seem to do anything at all, when they should be building towards something... Or I'm just not told anything yet.

The plot (what there is of it) is really bare bones, and doesn't feel like it's really part of Bloodrayne except in name only (so far).

Finally the gun although useful doesn't hit a number of enemies who are 2 inches shorter than when you point the gun in that direction and fire, which is annoying. And seriously, just 5 bullets?

Anyways, maybe these gripes will go away after I've played more and gotten used to the game. So far the game feels far too much like a tick the box type of game where they added features regardless if they made sense. I'll have more of an opinion later, probably in a day or two.

The treasures are just points for the level to increase your high score. As for the red skulls, for every 5 that you collect, you can either increase your maximum health or your maximum bullet cap. I guess that the bullets are limited, because unlike the previous BloodRayne games, they deal far more damage than the blades do. Plus each bullet can hit all the enemies in a line and not just the first one.

I can't stress this enough: there is a dedicated backflip button/key. I'm playing with a keyboard but I watched Outstar's showcase of the game on GOG's twitch channel, she was playing with a controller and when she went to the options menu I saw that there is a backflip button on the controller, as well, it's not just a keyboard thing.

Doing the skidding/backflip is probably the most annoying mechanic in the game, and the one the majority of people complain about, when they say the controls are awful, but there's no need whatsoever to do the backflip the over-complicated way the game tells us to; just press a direction and the backflip button and you'll do a backflip in the opposite direction (press left+backflip and Rayne will backflip to the right, and vice-versa).

I found the game to be pretty good and I think it's been getting a lot of undeserved flak. It's not one of the "good old classics", true enough, but it does what it aims to do pretty well.

If people are not into 2D action hack 'n slash platformers, then stay clear of BloodRayne: Betrayal, it's easy as that. I don't like strategy games, so you don't see me going in those release threads complaining about games I don't like to play/am not good at/am not interested in purchasing.

What are the default key settings of the game ?

Fun... I figured the game would tell me some of the things as we went along and didn't look in the key bindings. That and I thought I tried all the key buttons at least once to see if there was a backflip button and didn't see it. Guess the tutorial/hint popups is a little lacking in that department.

I have this on another platform. It feels more like a middle-of-the-road graduate project from a game design school, than something where a team poured their all into it.

We all do :D

Yes, after you mentioned about the back-flip button I searched for it in the menu. It's the LB button for the Xbox controller. But, I found it to be cumbersome to use, so I just used jump button + hold back.

I agree. People are giving this game flak. I think they are not skilled enough to play such a game, so they bash it just like Volgarr the Viking( which I recently finished...what a great game!). I don't have much interest in simulation games, but I would never criticize it because it is too difficult for me or that I don't like them.

Or they might be skilled enough but don't like the game?

its lb ? i have to try that

but i take umbrage with you saying people arent skilled enough so they dislike the game
people can just dislike a game whether they are skilled in it or not

i am not thrilled by betrayal because i expected a scrolling beat em up what i got was a platformer with beat em up bits
and i dont like platformers so obviously im not going to like betrayal very much

Yes, if I remember correctly you have press LB + forward or backward to back-flip.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to offend you or others or troll on here. If you don't like the game because of personal preference then that's fine to express that. Others just seem a bit harsh when making their opinion about the game and the developers just because it is too hard or it does not follow the first two 3D versions. Some are complaining about the controls, but I have no idea what their problem is with the controls because they didn't explain it. I read that some people had a lag or delay problem on Steam, but others did not. Maybe the problem is with one's computer? I don't know.

I miss the scrolling beat 'em up genre. How I wish SEGA would make a Streets of Rage sequel or remade HD version. Perhaps it is a dream never to come true. :'(
Have you ever seen Kim Justice's review/documentary on Streets of Rage on YouTube? I recommend it if you are interested or haven't seen it yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLPfL4jsZvg&list=PL556B14704147BCAD&index=88

I will admit that the backflip is a little tricky to pull off on a keyboard, but I found that its easier to do against a corner or on a ledge.

Very useful thing to know when it comes to boss arenas.

Yeah, the game is hard, but its only frustrating if you try to go for a high ranking.
If you don't care about ranking, its not that bad.
Which is how it should be, imo; you want a good rank? Earn it.