I've played a decent amount of Metroidvanias, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is the best one I have ever played. From top to bottom, it is just an absolute treat, and I am happy to be a participant in this Procession of Flagellants. Right of the bat, it's gorgeous. The visuals are based on that of Roman Catholicism and early 19th-century Spanish art, and it is oozing in visual splendour. Mixing horror with any other style can be difficult, but the game does it seamlessly. I mean, the first boss is literally a reference to The Pietà, how more Catholic can you get? Meanwhile, the more you learn and see about Roman Catholicism such as Holy Week in Spain, it adds so much depth to the incredible atmosphere and designs. Not only that, but the visuals are paired with genuinely interesting writing, both in subtext and text. Descriptions of items take a page from Dark Souls and give depth for those who desire it, as well as educating us on the value (or lack thereof) of the item. Dialogue is great, and while some people may complain about particular voice acting, I NEVER got to a point where I even considered turning off the voices, let alone actually have any specific examples worth mentioning. Some characters are stilted, but them being stilted works well with the world. The world itself is suffering from atrophy, so a lot of the voice acting being stiff actually works for me. Combat wise, it's great. There are a few bullshit enemies, but you get into enough of a rhythm where you learn what enemies to avoid and how to combat them when necessary. There's also a wide enough variety of abilities, skills and upgrades where you feel yourself becoming stronger. If I got angry when I died, very rarely would I get mad at the game, and that's a good sign. The worst examples are generally little game glitches. Finally, you prefer masochistic games, at the end of the game there are even extreme modes! It's just got it all.
The story, the most important part of a walking simulator like this, is absolutely awful. It may count as a spoiler but it's important to know if you're going to play the game, because at the end of the game the message the game wants you to have is "society was wrong for judging the relationship between this middle-aged man and this 16 year old girl". The mother blames the girl, the protagonist talks endlessly about how good a man her father was, and the entire game is trying to get you to conclude that these two were simply victims of circumstance, and not that the man old enough to be her father had a relationship that very likely began when she was 15, that eventually lead to her death, was very much in the wrong and there is *nothing* in the actual actions of the characters to suggest anything other than a middle-aged father taking advantage of a vulnerable girl.
Think the title says it all. The descriptions of people calling it a "spiritual successor to Gothic" is possibly one of the worst endorsements for a game I've ever seen, to the point where I don't even want to try playing Gothic if it's anything close to this travesty. The fact this game was actually made by a development team and not some dedicated single developer is astounding, because for how wide it is, it's incredibly shallow. The worst part is undoubtedly the combat. Not only is it stiff and janky, it's needlessly difficult in many areas, especially the beginning. The first hour of combat is almost identical to the 50th. The game also includes multiple escort missions, which TRULY shows the weakness of the combat, as you have to genuinely run IN ADVANCE of the character in order to trigger the enemies and attack them before the escort gets there, because the combat is SO POOR. It doesn't reward you for exploration, it almost makes it a necessity. It's almost incredible how the game forces you to trudge along for ages, only to happen upon a heavily overleveled enemy and have you die in two shots, only to reset you back half an hour for your effort. If the story was anything good, at least you'd have a reason to continue. Just look at the love Alpha Protocol has. But instead, we get some of the most boring and trite storytelling imaginable. Nothing truly original is present, it's all easy to understand the moment you hear it. There's no genuine mystery, no sense of amazement. It's got the writing of a mediocre MMO. Genuinely, I'd rather be playing Guild Wars 2 than this game, because that game not only engages you, but it unironically offers a more engaging combat experience. At this point, I should've just written a 5-star review for Guild Wars 2 and pasted it here, you'd get more out of it.
This game is such an incredible piece of work that I'm genuinely shocked they managed to make more than one, let alone FOUR. A comedy game that isn't funny despite the dozens of attempts; a puzzle game that has some of the worst puzzles I've ever had the misfortune of trying to solve; an adventure game that feels like a chore to try and slog through. I managed to finish the second game before giving up on this utter disgrace of a series. One of the biggest issues of this game is the writing. An adventure game can be clunky, it can be ugly, it can have dumb puzzles, so long as the writing is enjoyable. The writers clearly think they're quite clever, seen by the audacity of them to compare themselves to the likes of "Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Matt Groening", so it's quite a pity that they can't fill the boots they bought. The worst example, without a doubt, is Rufus. I hate Rufus. He is without a doubt the worst protagonist I have had the displeasure of playing. The worst. He is irritating, rude, abrasive, mean, a bully, a liar, and has no redeemable qualities. You may think that it means he'll grow *into* a better person, but nope. You almost get the impression they're going to try that at the end of this game, but then you go into the next one and he's just as big of a dick as before. He doesn't change, or grow, or learn. He's just the biggest dick in the world. He deserves every bad thing that's happened to him, and worse. The awful, unfunny jokes just emphasises what an abominable person he is (and, I'd argue, reflect very poorly on the writers). The only positive I'll say is that it looks good. That's it. I think that's what they used to sucker people in, the pretty art. But for anyone who's brain isn't soup, that won't hide the true ugliness behind it. Do not play this game, or any of it's successors. Save your money.
The gameplay is boring and repetitive, there's little difference between the 1st fight and the 30th; the customisation and scavenging is barebones; the music is repetitive; the story is completely uninteresting and you'll be constantly disengaged. Ultimately, there's very little in this game to actually entertain you. Not the characters, the plot, the gameplay, nothing. It is empty and shallow, and you feel bored the entire time playing. There's a reason the average playtime for this game is 5 hours.
I played this on the Epic Store and amassed 51 hours, so I feel lik I can give a fair review. I want to talk about the biggest gripe I had about this game before talking about the positives, since for many people it'll be all they need to hear to make a decision. Many times, the game feels like it's punishing you for playing. There are several times where you'll get fucked over for no apparent reason, die randomly, be suddenly overwhelmed, you'll end up lost, you'll spend hours collecting ingredients to find out the quest is timed, it can just be a colossal pain in the arse. You have to be a patient person to play this game, because I couldn't finish it purely because of how infuriating it is. Combine this with the LITANY of bugs, and there will be plenty of times where you don't feel like you're at fault. Warhouse Studios made a very flawed and often unfun game. But when it *is* fun? Oh it's fun. Talking a calm ride through the surrounding lands, winning a game a dice, slaughtering a group of bandits on your own one by one, interacting with the NPCs, it can feel very enjoyable. But then you're dropped back into the muck and scum of the game, and you just want to throw your computer out of the window. Also if you're gonna play this game, don't be afraid to read a walkthrough. The game won't forgive you, but you can always give yourself a leg up on it's bullshit.
I have to assume that a *large* number of these reviews are from people who played this game when they were younger and view it with rose-tinted glasses, because this game was one of the most frustrating games I've ever played. The story is pretty threadbare, I describe BloodRayne to friends as a female Blade, which is pretty accurate if you're using the movie Blade. She's fun and cool, but as deep as a puddle. Vampire Lara Croft in a way. A vampire fighting Nazis and other vampires, easy to get and ya don't need any gray areas. The 'enhancements' of the game are, quite frankly, a joke. from what I can tell, they are: the game runs when you open it, you can play it in more than 480p, and the water looks slightly better. That's it. The fighting is incredile stale, which involves you spinning in a circle around an enemy as you spam the left click, or being as far away as possible and hodling down right click. For most enemies, the best tactic is to run and press E, spin around to use them as a human shield as you drink their blood and listen to Rayne moan, then jump onto someone else. If it's an elite enemy, you just do it on their back instead. It is monotonous and tedious. It is exhausting. One of the biggest flaws of the game is the saves. I managed to complete Red Faction without a guide despite it's steep difficulty and jankiness because of one thing: quick saves. BloodRayne has no proper quick saves. That means if you die because of the game's bullshit gameplay flaws, you must redo the entire level again. The boss fights multiply this enraging experience. Some of them are just tanks with a ton of health and heavy hits. The final battle is the worst example. Even DARK SOULS is more forgiving, because at least you get portable heals! You get so frustrated you just have to turn on God Mode (TRIASSASSINDONTDIE) in the cheats option) to get it over with to finish the damn game. There's also freezing enemies (DONTFARTONOSCAR). Don't be afraid to use them.
I enjoyed the game while playing, but it got to a point where I simply had to throw away the controller and give up on the game. A lot of the game simply drags on you with time: the long-winded storytelling drags, the constant back-tracking drags, the extremely long and tedious levels drags, the puzzle-solving drags. Everything. Simply. Drags. By the emotional highpoint of the game that was clearly the end of the 2nd act, I didn't *feel* any sense of urgency to continue, I simply thought "damn it, more game". Now this doesn't mean it's a *bad* game, however it fails to attain greatness simply due to how much you feel dragged along by the length of the game. If it was shorter I probably would've given it an 8, but I can only give it about a 6. I'd give it a 5, but I appreciate the creativeness in the game and the clear heart put into it.
The game truly is the definition of a 5/10. Everything that is positive, will have a negative to weigh against it in equal measure. - The vampire worldbuilding I absolutely enjoy, while the story itself was incredibly middling. - Some of the side-quests I definitely enjoyed, but at the same time the main story was lacking. - The action is fun at the beginning, but once you realise how incredibly repetitive it is, it sours the experience, which goes for the powers as well as the base combat. - The moral choices are fun and interesting, but the moral choices lack any form of context, and so the experience feels very hollow (killing key people, regardless of whether they are good or bad, is seen as evil), not to mention that you're killing many people outside of the morality choices that are simply ignored.
