The first time I played this game proper I was hooked. So hooked that I went out and bought both expansions the very next day. The sheer amount of character customization, classes and sub-classes makes for a very unique and personalized experience. What I specifically love about this game is not its single player component (although it is quite lengthy and entertaining) but moreover its absolutely incredible online experience. The online community is outstanding for one very good reason. Modules. Modules are player created content which are entire levels made in the NWN Toolset. The imagination that goes into these ends up in the creation of extremely entertaining custom gameplay like the persistent world, Nordock for instance which is an absolutely huge world which functions similar to an MMO. Another example is Arenas like Antiworld which lets you play Capture the Flag with your own character. Seriously, the sky is the limit on modules and the best thing about them is you usually don't have to download anything to play on their servers. So if you're looking for a really entertaining online experience and want to play a diverse range of classes with a very complex D&D ruleset this game is for you. I recommend trying to learn the ropes of the Toolset so you can create your own wacky content. The only downside to NWN is its inability to run perfectly on some modern systems but hopefully the latest patch will rectify that problem.
Bloodrayne is a fairly snazzy action-adventure game, particularly if you're into fast paced combat and all of the delirious highs you receive from it. Rayne herself is a Dhampir, not a vampire as I thought. All this means is she is a vampire with less weaknesses. She's well designed and more than well equipped. In combat Rayne uses a combination of WW2 era weapons and a pair of nasty blades which actually cause the game to feature occasional mutilation of body parts. This is frantic and enjoyable, however the limited combos for melee attacks and the weird controls for abilities gained later are one of its limitations. The game also starts off too slow in my opinion. The initial chapter feels more like a giant tutorial level for what's ahead. Speaking of levels there are a huge amount of them. This causes loading screen after loading screen. This might have affected the overall level design because in some levels it looks like they're struggling to get more advanced aspects working like a bridge bombing towards the end. Also annoying was the way you can get lost for a few minutes. Rayne has an ability to see where to go next but frequently it's through a wall. After a few minutes it'll show you where a breakable section of the wall is. My advice is to break any crack you see because that's what really stops you from advancing. Aside from those grudges it is definitely a fun game. Feeding on nazis, fighting weird mutants and jumping ten meters into the air is more than worth the price of admission. Hell, Rayne's dialogue and aesthetics are worth buying it five times over.
