Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds

"It's like playing an episode of the show!"

Presentation

Fans of the great television show will be very happy with this title. I have seen several of the episodes on TV and will eventually own the DVD sets, but in the meantime this game is a great holdover until that day arrives. The plot of the game is written just like an episode would have been. From beginning to end, you have everything explained and nowhere will you say “How/Why did that happen?”

You do need to pay attention to your surroundings though when playing or you will get stuck. If you do get stuck and read a FAQ on this site, the answer will make you feel stupid since it's so easy to see once you know it. A map would of also made the game flow a bit better and could of taken care of some confusion as to where to go next, but that all depends on how good your memory is when playing games. 9/10

Graphics

This game looks very good for a PS2 game. I was thinking that the graphics would be watered down, but they impressed me. The cut scenes looked very clean and the faces for each character were detailed. Each level had it's own style and look to it, and was given a lot of attention for how it looked. Not much to complain about here, since everything looked good and flowed properly. 8/10

Sound

It was great to see that several actors from the original show did the voice work for this game. Shame that Sarah and Alyson were too busy to share their voices, but the actresses who did Buffy's and Willow's voices did a good job. The music gives the game that same feeling as if you were watching an episode on TV. The sound effects during the battles were as close to realism as you could get for a game. 9/10

Gameplay

It's a shame that this game had some very bad game play issues, since it lowered down the final score. Some of them were really inexcusable, since it was just bad programming. The first problem is the camera. It is supposed to be a free roaming camera, but sometimes the camera will not move (this is bad when you're fighting at the time) or will only move a little bit. Most areas will have a full 360 degrees of motion and you can see everything, but some will not, and this shouldn't be the case.

Next up is the fighting. You can be fighting a creature and then you're fighting an invisible creature (not really, but you're just doing punches and kicks in the air). The detection of a creature could have been better, since you can be fighting one thing, and then you have to turn 180 degrees or maybe 90 degrees to fight the next. Not to mention that when you character falls down to the ground, they act as if they are elderly and take forever to get back up. Then you become a punching bag while on the ground.

Then towards the end of the game, the last two or three levels I'd say…The creatures would be super cheap. Some would block all the time, which gets very annoying. Then some creatures would be super strong for some reason. You could punch them, kick them, use weapons and their health would slowly go down. Then you could face the same type of creature a few minutes later and it would be at normal strength.

I liked how you could use several other characters besides Buffy in the game. Faith is there, but even though she is a slayer she seems a bit stronger than Buffy. At least when I was using her, she seemed like her health wouldn't go down as fast. Plus Faith is my favorite slayer on the show, and she's just too hot! :) Willow uses magic and is very fun to use since you can take out creatures in different ways. Xander and Spike are fighters, but can use weapons when they find them. For some reason, Spike seemed to be the weakest character in the group…Even though he is a vampire! Just doesn't make sense to me. Plus you get to play as Sid the Dummy (even though the level he is in is short), but that level was very fun to play on with this character.

Each level was quite long (usually lasting a full hour to complete) and finding the hidden items for the unlockables were easy or hard, depending on which level you are on. I really didn't like how most creatures would respawn all the time, since it made looking for the hidden items that much harder, but I guess it makes your skills on killing them more impressive. As they say, practice makes perfect.

The weapons used in the game were much higher that I thought it would have been. You have the basic spike to use, then you have other weapons like an Ax, Sword, Shovel, Pitchfork, Baseball Bat, Pool Cue. Or you have guns that shoot holy water, or fire. Plus you have an alien gun to use on one level as well. Plus when some weapons get broken, you still get to use them as a larger spike. I also enjoyed using the weapon to attack the creature with, then using that same weapon to pierce their heart and watch them fade to dust. Also, throwing the spikes to kill with is also very cool.

Some people do not enjoy playing games that require searching or backtracking, but I am not one of them. I liked having to find items to proceed to the next part of the level, or having to figure out some puzzles that required a special item to get a door open. The levels are set up to be difficult, but not too difficult that you will want to stop playing the game. It just takes some detective work to see what needs to be done to continue on with the level. Some parts I looked for a good ten minutes until I looked at one item that was being used in one room and then I noticed a door that I didn't try to open yet, and sure enough it was the door that I needed to find.

The boss battles ranged from very easy to rip your hair out and swear to your neighbors hard. The worst boss battle was the one on Faith's level. Having to destroy three magic orbs while two zombie skeletons annoy you is okay. Then you add some vampire creature guy who loves to throw fire at you or beat on your body makes it harder. Especially when you can't hurt the guy until the orbs are destroyed! I just know that completing this level made me feel as if the game was completed since the other bosses after this one were easier. Not too much easier, but nowhere near the difficulty of the Faith boss. 6/10

Lasting Appeal

Unless you missed some hidden items during your first time through the game, then you can replay the levels and search for them. The hidden items unlock either characters for the multi-player games or they unlock videos from the cast. The multi-player games are fun to play with a buddy, but it seems like a watered down version of the regular game. If they had a two player option for the regular game, that would have been awesome.

Or you can just replay your favorite level. I wish more games would have the levels available to replay after you complete them, instead of having to replay the whole game for certain levels. The replay value is about average, but could be higher for the Buffy fans. 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/06