Vampire Night

"A must-buy for light-gun game afficianados..."

Vampire Night is one of the few light-gun games available for the Playstation 2. Fortunately for fans of the genre, it's also a wonderful rendition of the House of the Dead style of game.

Namco and Wow Entertainment (creators of Vampire Night as well as the equally good Time Crisis 2) have done a tremendous job of collaborating with Sega to make a game that is as good as Time Crisis 2, without being overly similar to that game.

With that said, let's get down to it:

Story: 6 out of 10
Does anybody play a light-gun game for the story? You play the part of professional vampire-hunter Albert or Michel (aka Shadow or Light) on a quest to rid a castle of Auguste (think Count Dracula) and his unholy minions. You and your partner blast your way through hoards of the undead while protecting a little girl that follows you and has an uncanny knack for putting herself in harm's way. Periodically an ''infected'' human will pop up for you to rescue from the curse of vampirism (if you can).

Shoot first, skip the questions altogether. If you want a story, play Metal Gear Solid 2. This is all about the gunfire. As light-gun games go it's fair, but if you're looking for a story, look elsewhere.

Graphics: 8 of 10
The graphics are very nice and the screen moves fluidly. There is no draw-in or pop-up. Occasional bouts of ''the jaggies'' pop up, but as quickly as the game moves, you'll barely have time to notice. Animations are very well done, even when the view swings wildly to face a threat from another angle. Monsters, especially bosses, look great.

Sound: 9 out of 10, with a qualifier
The music is a blend of gothic-sounding organs and fast-paced techno-rock. Very well done, and quite well-suited to the game. Not that you'll notice the music very much as the room is being filled with the sound of gunfire and screams.

Ambient sound effects are the sonic high-point of the game. Vampires shriek and keen horrific fashion as they leap for your throat. Items breaking sound as one would suspect they should. A vase shattering sounds very different from a crate being smashed. Bats flutter, torches flicker, and gunshots echo as appropriate to the environment.

Now for the qualified part. The House of the Dead series was known as much for its campy voice-acting as it was for its gameplay. Vampire Night carries this tradition on, proving the designers are in on their own joke. The voice-acting and dialogue are bad. Real bad. Campy bad. Deliberately-campy bad. Not quite Zero Wing bad, but it IS pretty cheesy.

Here there is a difference of opinion. I personally think the campy voice-acting sort of adds to the horror-movie feel (I felt like George Clooney in ''From Dusk til Dawn'' while I played), but some folks will find it a negative point. I consider it a mark in the plus column, myself.

Gameplay: 9 of 10
Ahh, the meat of the matter. Gameplay in Vampire Night...straight out rocks. Fast and furious and with little to no pause between shoot-outs, the gameplay is markedly different from Time Crisis 2. Whereas TC2 involved ducking to avoid enemy fire and to reload, VN uses the ''do unto them before they do unto you'' method - your only defense is a potent offense. Enemy ''shots'' can be shot out of the air, and you can't dodge. Emphasis is more on blazing guns over strategy, unlike TC2. This isn't a good thing OR a bad thing - both are great games, they just aren't the same game - and that's good news for light-gun fans.

Enemies have weak spots that you can shoot to bring them down quicker, and some enemies can take quite a pounding (as in House of the Dead) if you don't target the key spots. Certain enemies, most notably the bosses, cannot be hurt unless you hit their weak spot.

Periodically villagers will pop up with a ''Sarcoma'' on them. To save them from becoming vampires, you must shoot the Sarcoma. If you miss, and hit the villager, they instantly transmogrify into an undead fiend and come after you. Hitting these things is harder than it sounds.

The game has no ''dual gun'' mode as TC2 does, but you don't need it. As there's no ducking involved, you can play it John Woo-style and go at the bad guys with two fists of righteous firepower. Two-player is every bit as good as one-player, with the added benefit of having a second set of eyes and an extra trigger finger to fend off the damned.

The game, like TC2, is also backwards-compatible with the original Guncom.

Sadly, the standard controller is just not up to the task for this game. It's too slow to keep up, though the pin-point accuracy of the on-screen cursor will make saving villagers easier. Otherwise...get a Guncom2 or get the US$60 bundle that features the Guncom2 and the game.

Replay value: 7 of 10
Light-gun games are short. Period. They're short in the arcades, they're short when ported to a home system. VN is no exception. However, the designers bundled in a special game mode, training modes, and some goodies to reward the faithful, and it's a commendable package. If you want a game you can play for 10 hours without seeing anything twice, this isn't the game for you, however.

Buy or Rent?
If you're a light-gun afficianado, run, don't walk, run out and purchase this game. If you're not, I'd advocate renting it if you can get a Guncom/Guncom2 to use when you try it.

For light-gun fans, I'd say, go out and spend US$120 on TC2 AND VN. Thus you have 2 different games, and a gun for you and a friend (or just two guns for you).

In summation, Vampire Night is a fine heir to the arcade legacy of the House of the Dead series.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/01, Updated 11/21/01