Blade II

"Stick a stake in this one...it's done."

Movie to game translations are a little hard to get used to and even enjoy. Over the years, the standard of the movie based games has been rather disappointing and Blade II really is no exception to that standard. Based very loosely on the action movie, you’ll find that Blade II us a game that you’ll have to learn to enjoy. The story isn’t the same as the movie and the actors that you have for your characters seem as though they need to go back to speech class and learn a little more on speaking.

The story line itself seems to want to tie into the movie at different points, but it has very little to do with the actual movie. Although you still have the reaper threat, and strong vampires to kill, there isn’t anything in the story that will give you the same action as the movie itself does. If you can get into the game, you’ll find that the story revolves a plan to reproduce more Daywalkers. While this ties into the actual movie, the direction and locations of where you hunt is far removed with just a slight amount of homage to the movie.

The Game Play

When you first pound your way into the game, you’ll find that Blade II has all the makings of a decent action game with a few parts Final Fight and one part Tomb Raider. For the most part, you’ll spend your time fulfilling goals throughout several stages, collecting points and killing vampires of all types. While the action is rather hot, it quickly becomes automatic to the point that you find yourself wishing for more than just a couple of simple moves. Various options in your weapons and even how you attack will give you more points towards leveling up your character.

Now, to say that leveling up is some momentous occasion would be completely wrong. For the most part, it allows you to unlock different weapons and allows you to carry more that just a simple pistol and some ammunition. As you progress through the stages, you’ll be able to partake in some interesting and rather intense battles though you might find that the computer has a way of surrounding you and then pounding you into the ground. Different combinations of attacks will give way to some pretty impressive looking attack strings and if you time it correctly, you might even get to throw in a cinematic death sequence.

The control is where you might have a problem in which the use of the analog sticks only allows you to attack in a certain direction. The attacks themselves really aren’t that hard to figure out, but your item and weapon management are a little out there in terms of not really knowing what you’re using until you’ve selected it. As you continue into the game, you have the ability to use a sword and accentuated punches and attacks, however you might find that the lack of any real control over the jumping features and some of the slow response time when you need it the most is hard to deal with.

The Visuals

Visually, Blade II just doesn’t seem to have anything exceptional going for it. The details on Blade and your enemies is nothing that you’ll find special and for the most part, it seems to be dimmed down a little bit. The lack of detail that you find in the characters and the enemies is only highlighted by the fact that the large and expansive stages don’t have any more detail than your standard action game that you might find on the first Play Station. Some of the more impressive highlights of the visual display is some of the more gruesome death moves, but after you’ve seen them once or twice, the novelty wears off and you’re left with little to look forward to.

The Audio

The audio that you have is a techno/rock soundtrack that attempts to create an exciting and pulse-pounding atmosphere, succeeding in some places, but droning into the background after just a couple of stages. There are some instances of voice acting, but when listening to Blade trash-talk after wasting a vampire, the one-liners just don’t seem to become anything more than laughable. Whistler talks to you from time to time and though he has the gruff, country voice, it just isn’t the same as you might find with the actual movie character. All in all, the audio is serviceable, but nothing impressive or ground-breaking.

The Verdict

Blade II is a serviceable action game that you might want to play while waiting for something else to come along. In the long standing tradition of decent movie-based games, you have something here that could have been a contender, but ends up in a rut due to a lack of detail and linear game play. Some of the more outstanding complaints that you might see from the start is the lack of attack and fighting moves as well as the dimmed down lack of detail on Blade and your enemies. If you can work past these blatant problems, then you might find a game worthy of a two day rental, but nothing here that is worth the forty bucks to purchase.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/02, Updated 12/27/02