Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds

"A wealth of features cannot disguise what, at heart, is just a poor game."

There is a great game (or a great beat-em-up, at least) waiting to be based on the Buffy mythology. Its wit, slick, distinctive fighting style and above all, its iconic characters, it is practically crying out to be turned interactive. Chaos Bleeds, despite ticking all of these boxes, is not that game.

So it's not perfect, but lets begin with what it does right. The single player game is presented as a ‘lost episode', i.e. lots of pre-scripted scenes as a context for the subsequent bloodletting. In general these are reasonably good, in a Buffy kind of way, and the unfazed have the luxury of skipping them. When the aforementioned bloodletting does commence our enjoyment of the game is conmeasurate with our investment in the admittedly daunting combat system. Beginners can expect to be throwing the same three punches in several directions many times over while the vamps dance unharmed into your blind spot. Fear not, once the flow of the moves becomes apparent, the fights become much more enjoyable, and capture some of the quality of the better fight scenes in the show. True fans will probably recognise individual moves from particular episodes, (like Spike's lovely spinning jump kick from ‘The Harsh Light of Day') which adds to the fun immeasurably. The masses of weapons scattered around the detailed, though frequently confusing, game map also brighten up combat sessions that could otherwise become humdrum. They also engage a sense of strategic resource management as each weapon you collect, be it a super soaker filled with holy water to your garden-variety shovel, has a given ‘health' supply that is rarely sufficient to see you through the level. Never mind, there's always stakes. And I mean Always. Stakes by the bucket load. Except at the start of each stage when you are dropped in, unarmed, and have to scamper around like a gothic Benny Hill, beating off vamps until you find a weapon.

The adventure elements of the game, while not altogether successful, at least convey a gratifying feeling of achievement (to one sad player at least) and are often used to cinematic effect.

Now onto the bad points. Where to begin? The combat system, though usable, is crippled without either a target lock or at least a 360° block. Preferably both. Without them, the frequent shock attacks are rendered awkward, frustrating and often fatal. Only when an attack is anticipated can we hope to pull off any of the splendid techniques on offer. As for the strafe/dodge manoeuvring, forget it, it'll just confuse you. And as much as this lack hurts the hand-to-hand action, it positively pulverises any thought of using the projectile weapons. Try running from an enemy, locating that hellfire grenade thingy in your inventory, turn, throwing it, hit a baddie, and not torch yourself in the process. Just try it.

The combat giveth and the combat taketh away, and as much as the vast array of moves, quips, and familiar locations will delight the Buffyphile (who are the only people who should even consider buying this) what the fights crucially fail to convey is a sense of being the slayer. It's as easy to beat off vampires and drive a stake through them as Xander as it is for Buffy and Faith. The grace and ferocity so well employed in Devil may Cry, for example, is nowhere to be seen, and leaves us with a beat-em-up that has potential, but doesn't inspire us to explore it.

However, the real disappointment here comes not in the story game, but in the half-hearted multiplayer options. I bought this game because my Buffy-minded friends and me wanted some of the old Slayer-fight magic. Sadly, none materialised. The same problems we have with the one-player combat persist, and are compounded by the random good/bad pick-ups, the TOTAL lack of any weapons, but mainly by the sheer, demented pointlessness of it all. There is no straightforward beat-em-up option available, instead we are ‘treated' to four game modes, which must be played on one of the same four maps (i.e. screens- no wandering for you). These challenges can take the form of punching your way through a never-ending supply of shambling monsters, to chasing rabbits around the room (seriously). At no point did I see evidence of the game play coming alive in the way that many substandard games can when played with friends (War of the Monsters, any Sport or FPS game you can name…).

All in all, then, there is some fun to be had here, but the surfeit of DVD-style extras cannot conceal what is a fundamentally flawed beat-em-up, and a disappointment to fans of the show.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/05