Blood Wake

"A Kick-butt Action Game on the Sea!"

Graphics- 8.5

The graphics in the game are not outstanding by any means. The ships are very detailed. You can even see the pistons moving and the pilots move their heads as well. The water affects are the best I've seen in any game ever made. When a missile blows up or a torpedo hits a ship, they create huge waves, that knock ships flying into the air. The explosions themselves are pretty plain, but get the job done. The land is plain as well, but none the less, gets the job done. But this is sea battle game, so who cares about the land. Also when a ship sinks, you can see it disappear slowly as it sinks.

Gameplay-9

This game is super fun. You got 30+ missions to go through, each level you can do in 3 difficulty levels. There is multi player, with over 15+ modes, and about 8+ modes for single player alone! You go through Story mode to unlock new ships, maps, and game modes. It all depends on what difficulty you are playing that unlocks things. A nice touch is that you can choose the difficulty before you play each level. In multi player, you can even use your enemy ships, which is very cool.

The controls are quite easy. The left analog or d-pad controls your speed and turning. The left trigger is for machine guns, while the right trigger is for missile, torpedos, mines, auto cannons, rockets etc. The A buttons switches between your weapons (which depend on what ship you are using), B changes radar modes, and X is turbo. Also white button changes camera angles. The game can be difficult at times, but so hard that you cannot pass the levels.

Sound-8

The is average at best but that doesn't matter too much. The music is all right, but it gets things done. The ship and weapon sounds, seem quite good, and do sound pretty real. You cannot add your own soundtrack, but it doesn't really matter because the music suits the game pretty good, ranging from light music to some good old fashion heavy metal, there is no singing though. Also the people's voices are decent and suit the game and its characters. But if you could add your own soundtracks, it would be pretty cool. Just imaging listening to your favorite song as you blow an enemy ship to shreds!

Overall-9

This game is worthy of adding to your Xbox games collection. Its got a great single player, multi player, lots to unlock, and has pretty good replay value.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/31/01, Updated 12/31/01