Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds

"Chaos Bleeds bad gameplay"

The first Buffy game was surprisingly not bad. I rented this game thinking it'd be a good distraction but it didn't live up to what the first Buffy game was. This one isn't even on the same hemisphere.

Story: 1/10
I honestly couldn't figure it out for the life of me. If you watched the show religiously, then you'd recognize some of the episodes being incorporated into the game. It seemed like the developers spent more time on music and graphics then on anything else, especially the plot. Too bad

Graphics: 6/10
Not this game's strongest point. Unlike the first Buffy game, the character models are accurate to the show. In the first Buffy game, the graphics artist made Buffy's butt look WAY bigger than Sarah Michelle Gellar's in real life. The only complaint I have here is that Spike doesn't dress the way he normally does on the show. The scenery is well done. The graphics aren't the best I've seen on X-Box, but they're passable.

Music: 9/10
The music is very similar to the show which had a surprisingly good soundtrack most of the time. Buffy fans will probably recognize that the title screen music is the very catchy theme song used in the show. A good job was performed here.

Sound Effects: 1/10
This is just pathetic. The voices during dialogue scenes are pretty on point compared to the show (except Anya, who sounds like she has throat cancer in this game). The acting is pretty bad as people will overact at some dialogues in the game. One thing I didn't get was why all the males sounded alike when they're getting beat up. Spike and Xander both have the exact same groan when they get hit.

Gameplay: 1/10
The gameplay is the biggest culprit in this product. Its hard to control some of the characters due to having too many buttons and button combinations to perform moves or techniques. Willow is in this game and she is way different to control than every other character. While there is generally a kick button, Willow uses the kick button to cast magic instead. Magic is hard to cast effectively because the player has to move the left analog stick to fact the opponent and then the right analog stick to aim. What's worse is that there are different button combinations for different types of spells, but if you don't push them fast enough, you throw out some pansy little fireball that seems to do so little damage the enemy laughs at you. At least there is a multiplayer mode.

Multiplayer Mode: 1/10
There is a multiplayer mode, too bad its boring. You have a choice of 4 different game types. In survival, you basically kill as many of your friends or demons as possible until there is 1 person standing. What's weak is that its easier to kill the demons than your friends since all the foes have glass jaws, so I could literally be the first one eliminated and still win.
There is Bunny Chaser. This game has you chasing bunnies that have multiple effects, such as +5 points, slowed movement or whatever. Yawn.
Domination is king of the hill. The problem is that there is more than 1 hill, killing the seek-and-destroy aspect of this game since there are generally enough hills for every player.
The last game is the most insipid thing I've ever seen. 1 player plays as a character from the show, and everyone else plays as a zombie. This sounds cool, but the zombies are wimpy and attack with the speed of the elderly.

To Rent or Buy: NOT WORTH BUYING.... PERIOD

Its a shame this game didn't live up to what the first Buffy game was, but the multiplayer was a worthy feature with some potential, but the poor execution ruined it.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/03