Vampire Rain

"A great buy at a low price."

Hello, and thanks for checking out this review. I will review the game in the following categories, beginning with an introduction: Story, controls, gameplay, graphics, sound, replay value, and a conclusion.

Now, there have been many people, professional reviewers and amateurs alike, giving this game a lot of negative feedback. Just go to www.youtube.com and see all the videos dedicated to just bashing this game. I assume a lot of the reviewers didn't complete the game, because they seem to know little about its plot and the point of the game. The old adage "don't judge a book by its cover" comes to mind. Professional reviewers in game magazines and such gave it low scores, but I don't read those things anyway because the reviewers play the game very little and review only what they saw from that little time they spent with the game. You shouldn't those read game reviews either. Just go by your instinct. (But read this one of course!)

I found this game for ten bucks in a sale bin. I figured, if the game was bad, it wouldn't be that big of a deal because I didn't spend 60 dollars on it. It turned out to be a really great purchase. Here's why:

Story:

At first the story seems very boring and like it has been done a million times. Honestly, there isn't much you can do with survival horror (just look at Resident Evil, which is a great series, but the story is always the same). But actually, a little ways into the game, the story takes some twists. Instead of it just being a game about killing vampires and trying to find the missing military squad (which, I'm sure you can guess, were killed by vampires), you find out that the vamps themselves, or "nightwalkers" in this game, have thoughts and feelings and don't know how they were created to begin with (much like humans in reality). They are striving to find out their genesis while still biting humans, humans are trying to kill them, and an organization called AIB is trying to create an all out war between the humans and vampires. Not bad, not bad at all.

Like I said, you have to beat a few levels for the story to start revealing itself. It's chock full of treason, murder, sweet guns, manipulation, stealth, and of course, vampires that want to suck your blood. I would recommend that if you don't like it at first, at least beat some of the game to see if your attitude changes. If you still think it sucks, get your ten bucks back if it's worth it in gas.


Controls:

Mostly, the controls are easy to get used to and fairly straight forward. I immediately knew how to use my guns, run, crawl, jump, climb things, and operate the camera. Pretty standard all around. However, when you need to interact with things in a specific way, like repelling down walls or trying to jump from platform to platform, things get finicky. You have to be very precise with specific actions. Say you're trying to jump from one building's ledge to another, okay? You run towards the edge and press A to jump to the other side, but somehow you manage to avoid jumping and now you're hanging from the edge you were trying to jump from. Make sense? In this game, if you get really close to an edge, your guy turns around and hangs from it. This is supposed to aid in shimmying across ledges and stuff, but sometimes you get messed up with this auto feature.

Overall, I'd say the controls are mostly good. A few kinks here and there, but nothing you can't manage after some practice.


Gameplay:

Some say this is the most important aspect of the game, and I would agree mostly. This game is meant to be a stealth game, much like Splinter Cell, except you're being put up against vampires and not other humans. Now, in those YouTube videos I mentioned earlier, you will see the player running amok and shooting up the place and then being instantly killed when they are caught. They complain that the game is too hard because of this. Well, let's think about this for a second. You're fighting vampires. By nature, a vampire is super strong, really fast, and it wants to get you're blood out of you in the worst way. So if you're caught by one, you will die (well, unless you have your team with you or the shotgun/veretta). Also, since the primary focus of the gameplay is stealth, most of the time, you're supposed to think outside the box and find a way through without being seen. I have a feeling that these reviewers are too incompetent and just want to savagely kill everything. They are sorely missing the point.

So, on the topic of stealth: This is the awesome part of the game. You climb buildings, do the zip line, army crawl all over the place, shimmy across ledges, and just generally sneak by right under their noses. It's night all the time (it takes place in "one night"), which provides good cover, assuming you're not standing under a big light or something. Sometimes it can be kind of hard to get through some places, but after a bit of searching you can eventually find a safe, sneaky route. Most of the time, you won't have to use your gun at all, which I suppose is a downside if you like ultra shoot-em-ups.

Guns: You are always equipped with a pistol and, most of the time, a Neolite (automatic machine gun). These don't do much unless you're firing from distance and in groups (you are part of a four member team). But eventually, you get a sweet shotgun which is a one-hit killer, a sniper rifle which is a lot of fun, and a Veretta which is like a high powered rifle. The best weapon in the whole game is not a gun at all but a knife. That's right, a knife. An Ultra Violet knife to be precise. Vampires can't survive in the light because of the sun's ultra violet rays, so why not imbue a knife with UV power, sneak up behind one of them, and stab the heck out of it? Sweet right? I would say so.

Levels and Mini Games: The game is divided up into missions, tutorials, and trials. There are a lot of missions, which keep you busy. You are graded from S to D, depending on well you did in each level (S,A,B,C,D). I have never gotten anything lower than a C. You're graded on how much damage you took, the ammo you expended, how many continues you used, and so on. Sometimes you have to get certain scores to unlock the trials and such.
Tutorials are dotted throughout the game to help you grow accustomed to your items and the controls. They are all really easy. The trials are like little minigames with one main goal like collecting ammo, sneaking passed enemies, or killing a bunch of baddies. They really don't relate to the game, they are just fun.

I would say that the gameplay is pretty solid overall. The boss battles are coll, the stealth rocks, and I just felt like a mack playing this game. ; )


Graphics:

The graphics in this game aren't the best. They are like borderline 360/PS2 Graphics. But, you know what they say, graphics don't make a game good. They do the job though. The characters look really well done. The city looks kind of dull, but then again it is night time and it's raining all the time. But everything was really smooth and looked exactly like what it should. There are some really nice looking movie scenes to complete the story for you, so those are nice to watch. The animation on the nightwalkers is interesting. When they are in vampire form, they kind of fade and flicker around like they aren't human (and they're not) which is a pretty unique effect if you ask me. The only complaint I guess I have here is the fact that the scenery looks similar in many parts of the game. Not the best aspect, but it's okay.


Sound:

This is where people really rip this apart. The voice acting is just bad! Yeah, they get the point across with the script, but it sounds like they are over acting. Plus, when the character's mouths move, the motions have almost no bearing on what you're hearing. It's actually kind of funny. I just listened to what I needed to hear and moved on. Aside from the talking, the music is weird. It's pretty good when you're in battle mode, but when you are just sneaking around, it's nonexistent. But I guess if you want to get in the stealth mood, it needs to be quiet...too quiet.... The sound effects on the guns and things like that are all pretty decent. The main complaint is, once again, the voice acting. I don't know who they hired to do it, but they need some serious voice over lessons.


Replay Value:

Moderate. You'll probably only play this again for the Xbox Live feature, which isn't too shabby, or to complete all the mini games. I would say buy this instead of renting though since it is so cheap now.


Overall I give this game a 7 out of 10. It has some issues, but they are easily overlooked in the whole scheme of things.

I hope you found this review helpful and enjoyable. So go out there, get the game, and start sneaking passed the nightwalkers! And don't pay any attention the nay sayers. Oh, one last thing: If it costs more than 15 bucks, look elsewhere for your gaming fix ^__^.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/03/08

Game Release: Vampire Rain (US, 07/03/07)