It’s hard to imagine in 2021, but BloodRayne was once a popular franchise. The world was a very different place two decades ago, and the pulpy formula of vampires, Nazis and boobs of that first installment of 2002 resonated with fans of a medium that was going through its adolescence, and who were looking for more adult stories (and yes , this is what passed for “adult” at that time).
Despite the lukewarm critical reception, the success of Bloodrayne it was enough to secure a much better-received sequel released in 2004, and a series of FOUR films by – I touch the left egg – Uwe Ball, starring Krystanna Loken from “Terminator 3” in the title role, and Ben Kingsley because he is a mercenary without standards. I don’t think there is a need to mention its quality.
WISE FWOM YOUR GWAVE
Reviewed version: PlayStation 4
The story of Bloodrayne It takes place between 1933 and 1938, and is basically a giant excuse to kill waves and waves of zombies, Nazis and paranormal creatures in the swamps of Louisiana, a Nazi base in Argentina (because of course it does) and a castle in Germany. The cinematics are pure edgy cheese from the early 2000s. Listen to Laura Bailey, who today is an institution in the world of voice acting, give voice to Rayne in a performance worthy of the first resident Evil from PS1 is amazing.
Call to ReVamped a remaster is quite generous, really. Taking some graphic improvements in its textures and presentation, at the gameplay level it is exactly the same game as nineteen years ago, with all that this implies. Things that were acceptable in 2002 are archaic today, and it is rare that there has been zero effort to modernize them even a little, at least as an alternative for those who are playing the series for the first time and are not interested in a 100% authentic experience. to the original. The fun that one can get out of the game will then come from the personal tolerance that one has for the jank of the PS2 era, and although it is something that does not bother me in particular (and in some cases it even adds charm) I do not see ReVamped adding many new fans to the series.
The controls are a relic from the days when the analog movement was in its infancy and there were no standards when it came to mapping the actions to each button. Having the melee attack assigned to L1 and shooting R1, while L2 and R2 alternate between our weapons, is unintuitive. There are two modes of movement and camera control to choose from (inexplicably called “first person” and “third person”), and neither feels natural in 2021.
The performance of the game remains at a stable 60 fps 99% of the time, but when it does not, it falls to very low numbers and frankly unintelligible for a port of a PS2 game. Luckily there are just a few specific moments and in general terms it is more than correct.
The combat is appropriately gritty too. Most weapons feel like they tickle normal enemies, having zero reaction to bullets. Hand-to-hand combat doesn’t have any kind of lock on, and many of me found myself swinging punches in the air hoping to hit something. Rayne can only be cured by drinking blood from enemies, so when encountering a single enemy or a small group the most sensible (and boring) thing to do is to simply kill them by drinking and thus save ammo and keep our life bar full. Of course: Rayne’s Rage Mode, which we activate by playing triangle when filling the Rage bar, is absolutely OP and destroys even bosses in seconds.
ReVamped it also does not have a current checkpoint system. Dying always takes us to the beginning of the level, just like loading the game. We can save the game anywhere, yes, but loading the save starts the level from scratch. This gets quite annoying in the second half of the game where there are some pretty ridiculous difficulty peaks, but so typical of the time too.
Unfortunately the latter ends up being a much bigger annoyance than it should, because at the time of writing this review, ReVamped it’s broken on PS4. I am not exaggerating when I say that during my playthrough the game froze twice in the first 20 minutes, and a dozen more times in the following hours. Many times during a cinematic he refused to advance, other times he would just freeze in the middle of the action. One level in particular, one of the longest in the game, took me literally hours to complete, and I’m sure my run would have ended right there under other circumstances. I also found several audio glitches, and that a trophy that I should have unlocked for killing a boss never did. And it’s not just me: just doing a quick search on Twitter makes it easy to find tons of reports from other players with similar experiences, with Ziggurat assuring that they are preparing a patch to solve the problems, and although the good vibes that he they are putting that I came out in this state in the first place defies understanding.
Ah, the PS4 version also disables cheats, even though the option is still on the menu. Apparently the devs had to do it at Sony’s request, as they interfered with the trophies in some way.
BloodRayne: ReVamped it generates mixed feelings in me. The few graphical improvements that the game received do little to compensate for the lack of update at the control level and the plethora of new technical problems that this version introduces, and I cannot in good conscience recommend it until it works to an acceptable level. Yes, sure, but it was despite the fact that the game actively sabotaged my fun at every turn. And while I personally have no problems with the graphics and gameplay staying intact from its original version, because it takes me two minutes to get used to, I can’t help but wonder who this remaster really is for, because I doubt the package is attractive to a player. young man who does not know the series before.
If your only way to replay Bloodrayne is this remaster, or if you never played it but your curiosity got the better of you, go ahead. Of course: wait for the patch.