Oh Vampire Rain, Vampire Rain,
What beautiful box art you show,
Oh Vampire Rain, Vampire Rain,
What torture I had to undergo.
Well, I do suppose it would be pretty harsh to critique an entire game based on that short, poetic verse. Actually, that little verse doesn't do the entire game that is Vampire Rain justice. Why didn't I make the verse longer and more accurate, then, you might ask? Well, in a nutshell, when my mind strains to naturally rhyme "show" with "undergo", I think it's time for me to give it up.
Anyhow, we're gonna move on.
By now I'm sure that my unnecessary Microsoft Paint! bar graph is no longer needed to show you that the higher the number, the larger the space is to fill, right? Or rather, in this case, the higher the number = the better the score. In any case, I can't move on until I fill you in on the categories as well -- since I'm not showing you the bar graph, I guess I'll just have to elaborate on the categories, now, won't I?
+Gameplay -> Simply enough, this is how the game plays. Is it fun? Are the controls intuitive? Are the controls, especially for combined actions, in places that are easily accessible and prevent me from snapping my wrist in the process? If you said "yes" or "I hope so" to all of the above questions, then the game in question will probably receive a pretty high score.
+Storyline -> Are we feeding unicorns so that they can proceed on with their plans of global domination or are we sneaking about a military submarine in search of answers as to why these fish-people have crawled up out of the sea? I'll be judging how effective, interesting, and entertaining the plot is and tally up the results in this category.
+Graphics -> Next-gen or last-gen? Winner or loser? Does your character look like he's floating or do the weapons look so realistic that you had to pick your jaw up off the ground once you were done gaping at it ... and, in the meantime, getting killed? It's up to me to decide.
+Sound -> Is the sound effect for that one ghost a simple "Boo!" or a ghoulish squeal of agony? Does the rifle sound like it's firing bullets or something less bullet-sounding? Let's find out!
+Value -> Frankly, all "value" means is whether this game is worthy of your time. Much like gameplay, is it fun to play? And, on top of all that, is the subject matter interesting and fun? What audience is the game geared towards? Am I asking far too many questions?
+Multiplayer -> Is it "haha, I killed you, you n00b!" or "check this out! I just got stuck in this wall!"? Let's find out together. I will brave the dark abyss that is XBOX Live and report what I can on the stability of playing with others. Sometimes it's worth it -- other times it's not.
+Bonus -> Is there just something (good OR bad) that doesn't fit into any of the other categories and seems to pop out, having a life of its own? I'll mention it here to the best of my ability.
Phew. Now that we've got the formalities out of the way, let's check out just how interesting it really is to play as a guy as part of a larger team that has to quell a Nightwalker (vampire) uprising in the course of one night. Are you up to the task, soldier?
Gameplay
Much like any other Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid clone, this game plays out in the same way. Except not as good. The general concept of Splinter Cell: Vampire Edition may sound cool at first, but when you decide to peel open the book and read its contents -- 'not so cool. Something that every stealth game must have (this game reaffirming my belief) is some sort of stealth meter. Generally, you're taking a stab in the dark as to how loud your footsteps are when attempting to sneak around a Nightwalker. This wasn't as much as a problem to me as it was for my friend but, then again, shouldn't it be accessible to all?
Another thing I didn't seem to get about the overall layout of Vampire Rain is why you have to document each and every Nightwalker with your "necrovision" before their vision cones appear on your radar. If the government isn't taking this threat serious enough to do some emergency robotic search-and-gather intel for you before you're sent in there, why are you heading in there in the first place?
Enough of the things at the top of my mind. Let's start from the beginning.
You start off figuring out that the entire Single Play setup is played through three different categories: Stages, Tutorials, and Trials. Stages are the main story-developing assets of the entire Single Play campaign, Tutorials teach you the basics and only appear sprinkled throughout the beginning of the campaign, and the Trials are some of those well-known "accomplish this objective as fast as you can or you fail." With 24 different stages that range in between a difficulty of 10 - 20 minutes on normal mode if you're trying to go for a very high ranking, it's quite a sight to behold. The main problem is that later levels simply reverse earlier levels and send you back through them backwards.
... what?
You have your standard weapons-fare here as well. You have your silenced pistol, your silenced assault rifle (I haven't even heard of one of these in quite some time), your shotgun, your silenced sniper rifle, miscellaneous other weapons, and the unbelievably cool UV knife. 'You get it? UV? Vampires? Sunlight? 'Cracked me up the first time I heard. Unbelievably enough, though, this cool weapon is also completely destroyed because, you guessed it, it runs on ammo. You heard me right.
The knife needs ammunition.
And speaking of weapon shortfalls, each and every one of your weapons disappears at the end of the level. You heard me right that time as well -- even though the game takes place in the course of one night, yet you lose every single weapon you've gotten (well, except occasionally your pistol and Neolite assault rifle) at the end of each and every stage. For the sake of consistency, let's just say that the main character of yours (Lloyd) dumps each and every one of his weapons in a gutter before jumping into the van and proceeding to their next location within the city. And, just to humor myself with an explanation, let's just say that Lloyd dumps his weapons because those extra weapons he could carry with him weigh down the van too much.
Every single upside has its downside in this game. Even though it's pretty hard for these vamps to spot you and, thankfully enough, you even get the flashing-ghostly-creepy-face on your screen when they're about to spot you, the vampires are near superhuman lest you have your boomstick at the ready or are keen at getting headshots on them with the sniper rifle while they're running their way to you. Shamble is more the word, really, but then why is their "shambling" faster than your running?
Ah, I see I failed to mention that, though every other weapon has a silencer, your shotgun doesn't. This pretty much means that once you use it on one Nightwalker, 5 other ones near you will hear you and come charging. No matter what the case, this is never a pretty situation. Especially when your other "teammates" are talking to you one moment in a cutscene standing right with you. Cut to a fadeout. Come back in and you're all alone?
... what? They couldn't just let me come along with them? If you're almost useless solo, what's the point in having your two other teammates travel together and you travel alone? It makes absolutely no sense!
Much like Tenchu-Z, there are multiple ratings for a level, S being the highest, followed by A, then B, and so on and so forth. In order to achieve the S ranking, however, you must recover all of the pickups (miniscule blips that occasionally show up on your radar when you appear to be on the same elevation as the item), take no damage (don't accidentally jump off that 14 foot tall rooftop! And don't step in that acidic goop that fallen vamps leave behind!), keep your ammunition expenditure to a bare minimum (that's right. Got your shotgun and sniper rifle? Apparently it pays off more for you not to use them anyhow), and don't use any continues. That's right. Did you mess up on one of the above things even once? Make sure to hit restart and not continue if you're expecting that grand ol' "S"-ranking!
Though I gripe and moan, I do have a soft spot for these kind of games and, if you really get into methodically scanning the level for the best path through, it can be really, really entertaining to play a few Stages a time. Then again, once you play a few you'll probably have spent so many hours that you're so absolutely sick and angry at the thing that you'll turn it off, fume awhile, and come back to it later. Plenty of "what?!?" moments in that thing, I assure you. Through all of Vampire Rain's failures and [minimal] successes, I give it a 5 out of 10. Hey, at least it tried ... right?
Another thing I didn't seem to get about the overall layout of Vampire Rain is why you have to document each and every Nightwalker with your "necrovision" before their vision cones appear on your radar. If the government isn't taking this threat serious enough to do some emergency robotic search-and-gather intel for you before you're sent in there, why are you heading in there in the first place?
Enough of the things at the top of my mind. Let's start from the beginning.
You start off figuring out that the entire Single Play setup is played through three different categories: Stages, Tutorials, and Trials. Stages are the main story-developing assets of the entire Single Play campaign, Tutorials teach you the basics and only appear sprinkled throughout the beginning of the campaign, and the Trials are some of those well-known "accomplish this objective as fast as you can or you fail." With 24 different stages that range in between a difficulty of 10 - 20 minutes on normal mode if you're trying to go for a very high ranking, it's quite a sight to behold. The main problem is that later levels simply reverse earlier levels and send you back through them backwards.
... what?
You have your standard weapons-fare here as well. You have your silenced pistol, your silenced assault rifle (I haven't even heard of one of these in quite some time), your shotgun, your silenced sniper rifle, miscellaneous other weapons, and the unbelievably cool UV knife. 'You get it? UV? Vampires? Sunlight? 'Cracked me up the first time I heard. Unbelievably enough, though, this cool weapon is also completely destroyed because, you guessed it, it runs on ammo. You heard me right.
The knife needs ammunition.
And speaking of weapon shortfalls, each and every one of your weapons disappears at the end of the level. You heard me right that time as well -- even though the game takes place in the course of one night, yet you lose every single weapon you've gotten (well, except occasionally your pistol and Neolite assault rifle) at the end of each and every stage. For the sake of consistency, let's just say that the main character of yours (Lloyd) dumps each and every one of his weapons in a gutter before jumping into the van and proceeding to their next location within the city. And, just to humor myself with an explanation, let's just say that Lloyd dumps his weapons because those extra weapons he could carry with him weigh down the van too much.
Every single upside has its downside in this game. Even though it's pretty hard for these vamps to spot you and, thankfully enough, you even get the flashing-ghostly-creepy-face on your screen when they're about to spot you, the vampires are near superhuman lest you have your boomstick at the ready or are keen at getting headshots on them with the sniper rifle while they're running their way to you. Shamble is more the word, really, but then why is their "shambling" faster than your running?
Ah, I see I failed to mention that, though every other weapon has a silencer, your shotgun doesn't. This pretty much means that once you use it on one Nightwalker, 5 other ones near you will hear you and come charging. No matter what the case, this is never a pretty situation. Especially when your other "teammates" are talking to you one moment in a cutscene standing right with you. Cut to a fadeout. Come back in and you're all alone?
... what? They couldn't just let me come along with them? If you're almost useless solo, what's the point in having your two other teammates travel together and you travel alone? It makes absolutely no sense!
Much like Tenchu-Z, there are multiple ratings for a level, S being the highest, followed by A, then B, and so on and so forth. In order to achieve the S ranking, however, you must recover all of the pickups (miniscule blips that occasionally show up on your radar when you appear to be on the same elevation as the item), take no damage (don't accidentally jump off that 14 foot tall rooftop! And don't step in that acidic goop that fallen vamps leave behind!), keep your ammunition expenditure to a bare minimum (that's right. Got your shotgun and sniper rifle? Apparently it pays off more for you not to use them anyhow), and don't use any continues. That's right. Did you mess up on one of the above things even once? Make sure to hit restart and not continue if you're expecting that grand ol' "S"-ranking!
Though I gripe and moan, I do have a soft spot for these kind of games and, if you really get into methodically scanning the level for the best path through, it can be really, really entertaining to play a few Stages a time. Then again, once you play a few you'll probably have spent so many hours that you're so absolutely sick and angry at the thing that you'll turn it off, fume awhile, and come back to it later. Plenty of "what?!?" moments in that thing, I assure you. Through all of Vampire Rain's failures and [minimal] successes, I give it a 5 out of 10. Hey, at least it tried ... right?
Storyline
Though you switch roles often, you'll mainly be planning as Lloyd, a guy who is part of a Special Forces squad sent into Los Angeles to take out a dirty Nightwalker threat that has just recently risen. In addition to defusing the vampire threat, you'll also have to rescue a kidnapped professor from their lair and, in addition to that, figure out how in the heck this plague even came to the city. The main thing left unexplained is why the vampires decided to kidnap the professor and not kill him on sight, as appears to be the case with everybody else -- including yourself.
In this fashion, it's much Splinter Cell and no originality. You sneak. Don't engage the vampires. Make your way to the objective. Collect all items.
Blah.
Blah.
Blah.
Like I've mentioned before, the vampires "shamble" towards you so fast that it's almost pointless to defend yourself in the earlier parts of the game. Generally, this is where the Metal Gear Solid element comes in -- you're sneaking around and paying attention to patrol patterns before you can safely arrive to your destination / reach your objective.
And from there on out it's pretty much standard cookie-cutter fair in the matter here, unlike how MGS pulled it off. For Vampire Rain's valiant attempt at an original story, though, I'll give it a generous 6 out of 10.
In this fashion, it's much Splinter Cell and no originality. You sneak. Don't engage the vampires. Make your way to the objective. Collect all items.
Blah.
Blah.
Blah.
Like I've mentioned before, the vampires "shamble" towards you so fast that it's almost pointless to defend yourself in the earlier parts of the game. Generally, this is where the Metal Gear Solid element comes in -- you're sneaking around and paying attention to patrol patterns before you can safely arrive to your destination / reach your objective.
And from there on out it's pretty much standard cookie-cutter fair in the matter here, unlike how MGS pulled it off. For Vampire Rain's valiant attempt at an original story, though, I'll give it a generous 6 out of 10.
Graphics
The graphics do look pretty good. Not, perhaps, up to par with something like Gears of War, they're pretty detailed and don't suffer from over usage like many other games of its kind. The one thing that caught my eye, however, was the rain effect. It was absolutely phenomenal, from the way it glistened on your characters stealth-suit *cough*SolidSnake's+SamFisher's*cough* to the way it splashed against the rooftops. The intro and cutscenes are pretty well done -- up there with Metal Gear Solid's cinematic-wise, but not quite. The streets, environments, and rain -- it all pretty much pushes the 360 to the max.
There's not much else of notice in this department and, because of that, I'll be granting Vampire Rain a 7 out of 10 in the graphics department.
There's not much else of notice in this department and, because of that, I'll be granting Vampire Rain a 7 out of 10 in the graphics department.
Sound
Voice acting = painful. Really. Although this may not be considered a sound flaw, the lip-syncing isn't even with the English words for the majority of the cutscenes! The voices sound so bland and depressing -- not really what's required with the premise of rain, vampires, and Los Angeles baring down upon you.
The weapons-sound was good from what I could gather, but, really, it was pretty hard to tell what with the silencers and lack of usage.
... the rain sounded great though!
Vampire Rain + sound = 6 out of 10.
The weapons-sound was good from what I could gather, but, really, it was pretty hard to tell what with the silencers and lack of usage.
... the rain sounded great though!
Vampire Rain + sound = 6 out of 10.
Value
I don't see much of a reason to play through the game multiple times unless you clearly didn't get the "S"-ranking the first time around. Once you're done with getting an "S" on every Stage / Tutorial / Trial, then I guess it's time to punish yourself and move onto Hard and do the exact same thing. Most of the levels are pretty easy to memorize, so replaying it right away isn't much of a hassle. You can run about wherever you want to since you already know where all the vamps are already lurking about, making your second playthrough a lot easier on you than your first.
Or so I assume. I don't feel I'll be torturing myself that far.
Otherwise, there's not much reason to play through the missions again and again unless you come back to Vampire Rain time and time again for the multiplayer. Really, though, there's not a lot of innovation to see here, either.
Move along. Vampire Rain + value = 6 out of 10.
Or so I assume. I don't feel I'll be torturing myself that far.
Otherwise, there's not much reason to play through the missions again and again unless you come back to Vampire Rain time and time again for the multiplayer. Really, though, there's not a lot of innovation to see here, either.
Move along. Vampire Rain + value = 6 out of 10.
Multiplayer
Here you have quite a few different modes to choose from, but nothing much different than you've already expected or already seen before. You're got such modes a Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Death or Nightwalkers, Capture the Flame, and Destroy. Capture the Flame particularly caught my eye because I thought it amusing that Artoon decided to change the usual flag format and swap it for a ball of fire. It makes the flag carrier much easier to see when he's a living, breathing bonfire.
I suppose I have to give them credit there.
Then there's the Death or Nightwalkers mode which, unbalanced as it may seem, is merely okay in multiplayer. When you're killed by a Nightwalker, you become a Nightwalker and therefore receive all of their abilities from the Single Play mode. Yes, that includes the super strength, expert leaping, and sonic speed. The key thing here, though, is that the humans get weapons to use from long-range and the Nightwalkers are restricted to short-range melee attacks.
It's still never fun to be killed by one of those things, though, be it in multiplayer or Single Play. I guess I'll grant Vampire Rain a 7 out of 10 in the multiplayer department.
I suppose I have to give them credit there.
Then there's the Death or Nightwalkers mode which, unbalanced as it may seem, is merely okay in multiplayer. When you're killed by a Nightwalker, you become a Nightwalker and therefore receive all of their abilities from the Single Play mode. Yes, that includes the super strength, expert leaping, and sonic speed. The key thing here, though, is that the humans get weapons to use from long-range and the Nightwalkers are restricted to short-range melee attacks.
It's still never fun to be killed by one of those things, though, be it in multiplayer or Single Play. I guess I'll grant Vampire Rain a 7 out of 10 in the multiplayer department.
Bonus
There's nothing much of notice, really. Artoon tries and fails to mix the best elements from MGS and the Splinter Cell series and dually mix in their own elements that seems to amount to a failure. There is a small cult following, though, and at times you can be pretty fond of the game. It isn't completely worthless, but far from perfect.
Overall, Vampire Rain has scored a 6.2. You might want to try this game if you're a hardcore fan of the stealth genre, but not until the price for this game hits the bargain bin.
And, once again, there you have it! Massive thanks to Nico + Ann from M80 Teams for lettin' me review this ... while it might be far from the best thing I've ever reviewed, it's one more thing to add to my ever-expanding collection.
Well, I guess I'm off to work on those achievements ... seeing as how the majority of the achievements center around (for some odd reason) the multiplayer, you'll know where you can find me.
... bang!
--Reaper
Well, I guess I'm off to work on those achievements ... seeing as how the majority of the achievements center around (for some odd reason) the multiplayer, you'll know where you can find me.
... bang!
--Reaper
