BloodRayne is a series that has consistently been received poorly. After a long absence, WayForward Technologies have brought back the series as a 2D side-scrolling slash-em-up/platformer.  Has the change of style worked?

When I first jumped into the game, the first thing that struck me was how stunning it is. The beautiful art design as Rayne slices the heads off of her enemies, causing blood to spew like a fountain, looks like something straight out of anime. The character designs are excellent and varied, making encounters dynamic and fun to watch. However, certain bizarre levels have you fight up to a dozen enemies in darkness, with nothing but silhouettes of the characters, and this can be overwhelming, leaving you unsure of where Rayne is on the screen. It is strange that the designers would take one of the game’s greatest features and hide it behind pitch black. Sadly, the sound design isn’t so memorable. The music is repetitive and boring, while the lack of voice acting is an omission which would have given more depth to the characters and the stick-thin plot.

Rayne is equipped with two methods of attack, her blades and a pistol. The blades allow you to fight multiple enemies up close while the pistol allows you to take out enemies across the screen, provided you have ammo. Rayne can suck the blood of her enemies in order to regain health, or she can poison them, which, following a simple button press, makes the enemy explode, killing those around them. The combat system of BloodRayne is both simple and deep, offering a great number of ways to defeat enemies by utilising different combinations for a higher score. When the combat system works, its sublime, providing fast and satisfying action, but the major problem is that it often becomes frustrating. Low attacks play out as mid-attacks, grabs leave you empty handed, and bullets fly right over enemy heads (whom, by the way, are lower than the level of the gun…I checked).
 
Rayne’s locked animations leave the player powerless if an attack doesn’t work and you want to change direction mid-move, or you see an enemy preparing to shoot you mid-combo. Rayne can chop enemies in half with her blades, leaving the befallen foe dragging his useless half-carcass along the floor, which Rayne can stomp into a pulp. The problem with this is when you are facing multiple enemies, you want to carry on fighting the next enemy in line, but Rayne decides to stomp on an enemy who cannot affect you, leaving her vulnerable to attack.
 
BloodRayne, unlike other games of the genre, lacks what I refer to as a ‘grace period’. When a player is hit, there is a few second window in which they are invincible to regain composure and fight back. BloodRayne offers no such compassion. If you are fighting two enemies or more, and one knocks you down, as soon as you stand up, before you even get the chance to move, the next enemy in line will hit you. It is hard to convey how much of a factor all of these problems are, the lack of control over Rayne led to many an unjust death. I learned to overcome these faults, but it felt like I was learning to work around the games flaws, more-so than learning how to beat the enemies within the game.

While the action has its flaws, the platforming is where this game greatly falters. The jumping is wildly inaccurate, and once again, due to Rayne’s uninterruptable animations, trying to land on a tiny ledge can be almost impossible when she decides to skid at the end of a run. Wall-jumping is excruciating, especially when there are rotary blades on either wall, the mechanic simply fails. In order to reach higher ledges, Rayne must do a backflip, which requires the player to run, then turn sharply in the opposite direction while holding the jump button. This mechanic greatly interrupts the flow of the action, and is nonsensical when you have to stop, turn around, run a few paces, only to jump back towards the direction Rayne was running in the first place. It seems that a simple double-jump system would have sufficed. Certain levels have Rayne fleeing from a dangerous object, requiring the player to use her dash mechanic, combine poor controls and lack of responsiveness, you get many failed attempts and frustration. There were some genuine moments where the platforming was fun and a challenge, but this didn’t happen nearly as often as it should.
 
In spite of the annoying controls, the game isn’t too much of a challenge. There is a notable difficulty spike around the halfway point, and you can expect to die a fair few times, but the game can be completed in a few hours or so. The completion time is extended by an inconsistent checkpoint system, with certain levels poorly placed, making you fight through multiple combat sections before returning to the platforming area you were actually actually having difficulty with.

Closing Comments
BloodRayne: Betrayal is a game where you spend most of the time trying to overcome the poor controls and mechanics rather than the enemies and level design within. While graphically stunning, the effect is mired in the sheer frustration in Rayne’s inability to do what you want, when you want, and in a Metroidvania-like game, that is all-too crucial. While the game isn’t necessarily terrible, it is hard to recommend when the games it is inspired by, do what it is trying to do so much better. While there are hi-scores to go for and skulls to collect, I doubt it is worth the frustration to go back and replay the game.                                                                  
The Good:
+ Stunning art design
+ Fun and varied combat, if ingfrequent

The Bad:
-Inconsistent combat and cheap AI-Poorly executed game mechanics leave the gamer infuriated by its difficulty
-Boss Fights are tedious