As soon as I began to watch a playthrough of Bloodrayne: Betrayal's first stage, I became a believer. Its beautiful graphics, vivid colors and smooth animations looked awesome. The Way Forward representative that I was speaking with informed me of an interesting statistic to put Betrayal's look into perspective, and to solidify with me just how excited the Way Forward team was to finally work on the high-definition consoles that allowed them to make a game that looked this crisp. Rayne herself has 4,000 individual animations, something that I was told would have brought a device like the Wii to a standstill. Way Forward's Wii title A Boy and His Blob on the other hand? It had 4,000 animations too. In total.

The overall package reminded me most of what an old-school Castlevania game would be like if it was bestowed with the mechanics of an fast-moving arcade-like action game. But unlike the stiff movements of a Belmont, Rayne moves quickly and fluidly, with a wealth of combat options and combos at her disposal. She can hack and slash her enemies, or use her gun to attack her foes from afar (though ammunition is limited). She can jump atop the heads of foes ala Chun-Li, and even heal herself by sucking the blood of her opponents. And if you're having trouble getting through the game, you can upgrade Rayne's ammunition and health to make things a little easier.

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The developer playing the game made Bloodrayne: Betrayal look easy, but let me tell you, it isn't. This is a game that lacks a difficulty setting -- it's just hard all the time -- and it will take gamers a little while to get used to all of the combat options. I could barely get through half of the first stage, though my companion from Way Forward was able to get through to the end of the stage with ease, pummeling a boss called the Crab Puncher with no issues. Like the entire first stage, the boss battle was cleverly-designed and looked great, and I was promised that the bosses got even better as gamers moved deeper into the game.

Bloodrayne: Betrayal's release is right around the corner. Publisher Majesco is shooting to get the game onto the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live this August at a cost of $15. The game packs 15 individual stages, and the developers predict that it will take a newbie five or six hours to get through the entire experience. But something tells me that its points system will keep gamers coming back for more.

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SolidSnakex said:

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