BloodRayne: Betrayal (PC) Review

As is usually the case with all BloodRayne titles, the story at hand isn't really worth of a mention. EEEEEEVIL is at bay, thus the secretive Brimstone Society sends the femme fatale, and all-around badass, half-vampire mamma Rayne to stop it. The End. The only thing that matters here is the action, which, by the way, is now confined within the two dimensions. Is that a problem? Frankly, not one bit - in fact, a few minutes in, and many will probably come to realise that BloodRayne and 2D were always meant to be together. In many ways, the end result feels like a fast-paced, and far more brutal Castlevania.

Being the ferocious killing machine that she is, the protagonist can do numerous combos with her two trusty blades, shoot enemies down, heel-stomp them to death, drink their blood to refill her health, and even bite and infect a foe, only to explode him at will. Sadly, her berserk and "bullet-time" special abilities are absent, although they could perfectly fit right in here. For a low-budget creation, BloodRayne: Betray seems to be quite entertaining - and it looks great as well!

The hand-drawn, cel-shaded characters have a great comic book style, as well as some nice and fluid animation, especially when it comes to Rayne, with the only flaw being how the enemies kind of lack variety, something that can be said for the locales the player will brave as well. The sound effects and music, while far from excellent, are also very good, especially when it comes to the latter, with more pretty cool, symphonic metal tunes. A nice, although minor detail, is how the volume depends on Rayne's health meter ...but enough digression, as the main dish in here is the action. Sadly, this is actually where the biggest issue resides in.

This is one more example of why good controls are actually the most important aspect of any game, and, in all honesty, the ones at hand are atrocious. It's not that they are unresponsive, or anything. The problem is that one can't disrupt an attack to do something else, like, for instance, an evasion move. Therefore, once an attack animation begins, that is it! Particularly annoying for an action title where the screen often fills with many, fast-moving enemies. To make things worse, once Rayne takes single hit, no matter how weak, falls down, only to slooowly get up on her feet again - and risk getting hit the exact moment she does so.

It's important to note that all that hacking and dismemberment soon takes a backseat to the platforming sections. Theoretically, this could provide the perfect break from the repetitiveness that most action titles seem to be cursed with. Sadly, this is where Betrayal's control issues become crystal clear. As if having to pull off some insane acrobatics, while also dodging enemies and rotating blades wasn't enough, you also have to endure the torture that is the insta-death traps that fill these parts - but at least the game is quite generous with checkpoints.

Fast hack 'n' slashing with the aid of vampire magic, challenging, acrobatic platforming, the always addicting option to try and get the best score for each level, and, finally, the (also challenging) search for collectibles, which will increase your power in various ways. BloodRayne: Betrayal had it all… and it ruined it with its atrocious controls. If the developer had actually cared for its creation, it would have given it a more serious testing. That's all this needed to be good. A bloody shame, really.