If there was ever a time when I'd stumbled upon a game that very few others only pushed aside only for it to turn out amazingly well, this certainly would be it. BloodRayne Betrayal is an exciting reinvention of the franchise and a welcome addition to the 'Games That If You Squint Look A Lot Like Castlevania' (GTIUSLALLC, for "short"). Developer WayForward has done a great job reinventing the moribund character from the early 2000s with a quick, rewarding and absolutely gorgeous 2D action platformer.Let's get this out of the way right up front: the thing that might turn some people off is how tough Betrayal can get at times. The platforming sections are extremely difficult at times, merciless in nature, that force you to retry until you get them perfectly. That's easily the game's weakest point, while the fighting is its strongest.
I've never been one to love combo systems in games but I easily got into this particular one. Rayne is pretty nimble and deadly, with a lot of attacks at her disposal that make use of both melee and ranged weapons. Enemies are very pattern based and thanks to the fluidity of the animation, it is very possible to see the anticipation and tells of their incoming attacks. Early on you're thrown into a fight that teaches you the very basic of fighting and that's about all you get in terms of a tutorial.
The move set you start the game with is the same you'll be enjoying the credits roll with. There is no upgrade system to speak of, outside of hidden collectibles that can either boost your maximum health or the amount of bullets you can carry. This means that although extremely flexible, the combat can get repetitive if you find a good combination to crutch on during the game. Granted, the further you progress, the tougher enemies get but there was never a point where my go-to attacks did not succeed.
That said, stages are meant to be replayed in order to attain a higher mission score and rating. These are tied to how well and quickly you dispatch enemies. A timer pops up at every encounter and the higher that is when you kill the last foe in the group is what gets tallied to the overall score, up to the incredibly difficult 'S' rank.
I'd easily recommend BloodRayne Betrayal to fans of slash 'em all games. There are some spots where the platforming difficulty bumps the frustration factor off the scale but those are few and far between. And thanks to the fun combat and beautiful presentation, they're blemishes that are easy to forgive. |8
