Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Chaos Bleeds ::
by Thunderdude
Greetings fellow, Scoobies.....
While wasting my life away on my trusty Playstation 2, I've managed to combine
my love of Joss Whedon's crazy imagination and my Playstation 2. Buffy the
Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds is the second video game of the popular television
show. From what I understand of the timeline, it seems the game is like a lost
episode that takes place between episodes 17 and 18 of season 5. At least that's
the conclusion I came up with. Buffy's mom is dead, Tara's still alive and so's
Buffy. The plot comes from a story from the past where somehow Kikistos is back
from the dead. Ethan Rayne is involved, and there's foreboding of an even more
evil enemy: The First.
Depending on different times in the story, you play as Buffy, Xander, Willow,
Spike, Faith (who's out of jail for this adventure) and even our old buddy Sid
the Dummy who is also strangely back from the dead. Characters have their own
fighting styles. Sid is fast but doesn't inflict much damage. Buffy and Faith
have similar fighting styles with and Slayer Guidebook that tells players how to
use different combinations for fighting. Willow relies mostly on magic with more
spells revealed throughout the game. She hardly has any physical attacks, but
the magic makes up for it. Xander somehow has a fighting style. It's not much
but it works. I was kinda bummed since I'd rather have played as Giles than
Xander.
Much of the cast from the show supply their voices for the game. It's nice to
hear them and shows a commitment to the game from all the people that made the
show great. However, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan do not supply the
voices for Buffy and Willow. I will give props to those who do the voices for
them. They sound pretty decent, although the Willow part was overacted a little.
The Characters even look like they're supposed too. When you beat the game there
a bunch of interviews with some of the cast about the game and the show. There's
also an interview with Joss Whedon.
All kinds of weapons can be picked up and used against the bad guys. Shovels,
holy water, hell fire, swords, spikes, baseball bats ,holy water super soakers
and hell fire guns. However you always need a stake to finally kill the vampires
and vampire-like creatures. The other bad guys disappear when you finally beat
them. It's kind of a button masher when you're fighting, although for a quick
vampire kill you can throw one to the ground and stake them quick. One thing
that bugged me was the angles when your dealing with a bunch of enemies and you
can't see them. They love to gang up on you too. Also, sometimes you gotta play
hero and protect some other characters and bystanders. Once you've defended them
they might have a gift for you. There are Resident Evil-type puzzles that move
you along in the game. A lot of the time you're looking for things to add to
other stuff to move yourself along.
There is also a multiplayer mode with 4 different multiplayer games where you
can play up to 4 people at a time. You can play as all the regular characters,
some of the bad guys, even Joss Whedon! In the games you're playing against each
other to catch bunnies, take control of pentagrams and kick each other's asses.
Overall the game was pretty good. The game play was ok but dammit those camera
angles pissed me off! The game doesn't break any new ground, but if your a fan
of the show, it's a lot of fun. This one is definitely for the fans. B+
