Additional carnage fun can be had from harpooning enemies and then, while they are skewered, casting them about the scenery with invariably fatal consequences. This can be key to completing certain puzzles thoughout the game, where it is necessary to cast the corpses of would-be assailants into various pieces of machinery in order to render them inoperative. The harpoon can also be used to interact with breakable scenery, shards from which can be rained down on enemies. Rayne also has a selection of feeding moves, which serve not only to rid her of troublesome bad guys, and an array of fetchingly-attired bad girls too, but also enable her to regain health by sucking their blood. Feeding can be terminated with a flourish move that disposes of the corpse in a flamboyant and rewarding manner. As the game progresses, enemies tend to carry weapons - baseball bats, big sticks and the like, and attempting to feed on these characters without first disarming them with a kick or two will result in Rayne being deposited unceremoniously on her very pretty, taught and shapely derriere.
Said derriere is protected from the prying eyes of the sexually inquisitive player by a long flowing gown, but as you advance through the game, you'll be given the opportunity to choose other outfits for Rayne. All of them draw attention to her two major assets, and we're not talking about those big blades - though she never hides them away either. Never, unless she is using the Vampire Gun weapons that she collects a relatively short way into the game. The guns give her that all-important distance-killing capability, but they are not named Vampire Guns because they are used by a vampire, but because they themselves suck blood to use as ammunition. When you're using the guns, Rayne will need to feed more to keep her health up.
Rayne is also possessed of several Vampire skills, the first of which Aura Vision is not a brand of 1960s colour TV, but instead is the ability to see things that, well... that aren't really there. These can be hidden doors and mission objectives. But playing in this mode also fairly clearly signposts which pieces of the scenery Rayne can climb, offering a rudimentary trail of breadcrumbs to each level's completion. Her second skill, dilated perception, 'slows down' time, enabling Rayne to get the better of some opponents by dodging blows, and even bullets. Hmmmm, we wonder if Rayne can turn back time? She certainly dresses a bit like Cher. The third skill in her triumvirate is Blood Rage, which is only accessible when the Rage Meter is charged. With Blood Rage enabled, Rayne's blows do double damage, but taking hits reduces her Rage Meter, not her health. All modes are accessed via the D-pad. As you progress through the game, the Vampire power modes are powered up, and Rayne gets some really quite spectacular powers. You'll need them, however, because from the get go, the bosses in BloodRayne 2 are bitch hard. You'll have to do some trial and error use of attacks and powers to find which methods are effective against each.
BloodRayne eschews any of that on-line multi-player stuff in favour of a good old-fashioned solitary gaming experience, but then with a heroine dressed to kill, we're sure most fans of the game will relish the opportunity to play with themselves.
SPOnG Rating: B
Unlike games of a broadly similar style, from Tomb Raider to Alias, BloodRayne 2 does not focus heavily on puzzles. What few there are in the game are fundamental, and won't have you scratching your head. So if that's what you look for in this kind of game, BloodRayne 2 is probably not for you. On the other hand, if you look for the opportunity to kill as many people in as many extremely nasty ways as possible - buy this game.
