Vampire Rain

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Game Information

Developed by Artoon
Published by AQ INTERACTIVE Inc.
Platform : Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
Genre : Action & Adventure, Shooter, Stealth and Action
Age Rating : 18+
Players : Single player and Multiplayer
Additional Contents Provided : None
Release date - Xbox 360 : (JP) 25 January 2007, (EU) 29 June 2007, (NA) 3 July 2007
Release date - Playstation 3 : (JP) 21 August 2008, (NA) 2 September 2008

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Synopsis

A sect of powerful vampires called Nightwalkers is wreaking havoc throughout a rain-soaked, modern-day U.S. city, and it's up to you to put an end to their reign of terror. Vampire Rain has players in control of a black ops soldier named John Lloyd, who is equipped with the latest in vampire-hunting technology, from necrovision goggles to ultraviolet knives. The enemies are quick, agile, and possess superhuman strength, but players can use stealth and the environment to set up strategic ambushes. Ranged weapons include a pistol, machine gun, assault rifle, sniper rifle, and a shotgun, and players can climb ladders, grab onto ledges, or crouch behind objects to stalk their prey while avoiding exposure. Up to eight players can compete online via Xbox Live in a choice of death-match, king-of-the-hill, and capture-the-flag variants.

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Gameplay

Now this game I would say wasn't a great game. It looked so much like Splinter Cell in parts of the game I actually thought that I purchased Splinter Cell instead. However, instead of hunting human enemies, I was hunting vampires with my machine guns and my nightvision goggles to sneak up on them unsuspectingly which was pretty sneaky and made me feel like a ninja. In the game it is really easy to alert enemies so you really have to be sneaky. Now let me tell you, if you alert an enemies you will have loads of vampires after you and I can tell you now that it's not pretty. Some vampires are really overpowered and sometimes take more than 2 clips to kill them. Your life is in the top left hand corner of the screen, your HUD is in the bottom left hand corner and your current gun and it's ammo is in the bottom right hand corner. Sometimes, at the bottom of the screen where the instructions are, some might not appear which sometimes renders you stuck for a long period of time. This has happened to me time and time again. I had to turn off my xbox and restart the mission all over again which was so annoying. I like how in the game, if you don't know where to go they will show you an image on your screen of what your objective looks like. You can use a variety of different weapons to take out your enemies such as pistols, sniper rifles and shotguns. These will deal more damage to the Nightwalkers if you are being stealthy and witty about what you are doing. Obviously, try not to walk into shutters or anything that will alert your position otherwise you're probably going to be attacked by a mob of vampires; which isn't pretty let me tell you. A good feature in the gameplay is that the Nightwalker's health are above their heads so you can see how close they are to death and team this up with your night vision goggles and you're ready to take out some vampires. Campaign is decent but nearly everything in the game is too dark and this can be annoying, especially if you can't see some vampires lurking around a corner.

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Graphics

Graphics in this game are really bad. It all seems a bit too gimmicky and looks exactly like the early splinter cells. The game is way too dark and it always seems to be the same buildings and landscapes so it does get repetitive looking at the same thing over and over. The images that the game provides for you to find your objective is sometimes blurry and you cannot picture exactly what the objective looks like. I had a problem where I had to keep going to look at my images to see what building I had to go to. It was a rubbish quality so I was running around the same building over and over again. Alleyways, Sewers and Rooftops, these are all something that you'll come across and it's pretty hard to see concealed Nightcrawlers there. The textures of buildings and even the Nightcrawlers themselves are pretty bad. So graphics wise this is one of the game's downfalls.

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Controls

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Overall this game was pretty disappointing for me, I can honestly say that everything about this game was mediocre and less. In multiplayer everybody just jumps around which isn't fun at all when you're trying to kill someone. Graphics aren't good, gameplay is ok and campaign is decent and quite easy to complete. As I've mentioned before it looks too much like Splinter Cell and to be honest I wouldn't buy this game let alone play it in the future. It just isn't worth your time.

Game Rating : 3/10 (Campaign isn't thorough enough, graphics are pretty bad, looks like an exact remake of Splinter Cell and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone)