I amazed that vampire-human hybrids known as dhampir don't feature in more stories. Creatures that are torn between their human souls and their vampiric bloodthirst could provide a wealth of dramatic potential. However, until 2002, the only really big examples of dhampir protagonists were Blade from the Marvel comics and movies and Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Then Majesco and Terminal Reality tried to provide one of their own with BloodRayne. Looking at the first game, they shouldn't have bothered.
The titular character is a dhampir in service to the Brimstone Society, an organization that hunts monsters. When mutations start to turn the people in the Louisiana bayou into freaks in the 1930s, Rayne is sent to investigate. The trail of the disease leads her to a secret group within the Nazi regime. The plot is just okay. Its biggest drawback is the generally poor voice acting. However, the thing that buoys it up is the character of Rayne herself. Her snide and sarcastic demeanor adds some much needed humanity to the robotic performances from the rest of the cast.
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Despite the levels being rather large, there's very little room or reason to explore. There are additional weapons lying around but nothing else. Maneuvering through the world can be quite problematic. The controls and camera are very slippery. Getting up on overhead wires (essential for bypassing water which hurts Rayne) gets very irritating. Breaking through certain walls to progress is very finicky; there were times where it took four tries before the break registered. Unfortunately, the worst part of the game is the combat. Rayne can use her swords with the left trigger and collected firearms with the right trigger; she can even release built up power in a Blood Rage which makes her attacks more brutal. However, the melee combat is painfully stiff and clunky, and the shooting depends entirely on unreliable auto-aim with no manual option anywhere. Even the addition of bullet-time can't make the combat interesting. Worst of all, the ability to feed on 80% of the enemies in the game with a simple push of the X button (or holding it to feed from long range with the help of a harpoon) makes the combat almost entirely pointless.
The visuals are outright ugly. Aside from Rayne herself, characters and locations are very angular, and the limited draw distance is pretty much inexcusable. I will say, though, I got a few giggles from the lame attempt at breast physics. I know it was early in the sixth generation, but Soul Reaver 2 released a year prior and looked a hell of a lot better than this. At least the framerate stayed solid.
BloodRayne is a poor game. It has a few neat ideas, but the execution is extremely shoddy. It just does not hold up at all. Terminal Reality had a decent idea with the lead character, but you're almost better served watching Uwe Boll's abysmal movie than playing this game for her sake. (I said "almost"; please don't watch that movie.)
