Anybody picked up Buffy: Chaos Bleeds yet? 8.2 at Gamespot.

Nick Graham · 08-27-2003, 02:00 PM

I'm sure I won't get to play it until after our move this weekend, but I've been fairly hyped for it, and Gamespot gave it an 8.2. I guess EGM panned it, but their review crew is so whacked out these days its hard to know when (if ever) to trust them. Has Mr. Kleist picked it up yet?

Brian Kleinke · 08-27-2003, 02:14 PM

I think he made mention to the order he was going to get it... I've got too many games that still sit unplayed... and many more to buy... If this is really that good perhaps worth it when it hits the discount racks for me

Dave F · 08-27-2003, 06:16 PM

I've got it right next to me...will be playing soon..

-Dave

Dave F · 08-27-2003, 06:40 PM

Ok - after 10 minutes of play

The good news: The Xbox version is 16x9, and has a better framerate.

The bad news: The character models look weird. Buffy looks nowhere near as good. Also, Willow looks looks alot like that doll-faced demon that Spike caught in Once More, With Feeling. Worst of all, Alyson Hannigan does not provide voiceovers this time around.

The spoiler(?) news:

Spoiler:

-Dave

Jeff Kleist · 08-27-2003, 07:22 PM

Dave, rumor has it he's a hidden character for multiplayer

Romier got it, he says that there are some camera issues in addition to the above problems

I'm hoping to pick it up on Friday

**HTF Ads**

Nick Graham · 08-27-2003, 08:21 PM

Who all from the cast lends their talents?

Dave F · 08-27-2003, 09:01 PM

I just checked the multiplayer game, and he's defintely there - just currently greyed out. The camera is kinda goofy, but it points to a larger problem - enemy targeting. The first game was pretty revolutionary in how it handled targeting one enemy out of many, and made for a very effective 3D street-fighter. It's pretty apparent that this game is a clone, and emulated the earlier fighting system, but didn't quite capture it. Now there are a lot of problems targeting enemies. Quite often my character is punching air.

There are some odd bits as well, such as why would a medpak help Spike? If it was a used & bloody pack it would make sense.

Overall, I'm liking it. But the perfect game would be a combination of the first and the second. Willow kicks ass, Xander sucks. Can't wait for Faith...

Oh yeah, for the contributing cast: Amber Benson, Nick Brendon, Eliza (mmmmm...) Dushku, Anthony Stewart Head, James Marsters & Robin Sachs. SMG, Alyson Hannigan & Emma Caulfield are AWOL.

I was hoping for netplay, but the multiplayer options are not system link/LAN-based.

-Dave

Jeff Kleist · 08-27-2003, 09:10 PM

Quote:

I just checked the multiplayer game, and he's defintely there - just currently greyed out

Teehee

Adam Tyner · 08-27-2003, 09:13 PM

I agree with some of the concerns.

The character models are very inconsistent. Xander and Willow look great in the cut-scenes, but others like Spike are lacking in detail. The cut-scenes are also kind of crudely animated and look kind of awkward at times. In game, the models vary as well. Willow's face has an undetailed, plastic-ish appearance, for instance. Also, some of the stances and movement look a bit off as well, such as Spike's very non-threatening appearance when he lurches around with the sword, to name one.

There are definitely some camera concerns. In the first level, when I was playing with Spike, there was a creature off-screen (in 'front' of the TV, kind of like where I was sitting) that was hitting me, but I couldn't see him. This is the type of game where before I walk into a room, I have to swivel the camera around to see where the enemies are. They don't make their presence known, at least not as consistently, in quite the same as the first game. I also had a problem intermittently where I'd have several vamps around me, and I'd start mashing buttons really quickly...but if I found myself facing the wrong direction, my character couldn't be reoriented easily in the middle of all the mashing. I took some hits that I probably shouldn't have. And there are other oddities, like being able to stake vampires in the kneecaps (don't remember if this was an issue in the first game), a vibrating screen if a character butted up against a solid object in certain situations, or...to name one random instance, I was punching a vampire, knocked him up on top of a chair, but I couldn't stake him until he got back up, even though I was more or less on level with him.

The puzzles were what I found most annoying, though not really to the point of frustration. The weird thing is that the puzzles aren't all that hard or complex, and they're often even kind of obvious, but they still gave me quite a headache. Level two in particular seems to have a dozen different puzzles. It took me almost an hour and a half to get through it, mostly due to aimless running around trying to solve extremely easy puzzles. To rattle off a few examples -- in the first level, Willow finds a key and is told that it opens a cabinet (or something). So I ran up to things that looked like cabinets, kept pressing 'Y', but no luck. I kept scouring. Again, no dice. Then, I decided to rub Willow against the perimeter of the room, pressing 'Y' quickly and waiting for something to eventually open. Still nothing. I think I was on my third or fourth try doing that when I eventually opened the item I had been looking for. When I did it, it looked obvious enough, and I'm surprised I didn't activate it earlier, intentionally or inadvertently. Still, kind of a pain. The items you search for glow slightly, but the places where you put them aren't. There were more moments like that in level two. I forgot where the busted sundial was, so I kept running around and around. It was right in front of me several times, but it didn't stand out enough for it to catch my eye in earlier attempts. Then, I spent a while trying to track down the third piece of the sundial, which was hidden behind a tombstone. It's not always like a lot of games where you get keys by killing certain enemies. At least one of the necessary items was hidden inside a crate, which veterans of the original will be busting open anyway, but that's mildly annoying. One of those items was a valve thingie, which I found before having any idea why I had it or where I needed to put it. The destination didn't take much time or effort to find, but it's not one of those cases where there's a sign that says "Main Valve" and a very noticeable hole where the valve should be. When looking for a missing fuse and the 'key' to opening a triggered lock, I could've sworn I'd pressed 'Y' at least in one or two different attempts in the places where I eventually picked up the items I needed, but for whatever reason, they didn't 'take' before. Maybe I have to be facing a particular angle, maybe I'm just an idiot...I dunno. Buffy does toss out a couple of quips about puzzles and finding keys, which were actually pretty funny.

Audio gripe: Ack! Dialogue, both in-game and in the cut-scenes, appears in four speakers at once. Stop it! Or at least it is on my system. Maybe my receiver dislikes me. I made the same complaint about the previous Buffy game, but someone on one of the eight billion forums I read told me I was mistaken. If anyone can verify, it'd be appreciated.

Short summary -- I'm not as immediately smitten by "Chaos Bleeds" as I was with Buffy's previous outing on the XBox. The complaints I have now seem bearable at the moment, and I think I'll enjoy it a lot more the second time through when I have a clearer idea of exactly what I need to accomplish...I can actually play the game rather than just run around aimlessly like I have been tonight. I'll have to play it more to really have an opinion firmly cemented. I seem to like it enough for the moment, though, and I'm looking forward to giving the game another spin tomorrow.