Vampire Rain

6.7
Average

Gameplay	6.5	"A solid, finished title that just never inspires as it should."
Graphics	7.5
Sound	8.0
Value	7.0

By Liam O'Connor

A couple of years ago, a video for a game called Rain appeared as part of Microsoft’s Bringing It Home content on Xbox Live’s Marketplace. The dark, dreary video revealed a stealth-based game that was one part Splinter Cell and one part Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

A few years later, it has emerged as Vampire Rain, a solid title that unfortunately feels a little “last-gen” and never delivers on its potential.

In terms of story, it’s hardly going to set the world alight. A combination of Resident Evil, Splinter Cell, and any generic vampire media, Vampire Rain focuses on a world where vampires, known as Nightwalkers, will ultimately outnumber humans within an alarmingly precise figure of 908 days.

Called in as a member of a special ops squad to deal with the affair – and the only member of your team (or indeed anyone) to survive an encounter with the Nightwalkers and live – it’s your job to venture into the rain-soaked city and sort everything out.

The story never really captures you as it could, but every chapter ends on enough of a cliffhanger that there is always motivation to keep playing. Sure, the voice acting is cheesy and B-grade, but no worse than Resident Evil 4, a game people shower with praise. And for all the unintentional laughs it delivers, it never stopped me caring about the characters or the story.

When it comes to presentation, the game doesn’t really feel like a next-gen game. It looks good enough, with some excellent rain effects, but the level design is slightly unimaginative. The cinematics seem a little stiff and the aforementioned voice acting is often cringe-worthy. Even the front end feels like it’s come straight from the PlayStation era. Yet the game never feels unfinished or sloppy – just...old.

The music and sound, however, are good, and help create a creepy, gloomy atmosphere. Most of the time the game allows the steady downpour to create the chilling ambience, with music coming in to signify notable events. It’s a trick that’s been around since the days of Tomb Raider, but it still works well: sometimes no music is the eeriest music of all.

In regards to gameplay, the game can feel a little derivative. There is a strong emphasis on pure stealth: although you can kill Nightwalkers, especially once you get further into the game, it’s usually preferable to avoid conflict altogether. At the beginning of the game, being spotted usually means death.

Additionally, Nightwalkers usually stay in their human forms unless necessary and humans still foolishly walk the streets, meaning that you can’t just randomly kill everything. Consequently, the game can seem a little difficult.

However, the game is very generous with checkpoints, and there is always a “right” answer in terms of getting to your objective, so generally the game comes down to working out what order in which to do things. While Vampire Rain always varies the gameplay by adding new elements progressively throughout the game, ultimately the core experience never really distinguishes itself as anything outstanding.

That’s not to say that there is nothing redeeming about the game. It’s impossible to place, but there is a special something that captivates and almost forces you to continue. Despite the repetition, despite the frequent appearance of the game over screen, despite the derivative gameplay, I always found myself continuing after every chapter.

Perhaps it is the Snakes on a Plane feel that the game can give: you know it’s not great, but you are enjoying it regardless. Maybe it’s because it feels so archaic at times that it almost feels nostalgic. Maybe it’s because it’s just fun to play.

Whatever the reason, it would be easy to spend half an hour with it, reassure yourself that you’ve seen all the game has to see, and slap a 2.9 on it and call it a day. Such actions, however, are unfair and unprofessional. Vampire Rain might be far from perfect, or even great, but it’s hardly an abysmal game. If you like stealth games, it’s a solid title at a decent price, so it’s worth a look. For everyone else, it’s definitely worth a rental on a rainy day.

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