Vampire Rain (Xbox 360, 2007)

Since it was first released, Vampire Rain has gotten nothing but bad press. I've heard everything about it from it's difficulty to similarities with other stealth games like Splinter Cell. None of this could be further from the truth.

If you don't know, Vampire Rain is a stealth action game in which you play John Lloyd, a member of an elite special operations force sent into a small town to investigate growing vampiric activity. The town is, quite literally, infested. It becomes your job to even the odds a little, but that's just the beginning.

Vampire Rain has some of the finest control I've felt in a game like this. Crawling, climbing, and jumping feels like less of a chore than in a titles like Tomb Raider. Combat is simple but aiming is manual and can be tricky at times. The vampires are super strong and don't go down easily. You're actually rewarded for avoiding them rather than initiating combat, but contrary to other reviews, it is entirely possible to kill many vampires in each mission if you know how to take them on.

There are many things that don't make sense but the story is taut and pulls you along from scenario to scenario. The gameplay is essentially a bit repetitive, but it varies from mission to mission. Voice acting is just okay. The story starts with a bang but ends with a whimper. The game is not difficult IF you know how to play, but it takes a trial and error approach to find your way around without being spotted. Bottom line is, I highly enjoyed this title despite it being one of the most maligned games to come out for the next generation of consoles. I definitely recommend this one for fans of games that aren't in the mainstream. The Modern Warfare set probably won't enjoy it, but if you're up for something interesting and a little different, give this one a try.

Pros
+ Enemies are fast and can be creepy.
+ Some nice stealth moments.
+ Sniping, Knifing, and Shotgunning is quite fun but these moments are far too few.

Cons
- Almost impossible to kill an enemy with basic weapons.
- Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating. (Level design, difficulty, even the acting is terrible, just plain stupid mistakes that could have been easily avoided.
- Nobody was playing the multiplayer, so forget that.
- So many problems with this game that I could list all day. Good premise though.

Comments
I wanted to like this game a lot but just couldn't get past all of the frustration. Every time you get some good weapons the level ends and you have to start over with no good weapons. Towards the end, the vampires get guns, so that makes it that much more impossible. Your guys always die. You never have a chance against a vampire on your own unless you have a mile between you to shoot them or you can sneak up on them. But even your stealth weapon has a limited amount of ammunition.

Verdict
Stay away from this title. Rent if you must play it. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Low quality. Poor controls. Stupid game world.

I've listened, watched and read all the reviews about this game, I thought "no game could be that bad." I thought the same thing when I bought Dead Rising and after I played it, leveled up, I've gotten use to it, Dead Rising kinda grew on me, I like it. The longer I played Dead Rising, the better it got.

So I bought Vampire Rain and played it (most of it) and well... yes the reviews are correct, this game ultimately sucks, plain and simple. I kept thinking "its gotta improve eventually, it cant be this bad" and actually, it really doesnt get better, its remains as itself from the beginning, the same crappy game world.

It doesn't really suck because survival is tough (well actually it does suck, its called "bad design creates a bad game imbalance against the player") true in the world of game crappiness, it is the gameworld and level design that sucks. Survival is key (sneaking around and almost no fighting) and its helped because the vampires have stupid game A.I.
Ammo consists of tissue paper and cotton balls, why give all these various weapons when none of them work except for 3 rare ones. The only thing that can be successfully "killed" are the gate padlocks. Why are the bosses easier to kill than the indestructable minions? Seriously, some low level street prostitute vamp can kill me instantly but a high level "elite-prime-walker vamp ruler of his/her domain" can only dole out slaps and pokes.
Thankfully all the vamps are so stupid its easy to get past them or easy to find glitches. I had three vamps running around in a circle trying to get me (they couldnt jump, fly or use their super vamp 2 hit kill) that was the only entertaining glitch I found. Actually thats the only entertainment I got from this game.

About gameplay, its like going through an underground single path maze with swinging axes in the ceilings, just time everything and one can finish this game in no time. Its predictable. I enjoy both the spy game genre and Tom Clancy. I also like zombie and monster games. This one isnt any of them.

I didnt heed the warning to stay away from it. God this game sucks, save yourself and stay away from it.

Better games are available to play: The Darkness (360), Resident Evil 4 (Wii, GC, PS2), Buffy Vampire Slayer (XBOX), Blood Rayne 2 (PS2), the basic Resident Evil (The Original PSOne version) is good, heck even Dino Crisis (PS One) plays much better and so many countless other games that are way better than this crappy title.

Game scenerio: A small padlock on a chain link gate is stopping you from finishing that level. Your out of ammo but you have your knife. Damn, even in Vampire Rain, your handheld knife needs ammo too ...darn its out of ammo too.

this game is metal gear solid combined with vampires instead of dudes who are easy to kill, stealth is the name of the game with this one, and the occasional confrontations with the pires will leave you're heart pounding, an older title for sure, but fun nonetheless, buy it!!!

Very fun to play hours of great entertainment with many surprises.
I recomend this game for anybody that like's vampires.
it is violent so keep children away unless you let them watch or play this kind of bloody game.
Get this game its hours of entertainment & under rated in my personal opinion