BloodRayne: ReVamped

We won't mince words here, BloodRayne is a joyless and frustrating experience that's a complete waste of both your time and money. The combat is dull, the level designs are uninteresting, the graphics are merely passable, and all of this is dragged down even further by rampant performance problems and crashing issues. The value BloodRayne has in modern video game discourse is largely as an interesting reminder of how far we've progressed in game design over the past couple decades. We'd recommend you give this one a hard pass; if you're looking for a horror-tinged, combat heavy adventure featuring a titillating and badass female lead, we'd recommend you go with Bayonetta instead.

There is fun to be had and some good creepy, albeit, not scary, parts of the game.

Rayne as a character is a cardboard cut-out of female action stars of the time, and the story would be laughably bad if it weren't there already. As well, the action has aged poorly with its unrefined hack and slash nature, even if you can wring a few drops of fun out of it. It's hard to recommend Bloodrayne to anyone other than people who've played it and have a fond nostalgia for it.

When adapting to its aging mechanics, BloodRayne: ReVamped is very playable and is much more enjoyable experience than its sequel. It is because it is a simpler game, it has less to fumble and is a more focused action game.

Bloodrayne ReVamped is essentially an easier way to play the original 2002 game, staying true to the original vision of the title. The flaws stand out now more than ever, ranging from visuals to stiff mechanics. At the same time, many of the ideas from two decades ago age well enough to make the gameplay work even by today's standards.

'ReVamped' is a flawed port of a flawed game, but 'BloodRayne' is so earnestly grindhouse that I've never been able to truly dislike it.

BloodRayne: ReVamped should please anyone who was a fan of the original game and for those who haven’t played it yet it makes for a nice dive back into the early 2000s gaming period. This is the best this game has ever looked or ran but it does show its age in the visuals and controls. I personally enjoyed getting to use Rayne again to rain blood across the screen and I hope that one day we get to see Rayne make a new modern appearance.

There's nothing overtly wrong with BloodRayne: Revamped. It is an opportunity to replay a trashy (by deliberate design) early example of a B-grade "exploitation grindhouse" video game. These kinds of experiences only really became viable with the power that the PlayStation 2 generation brought to the party, so BloodRayne really is one of the first of its kind, and there's historical value in that. It could have done with a more substantial remake than this, though. If there was anything from back on the PlayStation 2 era that would have really benefitted from a full, top-to-bottom remake, it's the "sex sells" stuff like BloodRayne must surely be at the top of that list.

BloodRayne: ReVamped is a polished classic that is also a reminder of how so many titles that defined an era have become lost to time. Sometimes one yearns for a simpler time when blockbuster AAA games and indie darlings were not the only options while there were plenty of over-the-top titles in-between.

I don’t exactly know who BloodRayne: ReVamped is for, or who was clamoring for a revival of this particular game in this particular state, but oddly enough, I like that it exists. Don’t get me wrong, this is beyond dated, unreliable as hell, and as shallow as a puddle, but there’s some fun to be had with this game due to its odd, “mid-budget game from the 2000s” janky charm.