I have to say that male Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans have it rougher than fans of almost any other show. We defend a show that we know has great writing, interesting themes, and an amiable cast while just about everyone who hasn't seen it is skeptical it could even be watchable. I've heard just about every insult concerning the show, from the fact its a girl's program to "I just don't like shows like Charmed." Even people who enjoyed other Joss Whedon projects, such as Firefly, seem hesitant to give the show a shot, even though Buffy is where he cut his teeth and is the most developed of all of his shows (seeing as it was the only one that received a proper ending, this isn't surprising (and I don't count Serenity as a proper ending to Firefly because it was clear that the show needed more time to explore the characters before it hit its big finale)).
When the Buffy games were first released for the last generation of consoles, I still had not seen the show and I was surprised that they received such high marks (the first game has a Metacritic overall score of 79 and the second a 75). The sites I was reading the reviews from (Gamespot and IGN) loved them even more, giving them scores in the 8s. And so when I began to watch the show, I immediately remembered that there were these two decent games floating around with a property I liked and so I set off to find the second one, as it seemed to receive better scores. When I purchased the game at Gamestop, I once again received the familiar scoff that is inherent to liking anything Buffy related, and found myself offering similar defenses about the solid reviews that it has and how people should give it a shot.
The game takes place late in the fifth season, although this is derived more from which characters are alive/dead and the state of the characters relationships than story beats fans might recognize. Frequent villain Ethan Rayne has made a bet with the First, the primordial source of evil that Buffy faces briefly in Season 4 and then again in Season 7 as the big bad. The bet involves Ethan gathering a team of warriors to do battle against the First in an alternate dimension, and since the bet places the fate of the world on the line, Buffy and friends reluctantly take up arms for Ethan. They must find the severed pieces of an ancient warrior in order to resurrect her, as she is the only one that has stood against the First so directly. And so each level involves battling a bunch of undead creatures in order to battle a boss that guards a piece of the warrior.
The story is serviceable, although my one complaint concerns what I liked most about the show. Due to the fetch quest nature of main story, the game comes off a little too episodic, while the show suceeded with its serial storytelling. Even the length of the levels (roughly 45 minutes each) makes the levels feel a bit too much like filler episodes instead of a full fleshed out story. They could have made the game into a lost season arc, but instead opted to make a lost episode arc last 13 hours.
The game features eix playable characters, and you'll end up only playing as Buffy for about a quarter of the game. You also play as Willow, Xander, Spike, Faith, and Sid the dummy. You'll inevitably grow tired of certain characters, but thankfully each one has at most two levels. Each character controls in a slightly different way (except for Faith, who controls just like Buffy), but not all are interesting enough to warrant an entire level. In a weird non-reference to the show, Xander is just too plain of a character to be interesting to play as, and Sid comes across as novelty.Willow offers a change of pace by focusing on magic over fighting, and Spike has a slightly more interesting moveset than Xander, which makes him bearable. The characters you'll end up having the most fun with are the Slayers, however, whose movesets look remarkably like the show. This is a backhanded compliment, however, as the fighting in the show is fairly stiff, with a couple moves strung together in a not always elegant fashion. For fans of the show, its a kick to perform the familiar moves, but almost anyone else will think that the game's controls are just too rigid. Outside of fighting, the controls stay this rigid, which is a decidedly bad thing as it makes everything from climbing ladders to grabbing on to ledges too awkward.
The level design in the game is overall pretty poor, featuring standard "find this item to open this door" gameplay that will have you scouring every area you've been through for the one item you need. At least the locales themselves are interesting, featuring many familiar areas from the show such as Sunnydale High, downtown Sunnydale, the Magic Box, the Initiative Base, and several others. Not a lot of background is given to these locations, so its pretty evident that people that have watched the show will get the most out of playing in these surroundings.
Of special note is the voice acting, which features a surprising number of actors from the show reprising their roles. Anthony Stewart Head, Eliza Dushku, Amber Benson, and Nicholas Brendan all voice their characters, and the only two major exceptions seem to be Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan. They aren't given a whole lot to work with, as a lot of sound bytes are repeated ad infinitum whenever familiar situations come up (I don't need a voice clip about a door being locked when 75% of the doors in the game are locked), but its still nice to see the effort that went in to the sound here.
There are also a lot of unlockables that will appeal to Buffy fans but no one else, including interviews with the cast members that helped with voice acting (as well as Joss Whedon) and recordings of the voice over sessions. They're a nice extra that offer a little bit more fan service, but once again these probably won't appeal to anyone outside of Buffy fans.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds is a flawed third person action game that gets by on its loving adherence to the show, making it a game that will please Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans but will most likely disappoint just about anyone else.
Overall Score for Buffy fans: 7.5
Overall Score for non-Buffy fans: 6.2
Recommended price for Buffy fans: 4.99
Recommended price for non-Buffy fans: 2.99
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