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Buffy: Chaos Bleeds for PS2

Well, I actually did plan to post yesterday (so you get double the pleasure today), but the wife needed me to drop by Fry’s Electronics to pick up some printer paper, and of course I can never resist browsing around Fry’s for a couple of hours, and I finally picked up that Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds PS2 game (grammatically speaking, shouldn’t it actually be, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer?). So of course, there’s no way I could avoid playing it.

Yeah, the game’s been out for months, and I’m a huge fan of the show (started watching it soon after they moved it away from Monday nights, so my first episode was the second season episode, “School Hard”, where Spike first shows up). So I’ve been planning to get it for a while. But I absolutely refuse to pay $50 for a PS2 game, and this was the first time I saw it available for $20.

One of these days, I do plan to add some personal finance/investing posts, but for now, the best piece of advice I can give is to simply hold off buying things that will drop quickly in price. A video game is obviously one of those things where you can save a lot of money by waiting just a couple of months. Now, I know it’s easier for me because I’m not a hard-core gamer (I doubt you can be and still effectively blog — unless you blog about just games). Furthermore, there aren’t any hard-core gamers in my peer group, either. However, my peers do tend to drive BMWs, Audis, Lexuses (Lexi?!?), and the like. Me? I drive a 1993 Saturn (yes, it’s blue to match my hair — and yes, it was a graduation gift, for anybody who was wondering where the “93” in “fling93” came from). Over 100,000 miles, and it’s still reliable and gets good mileage, so I see no need to replace it, even though I could. Same for my trusty Palm IIIe, which I think is going on three years now (although that Tapwave Zodiac looks pretty tempting).

Anyway, before I digress as much as I did on the Keiko post, back to the game itself! Well, I know it’s already old, and you probably don’t care what I think of it, but I’ll tell you anyway in case you’re a Buffy fan with a PS2 who doesn’t yet have the game (and if you’re not a Buffy fan, definitely at least check out the first two seasons on DVD — you’ll be hooked!). So far, I’ve only played the first two levels, but I have to say it pales in comparison to the last third-person brawler I played, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (finally finished it just last month. Yes, I know Return of the King just came out on the PS2 — did you just forget what I just told you about saving a bundle if you can wait a few months? Sheesh, it’s probably a good thing hard-core gamers don’t get much sex, because they probably don’t understand the concept of delayed gratification!).

Anyway, it’s not really a fair comparison, because Two Towers is truly an excellent game and undoubtedly had a much bigger budget, and Chaos Bleeds is actually a really good game in its own right. It isn’t so heavy on memorizing combos — only Buffy and Faith have them available, and as far as I can tell, there isn’t any extra damage or experience bonus for using them. But you do need to memorize a few simple ones to cast spells when you’re Willow (e.g. X X for fireball). The emphasis instead appears to be more on selecting the right weapon, specifically stakes for vampires. Unfortunately, I’ve always found the PS2 to have poor controllers to do that quickly (they really need a scroll-wheel somewhere). Although there’s a button to quickly select a stake, it seems particularly unwieldy to use the directional buttons to select any other weapon when you need to use the left pad to move around. So I found myself using my right hand to select the right weapon while using my left thumb to run around avoiding enemies. Otherwise, in the heat of battle, you find yourself wasting precious medikits instead of pulling out your trusty sword (would it have killed them to let you sort your inventory into weapons and non-weapons?). Ech! Of course, part of it is just the learning curve, because the controls are different from Two Towers, so I’ll probably get used to it.

The graphics are also definitely a step down from Two Towers (although apparently a big upgrade from the first Buffy game — I think it was only available on XBox, so I never bought it), and the characters do resemble their television counterparts, which is what matters. They also did use many of the actual voice actors, which is a nice touch. No Sarah Michelle Gellar or Alyson Hannigan, unfortunately, but they got a really good sound-alike for Buffy, and while Willow doesn’t quite sound right, it’s fairly close. The dialogue is definitely spot-on, so you definitely feel like you’re in a Buffy episode, and it helps that, the plot seems very true to the show as well.

Gameplay is definitely fun and engaging, with your standard puzzles in addition to combat, so you need to be thorough in looking for keys and artifacts and such, and trying all the doors (and like most games of this nature, it can be frustrating when you miss one). Best of all, you get to play as Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike, Faith, and also as Sid, that ventriloquist dummy bounty hunter that appeared in one episode. Unfortunately, the character is picked for you in each level, but there is are multi-player games available where you can pick your character, although the bunny-hunt game is just plain silly (which I guess fits the tone of the show).

What really makes the game worthwhile is the extras. Just like in Two Towers, you start out with a couple, and more can be unlocked by completing levels. And they are good. I was actually rather disappointed by the interviews in Two Towers, but the ones on Chaos Bleeds are actually quite long and substantive. The production values aren’t the greatest, and the setting is very informal, but the interviewer definitely knew what they were doing, asking questions that provoke long, interesting responses. This alone was worth my $20. It also has a photo gallery (and it’s zoomable, for you pervs).

So to recap, if you’re a Buffy fan, get the game if you haven’t already (should be cheap enough now). If you’re not a Buffy fan, become one! And start watching Angel, while you’re at it. If you don’t have a PS2… well, never mind. You’re probably better off waiting for the PS9.

Overall rating (subject to change when I finish the game): 7.5 out of 10 smiley fishies — would’ve been an 8 if it weren’t for the weapon-selection issue.