
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform Playstation 2 Genre Action Publisher Sierra Developer Eurocom ESRB T (Teen) Released August 27, 2003

- Good graphics - Unique character control scheme - Worthy addition to TV series - It's actually fun and enjoyable

- Occasional slowdown - Levels can get boring

Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Xbox) Review: Batman Vengeance (XBox) Review: Enclave (XBox)
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds

Score: 8.5/10

To tell you the truth, before even playing this game I was thinking about the perils of being a game reviewer and being exposed to bad games because of it. I dreaded licensed games (with good reason having reviewed many of them so far) and it took me a whole lot of effort to actually put BtVS:CS in the PS2 and boot it up. Then after playing a few minutes I retracted all my previous thoughts and learned that a good licensed game actually exists!

There's probably not many people who do not know who Buffy is. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a popular Action/Drama TV show. It was so popular that you could not talk about vampires without someone bringing up Buffy. It even gave birth to a new spinoff called Angel (which is the main character's name - hence the title) starring one of the characters from the original Buffy. Occasionally Angel and Buffy would make guest appearances on their shows. Angel however is not in this game but a wide range of playable characters are including Buffy, Spike, Willow, Xander, Faith and Sid the dummy.

The game starts off with an ambush by a group of vampires at the magic shop. After disposing of them, Buffy manages to pry out of one that they were sent by Kakistos. Kakistos was thought to be dead after a battle with Faith. When Buffy goes to the cemetery she finds Sid the dummy, another supposedly 'dead' person. With some help from Spike, Buffy manages to defeat all the vampires with the only drawback being Kakistos’ escape.

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The control system is great. The punches and kicks flow well together and each character acts and feels distinctly unique. For example Willow has only one attack and the rest are magic spells while a combat-savvy character like Buffy is an attacking machine. Sometimes computer controlled playable characters will help you in battle. Rather than fighting separately it is wiser to gang up on the same monster because you will barely lose any health and tear through the opposition

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in no time. You don't have to worry about them if they're fighting alone however because they can take care of themselves.

The graphics are good. The levels are fully detailed and so are the opponents and playable characters. But with greatness comes flaws. With the detailed enemies you will experience drastic slowdown in battles with many opponents. Like the final battle in the graveyard, where you are stormed by vampires, the game crawls along for lengths of time. All the characters look like their real-life counterpart with Spike bearing the most resemblance.

This game doesn't have much in terms of music but it has the best voice acting I've seen in a while. All the voices are done by the actors who played the characters on the show with the exception of Buffy. This is hardly noticeable because the voice actor does a great job emulating Sarah Michelle Gellar. The only problem I have with the voice acting is the job done with Willow. Even though it's done with the same character, she doesn't sound like Willow but rather sounds like Michelle from American Pie.

I admit it, my prejudice was unjustified. I appreciate being a game reviewer now more because I would have passed up on this gem otherwise simply because of a license. Don't make the same mistake I would have. Buy this game and you will not be disappointed. If I haven't convinced you enough, try renting it and you'll see why this is a diamond in the rough.

-Stefan Shetty

October 5rd, 2003