Players : 1
Any self-respecting male would look forward to playing about with Sarah Michelle Gellar,
but her picture on the cover is the only input of Ms. Gellar's into Buffy
the Vampire Slayer.
The Master has risen, yet again after being killed off many times in the
series, but then death is no longer the career setback it used to be. He's back
to terrorise the inhabitants of Sunnydale and your adventure starts as you're
informed of this and guided through the training level by Giles, The Watcher,
voiced by the actor behind the character, once-Nescafe-advertiser Anthony
Head.
Yes, voices. That's become the bane of this release, because while most of the
characters featured use the original actor's voice from the series in new
dialogue recorded for this game, the one missing is, bizarrely, the main girl
herself, Buffy.
At least they all look right and many of her usual haunts are here, including
her high school, Angel's mansion and The Bronze, but what does strike you
quite early on is how the gameplay is almost entirely derivative of the Tomb
Raider series.
You run, jump, climb up and fight the baddies, although it is largely well-blended
into the Buffy ambience, the climbing onto ledges suffering because it just
involves running up to them, not pressing a button to climb.
The graphics aren't quite as perfect as they could be, as there are some jaggies
where there shouldn't be and it just doesn't look as polished as it could be.
Also, the game is only presented in 4:3, so any cut-scenes are letterbox and
not anamorphic. However, there is good attention to detail when it comes to
the walls fading to reveal where you are behind them, so you don't lose yourself
within the scenery and I do like the way the scenery spins round but doesn't
always face forwards for you. While you can correct this yourself easily, I
prefer to hit out in all directions if I'm surrounded rather than keep retraining
the camera every time I turn to hit someone.
Soundwise things are better, with spooky noises all over the shop in
Dolby Digital 5.1, as well as brilliant ambience from the background soundtrack.
The gameplay is, well, like Tomb Raider, except that here the baddies can nick
the weapons from you when you drop them, eg. a rake. Also, if you think the
game isn't saving your position, it does - it autosaves between levels. When
you come to reload the last saved game, you choose "resurrect", given the
theme here.
And for those not familiar with the ins and outs of the show, first choose
"Buffy History 101" to get up to speed.
Overall, I'd say rent this first before you buy, given that it's not the most
original game and, as such, it'll mainly have long-term appeal only for fans
of the programme.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
At least they all look right and many of her usual haunts are here, including
her high school, Angel's mansion and The Bronze, but what does strike you
quite early on is how the gameplay is almost entirely derivative of the Tomb
Raider series.
Soundwise things are better, with spooky noises all over the shop in
Dolby Digital 5.1, as well as brilliant ambience from the background soundtrack.
