Vampire Night could best be described
as
Time Crisis 2
with added vampires, or with any semblance of humans taken out and replaced
with vampires.
For those who are hell-bent on shooting at anything put out in this type of
game, you'll be glad to hear that everything looks arcade-perfect, given the
power of the PS2 when it's been programmed properly.
Do you need to be told what this is about? I'm sure there's a plot in here
somewhere, but it's not readily apparent, other than that you're having to
save the life of a young girl from the evil clutches of some mad, bad vampires
who have a head honcho that you're bound to meet in the final round, if you
can make it that far.
For the uninitiated, this type of game, which has included Virtua Cop and
Confidential Mission
is a first-person shooter which involves you pointing a lightgun at the
screen, shooting the bad guys and hoping to last through each round as long as
possible.
Whereas Time Crisis 2 differed by having a 'ducking' option, so this one
doesn't differ from anything because it's one long arcade blast from start
to finish, but is that good enough these days...?
Well, not really. It looks great on a 32" widescreen set, or larger, as
you'll experience the full fun of the arcade. It certainly can't be played on
a tiny portable as the screen wouldn't be big enough to recognise the gun to
any worthwhile degree.
However, on an audio note, it's all "bang bang bang" in stereo so that gets a
bit repetitive. I'd like to have seen some use of DTS sound as has been used
for some EA releases like
SSX Tricky
since that really does blow you away and is what's needed here before boredom
starts to set in.
Yes, I said boredom. While I reasonably enjoyed TC2 for a while, this title
takes a step back by having more in common with less ambitious predecessors
such as the Virtua Cop series and if you must indulge in this one
then try a rental first. If you're not yawning after half-an-hour then it
may well be worth a purchase.
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
Vampire Night could best be described
as
Well, not really. It looks great on a 32" widescreen set, or larger, as
you'll experience the full fun of the arcade. It certainly can't be played on
a tiny portable as the screen wouldn't be big enough to recognise the gun to
any worthwhile degree.
