Vampire Rain: Altered Species Reviews, News, Images, Videos (Trailer, Blood Donor Summer, Gameplay)

Vampire Rain: Altered Species Tech Info

Publisher: AQ Interactive
Developer: Artoon
Genre: Horror Action Adventure
Release Date: Sep 2, 2008 (more)
ESRB: MATURE
ESRB Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence

Game Information

Resolution: 1080i, Widescreen, 1080p
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Online Modes: Competitive, Team Oriented
Number of Players: 1 Player
Number of Online Players: 8 Online
Vampire Rain: Altered Species Review

A year after its disastrous debut on the Xbox 360, Vampire Rain is still a pain in the neck.
The Good

* Combining stealth gameplay with vampires remains a great concept

* A few minor tweaks to the difficulty and storytelling make the campaign marginally more playable than it was a year ago on the 360.

The Bad

* No significant changes from last year’s atrocious version of the game for the 360
* Truly insane difficulty with vampires that are almost impossible to kill
* Enemy vision cones give only a rough approximation of what the bad guys can see
* Dark and confusing–yet somehow still linear–level design.

Vampire games apparently can’t be staked. If they could be finished off a la Van Helsing, you can bet that Vampire Rain: Altered Species would never have made it to the PlayStation 3. Developer Artoon’s blend of Splinter Cell-style stealth gaming with toothy creatures of the night was so awful when it debuted for the Xbox 360 last summer that it deserved to be locked inside its coffin for good. Alas, the game has been resurrected for a new platform with a subtitle added to it in the hopes of fooling people into believing that this is a superior sequel. It isn’t. This is a mostly straight-up reissuing of last year’s debacle, loaded with the same crippling design screwups and absurd difficulty. Read more …