Bunny Catcher
Posted by Geek Woman
March 27, 2005

Buffy the Vampire Slayer : Chaos Bleeds is an older title that was languishing on my wish list for a very long time until recently. This time when I was at the local give-me-cash-for-old-disks place and I picked up a copy of Buffy : Chaos Bleeds for PS 2. The two player modes are all a scream. There is one where you and a friend can team up to catch bunnies of various colors. Not kidding - rabbits. Bunny Catcher is a race to collect as many bunnies as possible, different colored rabbits are worth a varying amount of points.

The other two player modes are disappointing. I wanted to pick up two controllers and have both of us take on an adventure together. But the other two player modes consisted of defending a lit pentagram from an onrush of baddies, zombies and vamps. That part of it leaves a lot to be desired. I guess we will have to wait for Obscure for Xbox before we see two players vs. zombies action. Then I am betting that cooperative modes will be everyplace.

In single player mode though you go through several adventures in the familiar territory buffyverse. There's the cemetery, sewers, warehouses, and the magic shop. All of it is there to be explored, plundered and smashed up. The graphics are not too shabby. The game is almost two years old now and it reflects some of the goofy glitchyness of that era. It reminds me of some of the stilted game-play and camera angles in like an old copy of Tomb Raider II. The camera sticks. Sometimes characters get stuck in walls or floors. Even the NPC's can too. The goofs make it even funnier though. The game has the same tongue in cheek humor and snappy dialogue from the show. Spike's dialog is a steady stream of "Spikisms" one liners. Although again another big disappointment is that the voice actors are not the original cast all the way thorough. You can unlock some of them. Though the impressions of them aren't too bad.

The characters have a variety of fun pick ups and weapons to use like, a shovel or a sword or battle axe. There are flaming potions and fireballs and other magickal elements that can be hurled at the bad guys. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses of course. They do have a wide range of strikes and combos to use. Unfortunately the targeting is terrible and you can be kicking away into thin air while your character refuses to turn around. No actual cheat codes are around for this one except for game shark.

For all its flaws Buffy chaos Bleeds is still a fun game. You have to be a real Buffy fan to enjoy it. It has been quite a while since the show ended, even though it is going on in reruns. This is a good time to revisit the buffyverse and make it last a little bit longer. It is fabulous hearing the music and Spike's quips again. It's a fine time waster for the $13.99 bargain bin.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION