Price: £39.99 Players: 1 Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes Xbox Live-enabled: No Ok now, if you dont like Star Wars or flashy lightsabre thingie which go woosh - then don't even bother! I have to review this as it's my 4-year-old daughter's favourite game (why do I suddenly feel like a bad parent?) Since the world of online gaming has come about, games NOT online don't seem to be as much fun - but if you're 4 this seems to be really entertaining - and I only mean if you're 4. I'm no good at categorising games - i know what an FPS is, but this is... what exactly? You run around as a vampire called Kain, having to kill people to get energy by draining their blood - which is the most impressive thing in the game and searching for people and things hoping to make evil what isn't!

This game is meant to be kind of alongside Soul Reaver which is another crap game, but all you do for the entire duration of the game is run around getting very lost, killing people in a host of different ways with a big sword and drinking their blood. The other part of the game is an annoying combination of puzzles which are pushing things and pulling things - very very annoying after the first 230423843248 times you do it in the game! The first few times you kill people are amazing - and you can really get into the game then, but after a while the sight of draining people's blood gets a bit monotonous (hence why a 4-year-old likes it - you've seen the teletubbies right? "Again! Again!" aaaargh!). As you progress through each level you gain extra powers which enable Kain to do some pretty cool things. My favourite is the way he can take over people minds for a while (until his special bar runs down) and get them to do his evil bidding - it's fun to make them run into people :), but there's too many parts of the game where you have to use this mind control to work out yet more tedious puzzles!

Another bad point to the game is the fact that Kain's life bar is always running down, which can be a total pain if you're stuck on a puzzle and there's no-one to kill - as the only way to replenish your lost energy is to kill innocents and drain their blood (what with you being a vampire and all!). Dying this way is a pain in the ass as like the rest of the game! It's set in ye olde days in little villages and things and the scenery leaves a lot to be desired most of the time - it's all a dark and dingy which goes with the idea of the game, but it's not impressive 'dark and dingy' which is a real shame. Gameplay lacks in variety, scenery lacks in variety, enemies lack in variety, puzzles lack in variety - so basically, if you play the game for about 20 mins it is great but afterwards it just starts losing points! Basically, if you're 4 get this game, if you like Soul Reaver get this game, if you like Teletubbies and monotony get this game - otherwise if you like fun, excitement, good story lines and a game that isn't going to bore the hell out of you after 20 mins then don't!

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Review copyright © Kirsten, 2003.