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| Game: |
Buffy The Vampire Slayer |
| Genre: |
Adventure |
| Developer: |
The Collective |
| Publisher: |
Electronic Arts |
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| Related Links: |
Coming Soon. |
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Buffy The Vampire Slayer Preview: |
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been due for a videogame for quite some time now, and EA have decided to take the task on and it's not looking too bad at the moment I have to say.
You are put in the shoes of Buffy Summers: a 17-year-old high school student who is known as 'The One' due to her ability to rid vampires and other demonic creatures that threaten the world's existence. A long time ago powerful demons ruled upon the earth but these demons gradually lost their control, power and their society and 'The Old Ones' as they were known were eventually forced to retreat into the depths of hell while mortal man ruled the earth. Now the demons have come back for revenge the 'Old Ones' have bridged a gap between hell and the earth and started leading an army of demons into the living world. For this terrible plan to succeed, the Old Ones require the dark powers of the Master, a 600-year-old vampire with expertise in opening dimensional portals. And so it's up to Buffy to save the world from vampires and demons to save the human race from being 'drained' of this devilish plan. So the game has a fairly good storyline for a video game what else does it offer us gamers?
Well for a start the game is played in a third-person perspective, similar to that of the Tomb Raider series but Buffy has all the elements of fighting, action, drama, humour, exploration and puzzle solving all combined into a interactive 3D environment. The environments look quite stunning too, EA have took the X-Boxes graphical potential and made good use of it, also including special supernatural effects such as morphing creatures, Eldritch explosions, fogging dynamics and arcane spell casting, which all enhance the mythical setting of the game.
But there are many elements of the TV series included in the game. Most of the locations from the TV series appear in the game such as Sunnydale High School, the cemetery, The Bronze nightclub and the library(which is the portal that sits on top of the Hellmouth). Voices from the TV series have been included such as Angel, Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Giles to help Buffy rid the world of evil. Even the enemies from the series are included such as Spike, The Master, Drusilla, demons, zombies and other supernatural creatures.
Apart from the TV series EA have included a number of features that make the game a joy to play. Buffy has special Slayer Powers to defeat the enemy that vary as she goes through the game such as martial arts, gymnastics, super jump, speed and strength, quick healing and slayer strength. The computer intelligence also changes and learns from the players fighting technique, allowing the computer to perform counter attacks.
So as you can see EA have whipped up quite a special game for Buffy that has been long deserved. But I feel there are things EA could improve on before release; the graphics could do with some improvement as the X-Box can perform better than what I've seen of the game so far and as for music/soundtrack EA have nothing special planned but we'll see what they come up with before the game is released. There are all the elements of a strong storyline, special effects and the TV series in there. A definite purchase for Buffy fans and if you're not a fan, well I'd rent it before buying it.
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| Preview By: Graham Seward |
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