Imagine a game that takes you through the cycle of destruction on the high seas with some tricked out boats, awesome naval battles and missions thrown in for substance and what you have is Blood Wake. While not the most technically difficult game in the X-Box library, Blood Wake gives you all of the run and gun action that games such as Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8 on previous systems in the past have given. With several stages of action, different boats and means of overall destruction, there is plenty to do; though it does tend to repeat it in the later stages!

Gameplay:
Blood Wake has a couple of different modes that allows you to either play through on the story mode or in the multiplayer mode. Now, the difficulty that you play with in the story mode is dependent on what you wish to choose. The higher your difficulty level, the more the enemy boats seem to pester you and they also seem to have a higher degree of stamina, which can turn your quiet boat ride into a tempest ride from hell. Once you’ve gotten into the game, you’ll find that the missions you undertake are more or less there to keep you from just constantly taking out the boats that are coming at you.

The missions themselves are pretty easy to understand, and they do take a little bit of strategy depending on what type of mission you’re up against. You’ll have to run a checkpoint race in one stage, or do an escort service in another, while picking off the boats of several enemy kingdoms on the high seas. As you move through the game, you’ll be able to unlock different boats for use not only in the story mode, but also different aspects for the multiplayer mode that include death matches and some pretty cool party games. All in all, there is plenty in the game play department here to keep either a single player or up to four people playing for quite some time!

Control in Blood Wake is nothing difficult to work with, although you might have to get used to the use of both thumb sticks to move your boat through the water. In a particularly difficult battle, you might find that the game is a little slow in this department based on the tight turning that you have to perform with each passing moment. Weapons switching and use is nothing more than a button press away and all you have to do is get used to the fact that the secondary weapons have a range and reloading time, all of which comes into the control scheme of knowing where and when to fire them off.

Graphics:
Blood Wake is a good-looking game with plenty of real-time water effects and impressive looking boats. Though the game definitely has a fantasy feel to it, all of the detail that you find here is first rate, from the way that the engine turbines move on your boat to the huge underwater explosions that result from a fired torpedo! The stages on the other hand really have nothing going for them, with most of your missions taking place at night or somewhere near dusk. The locations have more of a war game feel to them, with most of the detail there having to do with the cities that you sometimes have to raid. Aside from that, it’s nothing but open sea and some speed effects thrown into the overall naval battles.

Sound:
The audio that you find here is decently placed in order to not really take you out of the game, but rather attempt to put you into it. With the Asian feel to it, the music is set with a slight beat that gives you a spy-game feel but doesn’t go overboard on the techno theme that most games like this seem to have. The sound effects are minimal, with your navigator having some pretty interesting things to say depending on your performance on the water. You’ll get yelled at or praised depending and the way that the stages are explained to you almost makes you feel as though you’re in a movie. However, the blending on the audio seems to be muted throughout the entire game, and you’ll have to strain at certain points in order to hear anything new and interesting.

Round Up:
Blood Wake is a great game to play if you’re playing solo or with friends, but doesn’t have the extreme depth of missions and otherwise that you might be looking for. With the impressive visuals and the minimal audio, there is a type of blend that places more of the emphasis on looks than the audio effects. Control is something that is easy enough to work with while keeping in mind the complexity of working with to separate sticks and the game play is challenging while deceptively linear throughout. If you’re into run and gun action on the high seas, then this game is for you, but if you’re looking for depth in the missions, and fair challenge, then keep shopping and leave this one for a weekend rental!