Blood Wake. I can officially say I have beaten this game fully on ensign, and have given it a fair chance before review. Here is the breakdown:

Graphics: Decent, water effects look about the same as munch's odyssey water, with bump mapping to make the waves look cool and realistic; no character animation besides moving turrets on the boats, slight head movement of drivers, and slight vehicle damage, that does not get repaired even as you get heal power ups, horrible cinemas and before level text that moves the story along using stale sketches and lame audio...but more on that...oh, and this is supposed to be china? But it feels generic...But hey, the turbo effect is cool and the water does look pretty great.

Sound: Voice acting is extremely weak during cinemas and average when clips go out during the game. Music is a cheesy blend of wannabe 80's guitar riffs, boat sounds are similar and you get some slight variation between different boats' weapons firing. The music, however, does not feel like it fits the action onscreen.

Story: For some people, this can make or break the game. While some people may argue that it is just an action game, story is integral with any product, especially one such as this which is advertised as having a deep story. Even a fluff story is sometimes satisfying, and this game fails to come through in this aspect primarily as a result of the method by which the story is presented. This is primarily because the game narrates the story through a series of pre-level static screens, that display one or two badly sketched drawings, and bad voice acting in the background, that plays on and on long after you have grown tired of the static pictures. Once each level begins, a Sean Connery voice tells you quickly what you must do again (i.e.'' get three treasures!''), and congratulates you when you complete your objectives. I did try, however, to actually focus on enjoying the story, and despite my efforts, I could find nothing, in any way, interesting about it.

Gameplay: I played death battle and story battle, and the only difference felt to be that story battle included the horrid story cinemas. It is a bad sign when a game lacks the cohesion that lets a single player version feel little different from the multiplayer mode. Do not interpret me wrong, however, as the multiplayer does have many modes of survival, and allows you to select boats. It is just that the gameplay feels essentially the same between the one player mode, and the multiplayer, and the combination of a boring story mode, and average gameplay leave little incentive to play the game in any mode once beating it. The game is also not much fun, as the action, despite differences in objectives, feels the same regardless of what you are doing. The game features the standard, collect items modes, hunt down certain other boats levels, and yes, the dreaded protection missions, where you must protect other ''defenceless ships,'' or even a boring harbour that is under attack. Overall, a boring and repetitive experience, that provides little incentive for replay unless you have a group of four people that all happen to enjoy vehicular boat combat.

Controls: Several different control schemes are present, and they are all well thought out. Each one provides different controls, and should provide adequately for most playing styles. I did, however, find a weird glitch in the game where the controls would instantaneously reverse, as if they could not keep up with the rotating camera perspective. The glitch caused my demise on several instances, specifically the levels where I was surrounded by gun turrets. As it is, the game is difficult in areas, and I cannot imagine how it would feel on the unforgiving higher difficulties, to hit the left D pad, and end up going right!

Lasting Power: Do you have 3 friends that all love boat combat? If so, you may enjoy this game a lot. For me, however, this game is no twisted metal or goldeneye, and will never come out on party day. As a multiplayer game, it may be average at best. As a single player game, it is mundane and offers uninteresting to average mission objectives at best. Having read some posts that enjoyed the game, I drove through it (no pun intended), to see if it ever offered some deeper level of innovation and originality. Sadly, the answer is that it did not. In closing, this game was NOT fun, and did not offer any satisfaction at all, both in playing it, and in beating it.

Overall: The Xbox is my favourite system, and when a game comes out, I rush to the store and pick it up. With every new purchase, I hope that the game I have purchased will be testament to the power of the XBox as a console gaming machine. Reviewing an XBox game in a negative light is something I would prefer not to do, but in this case it is unavoidable. I only hope that when you look at the blood wake demo disc, you can realize that there is nothing more than what you see in the demo. That is it, and that is all. Blood Wake is completely un-recommended, and your money could be spent much better elsewhere.