Buffy the Vampire Slayer

  The Slayer might have ground The Master's bones to dust but in Buffy Summer's console debut that Nosferatu-wannabe attempts to, uh, rise from his grave. This third-person action game plays out like a “lost episode” in which Buffy defends the high school against an undead attack, tries to rescue a kidnapped Willow, and even kicks Spike's ass. The game really nails the charm and campiness of the television series with strong voice-acting and one-liners but also has a fun and serviceable fighting system if you're up for staking a few vampires. There are a few caveats that might be a deal breaker if you're simply unfamiliar with the television series such as a lack of checkpoints and a bit of unfairness when battling more than a single foe. For this review, the game was played on the Xbox 360 and as a backwards compatible title Buffy the Vampire Slayer runs excellently. It doesn't support wide screen but I experienced next to zero audio or visual glitches while playing (the end of the title screen intro video has one small hiccup).

The fighting in Buffy uses a lock-on system that sometimes swivels the camera to a complete side-view or a three-quarters view as if in a true fighting title. Buffy has various punch and kick combos with the options to strike high or low. She also has some specialty moves that use up her “slayer power” meter that is recharged by fighting enemies. My favorite and most used was the bicycle kick, made infamous by Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat series. Various moves require directional inputs like in a Capcom-style fighting game (i.e. towards, towards, kick). When Buffy performs a roundhouse that sends a vampire spinning off a ledge you really feel like your pummeling your way through one of the show's episodes.

As a slayer, Buffy is dead-set on killing numerous creepy crawlers such as: time-trapped vampire boys from the nineteen-fifties, leather clad vixens, Matrix rejects, and pink-haired goths straight out of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Despite their weak “costume” design and voice work the vampires are actually able to perform some neat AI tricks such knocking a hellfire potion out of your hand, snatching it up and throwing it in your face. Most impressively though, if Buffy knocks a vamp to a stage's lower level the vampires are generally able to find their way back up to you with those floaty Obi-Wan Kenobi super jumps vampires are known for. Despite her moniker, I actually had the most fun when I wasn't fighting vampires. Smashing up undead zombies and pummeling a demon in the nose usually ended up being much more satisfying than staking vampires simply because vampires block your attacks all-the-fucking-time.

When Buffy isn't fighting one on one the fighting system really falls apart. This is due to the fact that Buffy's block and dodge function horribly and that the lock-on system can't handle more than one opponent. In the early stages Buffy encounters one of her toughest fights against two giant hell hounds. Since she can't defend attacks towards her back its possible for the player to be repeatedly knocked down with no chance to strike back. I literally was forced to hide in a tool shed and fire all of my crossbow arrows and Hellfire potions before it was safe for me to engage in actual combat. Other sections of the game throw numerous mid-level bosses at you in succession which led me to other situations where I found myself hiding atop a stack of tires squirting my Watergun XVS in the hopes to weaken the demons.

You heard me right: the Watergun XVS. A few levels in, Xander hands you this bad boy (er, girl)super soaker that not only can fire holy water but also Hellfire! It's a cheesy item that seems to really fit the tone of the show, considering that this “episode” is also a video game. Later on Giles will give Buffy another bad-ass tool that seems ripped straight out of Blade which allows Buffy to finish off vampires without even needing a stake! These peripheral tools, like the crossbow, are often unreliable because you can't trust how much damage they'll actually do or how fast they'll expend their ammunition. But you're going to need them if you are going to force your way through some of the game's tougher and cheaper encounters.

This leads to the games true weakness, a lack of checkpoints. Any death is going to send you to the stage's beginning. So after you've shimmied a pole across three lava pits, fought two lobster demon bosses, and you find yourself killed by two measly vampire cronies, your ass is going back to the start. I am sure that this poor design choice kept many fans from reaching the game's conclusion back in 2002 as it nearly did me in 2010. Be forewarned!

As a franchise tie-in, Buffy the Vampire Slayer succeeds in most of the same ways as 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Its fighting system is fun and its characters match their TV counterparts nicely. But instead of blood and guts the slayer's best trick is the way it captures the soul and campiness of the television series. For anyone familiar with the series, you'll feel like you've really gained something a little bit extra in the Buffy continuum since it plays out like a “lost episode”. The only thing is most other Buffy fans won't know what you're talking about when you reference the episode where Xander gave Buffy the water pistol that squirts holy water.