Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds

by Vivendi Universal

Product Features

• Face an undead army as Buffy and her friends track down the evil force behind their war with The First.
• Choose to use the diverse abilities of Buffy, Angel, Willow, Xander and Spike -- you'll need each of them to help beat back the terrifying army of vampires, zombies, and demons
• As you fight your way through a multitude of levels you'll use over 100 different moves, and pick up great mystical weapons along the way
• Exciting multiplayer games for up to six people -- become either vampire or Slayer in challenging mini-games
• With a story written by actual Buffy contributors and voiceover work by cast members, it's like being in an actual episode of the hit show!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000095ZGW
• Item Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: August 26, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,199 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: Xbox

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds takes you headfirst into the adventures of Sunnydale's own group of heroes!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining for Buffy fans, but frustrating at times to play, November 14, 2005

By 

E A Glaser (Delft, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds (Video Game)

After many months of on-and-off playing, I've finally just finished "Buffy: Chaos Bleeds". It's a melee-oriented game of about 15 levels set in the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" universe, and throughout the game you are placed in the role of different characters from the show -- primarily Buffy herself, but also Spike, Willow, Xander, Faith, and Sid. Almost all of the fighting is of the hand-to-hand variety, except for Willow's spellcasting (which is fun) and a few ranged attacks: crossbows (which are rare but good) and "holy water" and "hell fire" potions which you can throw at advancing enemies.

My girlfriend (the Buffy fan in the family) bought the game originally, but some of the game's quirks drove her away from playing it (so I had to play it while she watched). First, the floating third-person camera is controllable with the right analog stick, but in confined spaces it will not fully rotate around your character, or will offer too cramped a view to be useful. Second, vampires have a way of spawning right behind your character in a previously empty area and attacking you from behind -- this is quite startling until you get used to it.

Third, combat is the essence of the game, but has an unpolished feel to it. It's quite easy to get out of position so that you're punching air while a vampire attacks you from behind. I guess that's part of the challenge, but it happens often enough to be annoying (and I'm no newbie to fighting games). And I would usually just jam the kick button, which sometimes would do little damage, and other times would result in a spinning roundhouse kick which would knock the enemy to the ground -- it was never clear to me why I'd get one result or the other. There is a "Slayer Handbook" page which shows you the available combos for the active character, but aside from using Willow's spells, I would just use the FBM technique (Frantic Button Mashing) because trying to perform specific combos seemed to get my butt kicked. Throws (which are executed by pressing the A and X keys simultaneously) are effective and well-implemented though -- you're pretty much guaranteed a victory over an enemy once you've thrown them to the ground, but you need to be at the right distance from a not-blocking enemy to pull it off, and you're vulnerable to a counter if you miss.

Another annoying thing as that you can't save freely within a level. In each level you have to fight your way to certain areas where a "Continue Point" is activated. If you die, you can either restart from the beginning of the level or from your last Continue Point. However, unlike in Halo you cannot save the Continue Points and turn the machine off -- you have to keep playing the level until you finish it, or else lose your progress in that level. Now I might be excessively slow and methodical, but some of the levels took me a couple of hours to finish and I didn't enjoy knowing that my xbox would be tied up for such a long time. That's why it took me so long to complete the game -- knowing that I'd have to allocate most of an evening to finishing a level was a deterrent to playing.

I shamefully admit that I had to use a walkthrough to get through a couple of the trickier levels. Usually this was because I just didn't recognize things that I was able to do; e.g. you should note that you can sometimes punch the locks on gates to break through. Other tips for when you're stuck: you should try jumping and holding on to any available ledges, and while pick-up-able objects are highlighted with a shimmery glow, some actionable objects in the environment are not so easy to recognize. Walk around hitting the Y button in front of everything to make sure you're not missing any keyholes or levers.

As you progress through the game, finding secret areas and completing the levels unlocks some of the hidden content. There are short interviews with Joss Whedon and some of the cast members, as well as footage of some of the voice recordings, which is amusing to watch after playing the game. There are also some multiplayer minigames that let you play as different characters and fight against your friends; as you progress through the single-player game you unlock more playable multiplayer characters, including Joss Whedon himself at the very end.

My girlfriend did enjoy the Buffy-ness of the story, and the voice work was good and Buffy-fied in both execution and sense of humor. I did like that the game spanned many different environments, including the Magic Box, a mall, a zoo, and a medieval castle. I had a lot of fun playing Willow and using her different spells -- it would have been nice if the other characters had more specialization to add variety to the combat. And while the boss at the end of each level was often frustrating to beat, once I discovered the necessary pattern, it was a pleasing relief to finally defeat each one, complete the level, and be able to save the game. If you're just looking for a fighty-type game, I'd recommend "Ninja Gaiden" for sweet combat, or "Jade Empire" for cool graphics and an epic storyline, but if you've got a passion for Buffy then this game will help slake your vampire-lust.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rock Solid., January 24, 2005

By 

Noctem Aeternus "Whitney" (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds (Video Game)

This game was definitely enjoyable. Being able to explore Sunnydale and royally kick some good ol' vampire ass as six different characters is just a brilliant idea. You get to use so many different fighting styles from Faith's powerful punches to Willow's sunlight spells of bright, sunny doom. The multiplayer arenas are also great. The settings of the game were accurate and very realistic. I think I noticed a few times graffiti on the dumpsters and small cuts in the bricks.

I have a few complaints about the game, however. First, Spike looked like my great aunt Ollie. Many of the other characters looked very inacurate, as well. For instance, Anya almost looked annorexic. Her cheeks were so...mushed in. And Willow...yeah, she looks high. And sounds like it, too. I think Xander was the most accurate of all the characters, in my opinion. The phrases that the characters said, as well, annoyed me. I mean, "Just what every girl needs. A nice, long shaft. Wait, that didn't come out right." How long did it take the producers to come up with that? Three minutes? And Willow's were just plain annoying. There was one time when my friend and I were playing it, and something must have glitched in the game because every time she killed something, she'd say the same line: "Now that was just creepy." Also, Willow's little, "Ooh! A medi-kit! Now I can be Nurse Willow! Tara's gonna love this..." ...No, nein, nicht. Don't think so. Though, I must say that some of the lines were quite amusing. For example, Buffy's little "BUFFY SMASH! GRRR!" just made my cousin and I burst into laughter. And the artificial intelligence was amazing. Though very very frustrating at the time, but eh, I got over it.

So, to sum up: good levels, AI, plot, characters, and multiplayer arenas, bad graphics and lines.

You should definitely play this game, though, despite the characters' flaws that will drive you to the point of pondering your sanity, it is a wonderful game that makes you think hard and will make you laugh, whether you're laughing with the game or at it. Play...this...game.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Horrible Game! The Programmers Should be Pimp Slapped!, December 24, 2004

By 

M. Sandroni "sdshwcmcs" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds (Video Game)

This game has two of the worst flaws any game can possibley have : Horrible controls AND Horrible Camera angles. If the controls suck and the cameras suck then guess what? You cant play the game! Even if you are a diehard Buffy fan you will not enjoy this game. A game can have cool graphics, concepts, etc. but if you don't have fun playing it who cares? To top it off this game doesn't have good graphics, original concepts or even decent voice acting. Half the characters voices are not even provided by the original actors and with the exception of the girl who voices Buffy they are all absolutely horrible!
Another reviewer actually defended this game by saying players should stop comparing it to the previous Buffy game because it is not the same game. That is ridiculous because what people loved about the first game were the super tight controls, responsive fight system and awesome camera control!!! Qualities gamers want in EVERY game! Thats why they are saying the first game is so much better. You will honestly spend half your time getting beat in the back of the head by an enemy who you never saw coming even if you were trying to swing your camera around to check around you while you swing and kick at the empty air in front of you and connect with nothing, even if you are an experienced gamer! Another reason that it is perfectly fair to compare this to the previous Buffy game is because they rely on so many of the conventions from the first game with no innovation. Same vampires, same zombies, same sewers, except instead of improving they have actually taken a step back! The inventory system sucks (it was awesome in the first game) and the blocking button has been moved from the easily accessible shoulder button to the impossible to reach white button! AAARRGGG! Before you could easily grab an enemy and throw them in any direction you wanted. Not anymore! You will probably actually be able to grab your enemy one out of every ten times, the rest you will either grab air (even if your enemy is right in front of you) or do nothing while you are beaten to a pulp. And if on the off chance you do grab you enemy only god knows where he'll go flying, but it probably wont be on the spike your trying to throw him on. This game is an embarrassment and everyone who worked on it should never be allowed to work on another game again. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!!!!!!

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