14 DAY TRIAL // I am usually not one to enjoy hardcore sidescrolling platformers with a lot of enemies, tricky jumps and few and far between checkpoints but BloodRayne Betrayal has managed to quickly win me over with its combination of complex combo battles, good design decisions and simple art style.
BloodRayne has been one of the most mocked intellectual properties in recent times, a series which has been mauled by Uwe Boll in visual form and only managed competence in the video game space when cloning other titles.
So Betrayal is a surprise, a game that manages to frustrate at times (that backflip can be incredibly annoying) and can often lead to sweaty palms gripping the controller but delivers a sense of accomplishment when a gamer manages to get to the end of a level.
The game sees Rayne and her innefectual human allies moves from left to right, battling vampires and a host of other creatures and performing a number of acrobatic moves like wall jumps and flips.
There are secrets to discover and alternate spaces to explore, there are lights to destroy or to avoid and soothing blood fountains to get to as checkpoints.
The main character has a lot of very cool combat moves and all of them will be needed to get through the organized and, at times, overwhelming enemy ranks.
The most important thing to remember as the redheaded vampire takes out enemies is that sucking blood out of a stunned enemy is the best way of topping depleting health, which often means that the last two enemies in a big fight should always be separated and then carefully depleted of their blood red content.
One critique of BloodRayne: Betrayal is that the sense of accomplishment that comes after finishing a level is quickly squashed by the fact that, no matter how much I try and perform better, I cannot break through the 25,000 points barrier that would take me out of F territory.
The new Bloodrayne game has been developed by WayForward and published by Majesco. All those who are looking for a tough yet fair sidescroller to fill their gaming time with can get the game on the PlayStation 3 from Sony via the PSN and on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft via the XBLA.
Here's a look at BloodRayne Betrayal in action on the PS3: