![]() ![]() Of course, the shotgun is taken away pretty much as soon as you get it with the game only giving it back to you when it sees fit. You'll play the first eight or so chapters like this - knowing you're screwed if a creature sees you - but eventually you'll get a UV knife for stealth kills and a shotgun for one-hit kills. ![]() Sure, if you engage the monster with the machine gun from far enough away, the vamp will be dead before it gets to you, but the handgun is worthless no matter how far you stand back and the machine gun won't help you in close quarters. Now, you're a special forces type, so you are packing a handgun and machine gun from the start of the game, but these weapons are pretty much useless. The first knocks you to the floor, and the second brings the blood and a laughable death groan. See, the Nightwalkers kill you in two blows. Nine times out of ten, this means you're dead. If you don't get out of the way in time, the Nightwalker sheds its human form for that of a grotesque zombie-like appearance and charges you. If you get out of the way quick enough, the Nightwalkers forget that they just saw a commando in the middle of an alley and go back to staring at nothing. If they see you, a set of eyes will flash on the screen and give you ample time to run from their line of sight. These tools will just sit there and stare straight ahead for hours on end. The rain that's pouring from the heavens is said to dull the senses of the Nightwalkers, but that really can't mask the fact that these enemies are borderline retarded. Now, although these streets are pretty much abandoned - and so lifeless with their flat surfaces, straight lines, and paintings for windows that they look like they were ripped from a PlayStation 2 game - you will find the occasional Nightwalker on them. When you try to get creative and take the most direct route to the flashing arrow on your radar, you're usually reprimanded for leaving the mission area and pushed back to the empty, empty city streets. You can try to go up on a dumpster, jump over a fence, or sneak away from a Nightwalker, but the truth is that the developers made one enemy-lined path through every level and you have no choice but to follow it. Whereas other games in the genre allow you to create your own path or toss something one way to get an enemy to go investigate, Vampire Rain levels are set up so that one path is the only way to victory. ![]() Vampire Rain screws up a lot of things - and I'll tell you about all of them - but chief among the problems is that it misses the most basic point of a stealth game and gives you just one way to go. ![]() Rain is pouring down during this mission, and stalking around the city in my Solid Snake/Sam Fischer body suit seems like it would be a blast. I don't know about you, but that actually all sounds pretty cool. Because these creatures are so powerful, you're mission is one of stealth where fighting should be the last option. In the midst of a rainstorm, your team of four is set loose on a town full of Nightwalkers in an attempt to find a lost AIB unit that hasn't been heard from and take out the Prime Nightwalker, which will kill all the other Nightwalkers under his control. Joining you on this task is Hank Harrison (stereotypical squad leader), Claire Kelly (the stereotypical femme fatale), and Duane Hanson (the stereotypical tech man). The Nightwalker population is getting way too high and you need to swoop in and thin out the ranks a bit. Seems in this reality, the millions of people who disappear into thin air are actually either being eaten up by Nightwalkers - the official term for the bloodsuckers you're dealing with - or becoming them. Vampire Rain casts you as John Lloyd, a member of a super-special combat unit under the control of the American Information Bureau. Don't let the name fool you this is a port of the 360 version with a few bells and whistles tacked on. ![]()
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