BloodRayne
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| BloodRayne | |
| Missing image BloodRayne.jpg BloodRayne box art. | |
| Developer(s) | Terminal Reality |
| Publisher(s) | Majesco |
| Release date(s) | 2002 (BloodRayne), 2004 (BloodRayne 2) |
| Genre | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, Mac |
BloodRayne, developed by Terminal Reality, is a franchise of two horror-themed third-person action video games, a movie and a series of self-contained comic books. The mainstream appeal of its unique blend of action, horror and sex has allowed it to transcend the video game genre and enter other forms of media, like several other video game franchises such as Resident Evil and Tomb Raider.
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Influences
BloodRayne appears to be heavily inspired by Nocturne, an earlier third-person survival horror game by Terminal Reality. The character of BloodRayne is similar to a character in Nocturne called Svetlana, another half-vampire supernatural hunter. In early beta screenshots of BloodRayne, BloodRayne's appearance and costume was almost identical to that of Svetlana's. Additionally, some enemies in BloodRayne (such as the Daemites and bat vampires) originally appeared in Nocturne. The final act of BloodRayne also takes place in the same location (Castle Gaustadt) as the first act of Nocturne. Finally, the concept of the Brimstone Society is very similar to the Spookhouse in Nocturne; and the voice of the Brimstone Society agent from the BloodRayne introduction movie is exactly the same as the voice of the Stranger, the protagonist of Nocturne.
Story
The BloodRayne franchise has a storyline that runs from the 18th century (BloodRayne the Movie) through World War II (BloodRayne) to the 2000s (BloodRayne 2). Though the movie appears to be set in an alternate timeline, in which Rayne is older than she is in the games.
Video games
BloodRayne
BloodRayne, developed by Terminal Reality, is a horror-themed third-person action video game released on 15 October 2002 for Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and PC. A Mac port was done by Aspyr and released on 6 May 2003, but was plagued with technical problems not seen in other versions, which caused fans to be upset and reviews to be harsh.
It is set in 1935, just before World War II. As an agent of the Brimstone Society, Rayne is sent to a variety of locations (a small swamp town in Louisiana, a Nazi fortress in Argentina, and an ancient castle in Germany) to battle supernatural creatures as well as the Nazi army.
BloodRayne 2
BloodRayne 2, devloped by Terminal Reality, is a horror-themed third-person action video game released on 12 October 2004 for Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and PC.
It does not follow on directly from where BloodRayne finished; instead, it takes place sixty years later, in a contemporary 2000s setting.
Rayne's father, Kagan, a vampire and influential Nazi collaborator, was killed in an accident near the end of World War II. Denied the pleasure of killing him herself, Rayne spent the sixty years after the War seeking out and destroying Kagan's other offspring. These offspring ? Rayne's half-siblings ? have banded together to form a group called the Cult of Kagan. The Cult has created "The Shroud", a substance that can render sun rays harmless to vampires, allowing them to surface at all times of the day, and twists nature into a nightmarish perversion. Using "The Shroud", the Cult has pledged to create a new era of vampire supremacy, continuing Kagan's legacy.
Movies
BloodRayne the Movie (2005)
On 10 August, 2004, a BloodRayne movie was revealed. Terminator 3 star Kristanna Loken signed on to play Rayne and Majesco confirmed to GameSpot on August 10th that Ben Kingsley has signed on to play Kagen. The plot for the movie, GameSpot reported is: "Set over two centuries before events in the game, the film will follow BloodRayne's quest to stop Kagan's nefarious schemes to slaughter mankind."
The film is directed by Uwe Boll, who is responsible for two other video-game to movie conversions ? House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark ? which were ill-received by critics. It remains to be seen whether or not the BloodRayne movie will follow this trend.
The movie is due out in 2005.
Comics
There is a series of self-contained BloodRayne comics set to be published by Echo 3 Worldwide. The first comic was released at the end of 2004.
Characters from BloodRayne
Rayne (Rayne Kagan?)
Rayne (sometimes, though quite rarely, referred to as "BloodRayne") is the protagonist of the franchise. She is a fictional, bloodthirsty American dhampir, born after her mother was raped by her vampire father. In 1932, she spent her teenage years trying to hunt down and kill her father. It was a search that led her to Europe, where she committed a series of murders along the way before being apprehended. Claiming that her victims had been vampires, she was quickly disbelieved by the authorities, but eventually managed to escape from them and continue her hunt.
She was recruited into the mysterious Brimstone Society via an invitation. The Brimstone Society sent her on missions to eliminate supernatural threats to the world. One of these missions required her to use her vampiric powers against the Nazis, who were on the verge of using magical artifacts to bring Hitler to power. Rayne also learnt of a plan to use demonic parasites called Daemites against the enemies of the Nazis, after they had been tested on prisoners.
In the video games, Rayne is highly athletic and versatile, thanks to her half-vampiric nature as well as a lifetime of training. In addition to her ability to jump more than 20 feet into the air, she can also fire one gun in each hand at different targets (and is strong enough to fire assault rifles and shotguns one-handed), use her aura vision to detect mission-specific targets, pull her foes towards her using a wrist-mounted harpoon in order to feed on their blood, slow down time using dilated perception, and zoom in on distant targets with one of her eyes like a sniper scope. Aside from the guns she would pick up from fallen enemies, she was equipped with blades mounted on her forearms.
While Rayne has vampire-like strength, she also shares at least some of their weaknesses. For example, standing water burns her, causing her gradual damage (it immedietely incinerates full-blooded vampires). On the other hand, she seems unaffected by holy items and only mildly annoyed by sunlight.
Rayne's character design is highly sexual in nature, her outfit in BloodRayne is a highly revealing, black and red leather corset, and in BloodRayne 2 she wears a variety of different, very revealing costumes. Most players found her very sexually appealing, as even the way she spoke while brutally dismembering her enemies sounded pleasurable.
Rayne appeared semi-nude in the October 2004 U.S. edition of Playboy Magazine as part of an article entitled Gaming Grows Up.
Profile:
Height: 5'11"
(6'4" in her heels)
Measurement: 36-22-36
Jurgen Wulf
The antagonist in the first BloodRayne game, Jurgen Wulf was a fictional German military officer who fled to South America after managing to escape from punishment for his crimes during World War I. He founded the Gegengheist Gruppe (GGG), a group that aimed to bring Hitler to power through the use of the occult, specifically by obtaining and reassembling the remains of Beliar.
A fairly stereotypical Nazi, Wulf wears a monocle, and constantly has a cigarette holder hanging from his mouth.
Although an old man, Wulf has super-human strength and powers due to the fact that he has spent the past 30 years systematically finding and implanting the pieces of Beliar into his own body. At the time of the first BloodRayne game, Wulf possesses Beliar's eye, hand, ribs, and teeth.
In the game, Wulf's powers include being able to run significantly faster than a normal human (much faster than even Rayne), breathing fire, and creating flames in his hands. He is also completely immune to physical damage, being only vulnerable to Rayne' Bloodrage attacks and the claws of the demon Beliar.
Other notable members of the GGG, who appeared as bosses in the game, included:
- High Priest Von Blut - He called himself a Thule High Priest and wore a white robe with a hood resembling that of the Ku Klux Klan. Throughly deluded, he believed that Aryans were descended from the people of Atlantis, and that Beliar was that nation's greater leader. Although he did not have any obvious super-human augmentations like the other members of the GGG, his pulpit was armor-plated and equipped with a Maxim machine gun.
- Infantry General D. Mauler - A brute whose physical size and strength were greatly enhanced by the Nazis. He was twice as tall as a normal human being, and covered with cybernetic augmentations. He told Rayne the truth about Beliar's identity, adding that Von Blut (whom Rayne spoke to and killed earlier in the game) knew nothing but lies. Mauler hit very hard (his punches were strong enough to smash through walls and pillars), but he was also quite slow and lacked any sort of firearms.
- Dr Báthory Mengele - Also known as the Butcheress, she was the one who fed prisoners (and several of her own soldiers) to the Daemites. She also took pride in being a descendant of Elizabeth Báthory, and attributed her powers to a tradition of "human vampirism". Báthory fought with stilleto heels and a pair of surgical instruments mounted to her forearms, and had similar superhuman speed and fighting moves as Rayne.
- Kommando - A mysterious GGG officer, clad from head-to-toe in steel armor, who never spoke a word and concealed his face behind a metal mask. Fought with an assault rifle. Kommando used flashbangs to escape from Rayne whenever she attacked him, but eventually feel to her blades. However, he apparently was only injured and not killed, and managed to make his way to the lower levels of the base only to be possessed by a Daemite parasite.
- Sigmund and Simon Kreiger - A pair of narcissistic twins. Conjoined at birth, they were later separated (with the result that each of them has only one arm). They each fought with a throwing star that served as both a melee weapon and a boomerang. The twins were quite taken by Raynes beauty, skill and sharp tongue and seemed more interested in courting her then killing her. The twins and Rayne both threatened and flirted each other during the fight.Although they were apparently strong enough to slaughter a horde of feral vampires, they fell quickly to Rayne's blade. When one of them was hit, he would be unharmed, but the other twin would suffer damage. When one of them was killed by Rayne, the other died as well. Depending on which one you kill, you get a slightly different death scene. The best of the two for many fans is Sigmunds, where he asks Rayne to tell him her name as a last request.
Mynce
A Tibetan-born dhampir from the Brimstone Society, she had the same skills as Rayne and was the one who introduced her to the ways of the vampires, as well as giving Rayne the harpoon which would become an important part of her arsenal. At the beginning of the first BloodRayne game, she and Rayne went to Louisiana to investigate the grotesque mutations of the residents. Mynce was attacked from behind by a spider-like demon called a Maraisreq and swallowed up whole before Rayne could save her. She was then believed to be dead.
However, Mynce resurfaced as the second-in-command of the GGG during Rayne's mission to stop Jurgen Wulf. She did not give an explanation as to how she survived being swallowed by the Maraisreq or why she betrayed the Brimstone Society, and attacked Rayne since she was an enemy of the GGG. Mynce fought with the same superhuman fighting moves as Rayne, but proved to be extremely weak, only having about as much health as a regular GGG officer. Rayne sent her falling off a cliff, apparently to her death, and proceeded to eliminate the Kreiger twins. To her surprise, Mynce returned once again and revealed that she was a double agent, having taken out the rest of the GGG's officers and leaving only Wulf.
While the dhampirs were on their way to find Wulf, they were separated by a steel barricade dropping from the ceiling. Wulf emerged with superhuman speed, plunged his hand into Mynce's chest and ripped out her heart. That was the last time Rayne saw her mentor.
Hedrox
Hedrox is an ancient and powerful vampire shaman from New Guinea. Instead of a human appearance, Hedrox's form is animal-like, with black fur and large, clawed hands. He looks a bit like an evil, man-sized Koala.
Hedrox has got two gimmicks. The first gimmick is that he can gain the knowledge of another person by devouring their brain. Each of Hedrox's claws has a circular mouth in its palm, and he uses this to decapitate victims and devour their heads.
Hedrox's second gimmick is that he is infinite. Whenever one of his body parts is severed, it grows into a new Hedrox. The Hedroxes apparently share a collective consciousness, often speaking alternatively or in unison. This makes fighting Hedrox with conventional weapons futile, as slicing him or shooting his limbs off simply creates more Hedroxes to fight.
Beliar
According to the first BloodRayne game, Beliar was the original ruler of Hell, but was usurped by a fallen angel called Mephisto (better known to us as Lucifer). He was torn to pieces, and his body parts were scattered across the Earth as unholy relics. Each body part will instinctively merge with the first person to discover it, and will confer upon that person part of the supernatural power of Beliar. Although Jurgen Wulf acquires most of the body parts through the course of the game, Rayne ends up unintentionally merging with one of Beliar's eyes, turning one of her eyes blood red and allowing her to zoom in on distant objects.
Beliar's heart is the most powerful of the relics (it also happens to be the Yathgy stone from Terminal Reality's earlier survival horror game, Nocturne), and merging with it will cause Beliar to be reborn from the body of the heart's host. In the game's last level, Hedrox foolishly merges with Beliar's heart, resurrecting Beliar. Upon awakening, Beliar is intent upon reclaiming his body parts from both Wulf and Rayne, initiating the game's final three-way battle.
Beliar has a skeletal appearance, looking much like a dead tree with pieces of torn red flesh hanging from it. His body is elastic, and he attacks by growing sharp tentacles from his chest or arms to impale his enemies with. Additionally, If Jurgen Wulf is killed by Beliar instead of by Rayne, Beliar will reclaim his body parts from Wulf and re-gain the ability to breath fire (Beliar's fire breath is several times larger than Wulf's).
Finally, Beliar will constantly be growing throughout the final battle. Although he starts out just slightly taller than a normal human being, he eventually grows up to several stories in height. If Rayne cannot kill him before he reaches the ceiling, the game is over. He grows too large and powerful for Rayne to kill, so he steps on her, and begins his conquest of Earth.
Characters from BloodRayne 2
Kagan
Rayne's vampire father who worked with the Nazis. Rayne tracked him down just as he obtained a magical artifact called the Vesper Shard, but she had to flee when a grenade went off, supposedly killing Kagan. He mysteriously returned many years later when Rayne waged war against her half-siblings who had formed the Cult of Kagan. The pieces of the Vesper Shard had bonded with Kagan's arm and the side of his head, presumably giving him powers beyond what he already had though the actual effects of the Vesper Shard on him were not elaborated on in detail. He also appeared to have been blinded in one eye.
Kagan is the final opponent in BloodRayne 2. His attacks include firing giant beams of light and swinging a large sword that inflicts a lot of damage. In the large room where players fight him, there is a pool of blood that he could use to heal himself quickly.
Ferril
Ferril is one of Rayne's several sisters. Her first appearance in BloodRayne 2 is with another of Rayne's sisters, Ephemra. Ferril has her own special powers just like Rayne. She has an appearance much like a supernatural cat of sorts, with sharp, extended, clawlike fingernails, continually-shifting marks upon her skin, and eyes that are completely white. Ferril's temperament matches her feline appearance, as she has incredible speed and a wild temper. During the course of the game, Ephemra stabs Ferril in the back and throws her from a building. In a manner befitting a feline creature, Ferril manages to survive this tremendous fall, returning later to meet her demise by the Sun Gun. Ferril has a problem with her temper, much like the Dhampir myths, even though she is apparantly a full blooded vampire, unlike Rayne.
External links
- Video games
- BloodRayne Website (http://www.bloodrayne.com)
- BloodRayne 2 Website (http://www.bloodrayne2.com)
- Rayne's Playboy Magazine Picture (http://www.onedigitallife.com/index.php?p=137) (Warning: Contains Nudity).
- Movie
- BloodRayne the Movie Website (http://www.bloodrayne-themovie.com)
- BloodRayne (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383222/) at the Internet Movie Database
- Comics
- Echo 3 Worldwide (http://www.echo3worldwide.com)pl:BloodRayne