Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds is a 2003 video game and the fourth of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise, and the only multiplatform game. It was the first to allow players to control characters other than Buffy Summers and feature a fully developed multiplayer mode; additional players had a limited ability to interact in a hidden debugging mode in the previous game, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot

In this game Buffy discovers that Ethan Rayne is at the center of a great struggle with the First, literally the first incarnation of evil the world has ever known. She and the gang must face an undead army of vampires, zombies, and demons to keep these nefarious villains from casting the world into permanent darkness. The plot involves different alternate realities bleeding into Buffy's own reality, leading to the reappearance of deceased enemies and the appearance of evil versions of allies. With the help of Sid the Dummy and Ethan's ancestor Cassandra Rayne, Buffy and her friends defeat the First in its own dimension and, though it can never be killed, they disperse it across multiple realities for centuries.

Setting

The story is set during the television series' fifth season. Due to certain plot points mentioned and character styles, the game takes place some time after Forever (since Joyce's grave is seen), but before Tough Love (since Tara has not been driven insane by Glory), presumably in-between Intervention and Tough Love (since Spike is on more-or-less friendly terms with the Scooby Gang). Oddly, Dawn Summers is nowhere to be seen and is not even mentioned. The game also includes many references to previous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, including Faith being in jail and Giles' days as Ripper. The game extends an idea from a previous game: that of bringing back dead characters (the Master returned in a previous game), by bringing back Sid the Dummy, Kakistos and Anya's former demon self, Anyanka.

Gameplay

As well as the single-player story mode, the game features several different multiplayer games. These are:

• "Survival" - player-on-player combat;
• "Bunny Catcher" - players compete to collect rabbits;
• "Slayer Challenge" - a single player must defeat as many enemies as possible (additional players can take control of the enemies);
• "Domination" - players must compete to control magical pentagrams for as long as possible.

At first, only one map (Zoo) and four characters (Buffy, Spike, Willow, Xander) are available. More maps (Cemetery, Initiative Hanger, Quarry) and characters (Male Vampire, Female Vampire, Zombie Skeleton, Tara, Zombie Demon, Zombie Devil, Bat Beast, Materani, Sid, Psycho Patient, S&M Slave, S&M Mistress, Faith, Kakistos, Zombie Soldier, Chainz, Abominator, Zombie Gorilla, Chris (Mutant Enemy), Joss Whedon) become unlocked as one plays through the main, single-player game and finds secret areas.

"DVD-style" extras can be unlocked by finding certain secret areas during the single-player game. These include interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and also the Chaos Bleeds tie-in comic book.

The game is playable on the Xbox 360 due to backward compatibility.

Tie-ins

Chaos Bleeds tie-ins.

A comic book prequel was published by Dark Horse. Its story, centering on Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Spike dealing with alternate reality versions of deceased Gorch family members, was set just before the game (the comic's blurb confirms that it is set in season five) and established the idea that the walls between realities were dissolving and the realities were 'bleeding' into each other. The comic was also available in the game itself as an unlockable special feature. Additionally, the comic was reprinted as part of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2005 Annual in Britain.

Like the game, the comic was written by Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski and featured art by veteran Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book artist Cliff Richards as well as cover art by J. Scott Campbell.

There was also a novelization published by Pocket Books. The author, James A. Moore, used the storyline originally developed by Christopher Golden for the game.

Reception

Reception

Review scores Publication Score GC PS2 Xbox AllGame N/A N/A [1] EGM 6.17/10[2] 6.17/10[2] 6.17/10[2] Eurogamer N/A 5/10[3] N/A Famitsu N/A N/A 24/40[4] Game Informer N/A 8.25/10[5] 8/10[6] GamePro [7] N/A N/A Game Revolution C[8] C[8] C[8] GameSpot 8.2/10[9] 8.2/10[9] 8.2/10[9] GameSpy [10] [11] [12] GameZone 7.4/10[13] 8.2/10[14] N/A IGN 7.7/10[15] 7.7/10[15] 7.7/10[15] Nintendo Power 4.1/5[16] N/A N/A OPM (US) N/A [17] N/A OXM N/A N/A 8.8/10[18] Maxim 8/10[19] 8/10[19] 8/10[19] Aggregate scores GameRankings 74.40%[20] 72.54%[21] 73.57%[22] Metacritic 75/100[23] 72/100[24] 73/100[25]

The game received positive to mixed reception upon its release. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 74% and 75 out of 100 for the GameCube version;^[20][23] 73% and 72 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version;^[21][24] and 74% and 73 out of 100 for the Xbox version.^[22][25]

In a positive review, GameSpot reviewer Alex Navarro praised the music, atmosphere, story, and realistic combat of the game, although he criticized the "dated" visuals, repetitive puzzles, and described the multi-player mode as "not executed well". In a final statement, Navarro said that "Chaos Bleeds is an excellent, well-put-together action adventure game that most fans of the genre should be able to enjoy and any Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan will love."^[9]

Chaos Bleeds is generally regarded as an inferior sequel to the 2002 Xbox-exclusive game, with GameCell UK stating that "There are other games out there that do what this does better; one ironic thing is that the first Buffy game is one of them. The Xbox Buffy seemed to play much more smoothly and faster, had 5.1 sounds and did not have so many combat glitches and iffy collision detections."^[26] Xbox World Australia mentioned that "It manages to improve slightly on most aspects of the original game and makes for a more accessible and less frustrating experience, barring some minor bungles in the graphical department and the over-simplistic combat. Even if the multiplayer mode is disappointingly shallow, the great single-player portion that allows you to play as no less than six different characters makes up for it in a big way."^[27]

Sales

The game sold 330,000 copies worldwide, the PS2 version selling 180,000, the Xbox version selling 120,000, and the Gamecube version selling 30,000.

References

External links

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds at MobyGames