Seven years after her last Xbox adventure, our favorite halfvampire has emerged from her coffin. Who else would the Brimstone Society send to investigate an infested castle?
Rayne remains an acrobatic warrior, but now she flips and slashes across side-scrolling platformer levels reminiscent of Castlevania. Not even Symphony of the Night looked this striking, though. Fifteen chapters come packed with gory, vivid scenery and fluid animation. It's a real treat to ogle the bizarre creatures that crawl out of the manor's woodwork - everything from foppish swordsmen and razor-legged ghouls to lumbering, udder-faced eyesores.
And engaging combat mechanics keep you from simply slicing every creep to pieces - you'll also blast distant troublemakers with your pistol, dashing past other enemies unmolested. Stun foes and ravenously suck all their blood to regain health, or turn them into walking blood bombs you can detonate into a yucky mess. Heck, just mashing the attack button often yields stylish decapitations and geysers of cartoon blood.
Such abilities could've given you the flexibility to develop your own approach, and a harsh performance-grading system certainly urges monster hunters to improve their efficiency. So it's a shame that aggravating control quirks get in the way. Attacks don't always stun opponents, and your arms have surprisingly short reach - as a result, trying to turn foes into meals or explosives often leaves you clutching at empty space. Try to dash or trigger an explosion in a crowd or after a knockdown, and you'll often have to hammer buttons repeatedly before Betrayal pays attention.
The game's also crazy-hard in spots. Fans of unforgiving platformers may not mind long sprints where a single misstep means instant one-hit death; few others, however, will want to bang their heads against the same boss battle or chase sequence dozens of times in a row. Betrayal's wild artistic flair alleviates some of its pain, but you'll still grind your teeth at least as often as you sink them into new flesh.
+ Gorgeous hand-drawn, blood-soaked artistic style; cool special abilities.
- Controls too often feel unresponsive and imprecise.
- Wild peaks in difficulty that sometimes demand little short of perfection.
? Why can you keep taking damage even after you get knocked down?
