Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Jake Rukin

EA’s Buffy game was an entertaining bit of slayage, and Vivendi’s attempt is shaping up to be similarly decent. The game switches between characters and locations at various points driven by the plot, and a typical section seems to comprise a selection of baddies to dispense with and a bit of basic exploration and simple puzzle solving. Items of interest glow, so it’s not long before you’re facing another gang of undeads.

Each character has strengths - Willow can learn magic which is cast by performing a sequence of button presses, Buffy and Spike have strong hand-to-hand combat, while Xander relies more heavily on weaponry. The weapons are satisfying, the best we saw being a huge axe. Combat is well executed, performing a nice combo to floor a vampire and immediately shoving a stake through its heart being particularly fun.

The characters are fairly faithful to their real-life counterparts, but they’re all slightly flawed - Willow’s eyes look very odd, for example. Some of the show’s actors have provided their voice talent for the game - hearing the speech in a busy Earls Court wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but it sounded fine to us. It’s not likely to set the world on fire, but it should be a treat for fans of the show.