There are things that
should never be admitted by a grown man. Here I am, owning a doctorate
degree and helping defend our wonderful
country, and yet at nights when I am back at the barracks, I pop
in episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the first two
seasons. I wish I could say it was just because Buffy is hot as hell,
but
its not as easy as that. The shallow characters have me hooked, so
when Buffy made her debut on the Xbox, I was the among the first
to grab a copy.

The best way to describe Buffy is a mix of Mortal
Combat and Tomb
Raider. Buffy fights her way through countless vampires, skeletons
and demons as she tries to destroy one of her early arch nemeses.
Along the way, she is required to shimmy across poles, jump from
ledge to ledge and even pull some switches.

The highlight of the game is easily its combat system. A little
known fact is that I am terrible at fighting games. It is true, I
can sometime hold my own in DOA 3, but I often totally forget how
to do any impressive moves. Buffy makes combat easy. I can
easily track 3 opponents at once and launch impressive attacks against
all
of them. Special moves are simple to perform, and they are introduced
so gradually, you will be able to perform them all without any issues.
None of the fifteen button combinations that you see in other fighting
games, each one seems to be something simple, such as pining the
controller and pushing kick.

Each fight also ends in
a savage way. As Buffy and the undead cannot be killed by punching
and kicking, you will have to find ways to
end the other’s life. Buffy normally will end it by staking an opponent’s
heart or blading off their heads, but moves such as throwing vampires
into sunlight or sharp protruding objects can be a lot more fun.
The enemies have some pretty gruesome moves as well to end Buffy’s
existence.

The part of Buffy that does not work is the half Tomb
Raider aspects
of it. For most of the game, the platform puzzles are fun to figure
out, but towards the end they get hard, incredibly hard. What makes
this frustrating is the limitations of the save system for the game.
Saving is only done at certain checkpoints, and on the later levels,
you will have to make many timed jumps, the result of a mistiming
is instant death and starting the level over. That ends up in sheer
frustration and makes those levels more of a chore than fun gameplay.

The graphics and sound are pretty much dead on with the series.
Willow looks a bit odd, and the voice of Buffy isn’t Sarah Michelle
Geller’s voice, but you won’t notice or care about those subtle differences.
The plot of the game plays like a tv show plot, and is a cut above
your standard adventure game fare.

At the end of the day,
the team developing Buffy has made a kick ass translation of the
show to the Xbox format. With the exception
of the level design of the later levels, this game is as fun to play
as it is to watch. I have not seen a game translated from a TV series
or a movie that has ever worked out this well. Buffy will please
all Xbox owners, it is definitely one of the top titles for the system.

One complaint about Buffy that I have seen on the net is it’s lack of a multiplayer feature.
On the surface, this is a legitimate complaint,
as the box indicates single player only, and the game has no multiplayer
option. However, if you enter the correct code on the EXTRAS screen,
multiplayer arenas open up. In the multiplayer game, you play Buffy,
while your friends play the various villains in the game. It actually
is pretty fun to play, although it is limited in its scope. It is
pretty fun to put a stake in your friends heart and watch him explode..
If I had a nickle for every time I wanted to do that in real life.

Final Grade: B+

System Requirements:

• XBOX