Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds |
|
---|---|
North American PlayStation 2 cover art
|
|
Developer(s) | Eurocom Entertainment Software |
Publisher(s) | Vivendi Universal Games |
Distributor(s) | Fox Interactive |
Writer(s) |
Christopher Golden Thomas Sniegoski |
Composer(s) | Ian Livingstone |
Platform(s) | GameCube PlayStation 2 Xbox |
Release date(s) | |
Genre(s) | Beat 'em up |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Review scores | |||
---|---|---|---|
Publication | Score | ||
GC | PS2 | Xbox | |
AllGame | N/A | N/A | |
EGM | 6.17/10 | 6.17/10 | 6.17/10 |
Eurogamer | N/A | 5/10 | N/A |
Famitsu | N/A | N/A | 24/40 |
Game Informer | N/A | 8.25/10 | 8/10 |
GamePro | N/A | N/A | |
Game Revolution | C | C | C |
GameSpot | 8.2/10 | 8.2/10 | 8.2/10 |
GameSpy | |||
GameZone | 7.4/10 | 8.2/10 | N/A |
IGN | 7.7/10 | 7.7/10 | 7.7/10 |
Nintendo Power | 4.1/5 | N/A | N/A |
OPM (US) | N/A | N/A | |
OXM (US) | N/A | N/A | 8.8/10 |
Maxim | 8/10 | 8/10 | 8/10 |
Aggregate score | |||
Metacritic | 75/100 | 72/100 | 73/100 |
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.
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.
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.