If it weren't for the poor control and terrible game camera, at times you'd think you were playing Splinter Cell. Your character in the game is the spitting image of Sam Fisher and his moves are lifted straight out of the Splinter Cell games. The game designers couldn't really come up with situations that would put these moves to good use, though, so you'll mostly use them to go up and over buildings to get from one alley to the next. You're pretty much forced to do this as the game's environments only give you the illusion that you're afforded some freedom of movement. The reality is that there's usually just one set "correct" path through a level and if you deviate from it you'll find yourself either stuck at a dead-end or just plain dead.

Inane design decisions abound and conspire to make your experience with the game as frustrating as possible. Your infrared and "necroscope" goggles will drain their batteries within ten seconds and take longer than that to recharge. The only way to tell if a person is a human or vampire is by using the necroscope, but you have to get close enough to scan them and by then it can be too late. The vision cones appearing on your mini-map are only active when a vampire has been positively identified, and even then they are pretty inaccurate. Visual detection often depends more on whether or not you're taking the predetermined path through the level than on anything else - I once had a vampire spot me on a roof from the ground over a city block away. It's not like the vampires are doing anything special to seek you out - they seem to enjoy simply standing in a spot and staring off into space. These aren't your goth party animal type of vampires.

Probably the most frustrating aspect of the game is that your weapons are basically worthless for most of the game. Vampires move incredibly fast and require an entire clip to bring down, but they can strike you down in two quick blows. Oftentimes you'll be dead before you even realize you were spotted, which makes the game a long and frustrating exercise in trial and error. That vampire that spotted me on the rooftop? I knew he was coming because I could see his health bar through the wall of the building as he came flying up the side. Even though I had my gun at the ready and knew exactly where he was going to come up on the roof, I was dead seconds later even though I managed to empty almost a full clip of bullets into him. Adding to the frustration of frequent deaths is the scarcity of checkpoints in the game. Get ready to retrace your steps ad nausea.

There's actually more to write about here, but I'm weary of reliving my bad experiences with the game while writing this review. Do I really need to go into the camera issues or the multiplayer game at this point? In case you haven't gotten the idea yet, it's a bad, bad game. I'm going to have to go and take a shower now...

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 39%. Avoid Vampire Rain like a vampire would avoid sharing a garlic burger with a priest on Miami Beach at noon.

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