Let us take an examination of the control setup; it sure doesn't get any better than this.. You are able to choose inverted or not inverted viewing controls, and that’s almost the extent of it. Ultimately, there is very little customization. However, the setup is quite good in its own. Reaction time, crucial in these action/shootouts, (even a delay of a few seconds could leave you getting whacked) is right on. Whether you’re running, going into your spin jump or a shooting side jump (much like a strafe, but only you go in the air and do a summersault), everything runs smoothly. I was happy I could do a spinning aerial blade attack and fire my submachine guns at the same time. The gunplay is awesome in this game. If you are faced with multiple targets on different sides of your character, your weapons automatically target them. My only qualm with this is I thought there should have been an auto target while executing aerial attacks. This is not so, instead you shoot at random areas in the attack animation.

What is it that makes Agent Blood Rayne so fun? Well her inhuman strength may be one, but having phenomenal leaping/acrobatic skills, night vision, and zoom-in vision may be a few others. Best of all, if you take some damage, all it takes is sucking the jugular of a foe to heal. By the way, use your grapple device to make your prey come to you if you’re a lazy vampire. Now when it comes time to really throw down not sure what you mean by throw down, Blood Rayne is able to go into a mode dubbed 'Bloodlust'. While in this 'vampire zone' she is even more deadly and able to execute a new assortment of attacks that deal a considerable amount of damage. She will gain new attack techniques as she advances. These are just new simple attack animations. They could have worked the tech advancement into the plot and game play much more.

Now there can be nothing better then watching a vampire chick complete with black latex outfit, red hair, and jiggle effects in first person mode. Perhaps first person isn't your cup of blood (Cup of tea, funny, eh? well anyway)? If not, you’re able to go into a third person perspective if you desire. However, I found the first person view to create a better atmosphere and 'feel'. However, there was lots of clipping noticeable in the third person view. But being able to destroy practically every object you see makes up for this flaw.

Yet one of the very few shortcomings to Blood Rayne is the fact that you can only save at the beginning/end of each level. So it leaves you feeling like you have to get to the end at all costs, or you will be left to redo everything you had done previously on the current stage. Nothing makes me more mad then putting all this time into making sure that I complete a level thoroughly, only to die and have to restart.

Blood Rayne came far from utilizing the true hardware power of the Xbox. This is most likely because it was multi-platform. It did have nice textures, and objects that you could destroy. Literally everything you see could be meddled with in some fashion. Even the walls would retain your slash marks until you were to advance to the next level. Best of all was the jiggle factor. It was like the vampire ladies were under the moon’s gravitational influence. Every turn and crouch would send the jiggle off the scale. I can't say that this hindered game play in anyway at all. In fact I say, ‘Good job!’ :)

Unfortunately, the character models are "Soooo PSone". Not only were the models very grim and low grade, they seemed like shadows until you were standing right in front of them. Only then you could make out the all the gory details. Another nifty perk was being able to slice off arms, heads, and every other part of the bad guy. All in all, the characters were made to fit the gothic and dark theme of this game, yet not being able to see them detailed sure hindered their attempts.

Even though the music (which I’ll discuss shortly) is nothing grand, the voice acting and random enemy quotes sure bailed out the music composers. The Germans have a bunch of lines of their own, complete with German accent. Even the simple zombies have multiple lines they say, and Agent Blood Rayne will say different lines back. Naturally she says something different to the Nazis than she would say to the zombies, or to any other life form she encounters for that matter. The sound effects alone set the tone for the ever-evil vampire lady to get dirty. Not only does she have some of the most arrogant one-liners, she also taunts the enemies while she kills them. I would have to say our heroine sounds best when she is talking in a seductive manner with another vampire girl in one of the CG sequences.

I know for a fact you will not be seeing a soundtrack for sale, because the music was down right lame in most parts. If there was any music at all while going from bayou to the Nazi base, it was right in the 'blah’ area. But at the same time when you fought a boss the music left 'blah land' and came to 'sweet land'. The adrenaline rush music while you are in Bloodlust was a nice touch. Once that fight or die music came on you knew it was going down. That is the most appropriate time to hack, slash, and shoot while looking damn fine doing it.

Maybe the insane jiggle effect is your only outlet in this world, the replay value is non-existent. I do like to load certain areas up to show off certain attacks obtained, and even specific CG scenes where the jiggle effect is higher than a Jenna Jameson flick. From the beginning to the end this is a title that leads you from one CG scene to another. But to go through the whole game more than once with no rewards and absolutely no incentive? I think not.

I would not have minded seeing this support X-Box Live or some other form of multi-player. Maybe a little bit more time was needed for this release as I get the feeling Blood Rayne was rushed. I’m sure the sequel will rock, and just maybe it will support online play. But nothing in the way of multi-player support leaves the replay value as dry as a grapefruit in the California sun to dry, raisins anyone?