For a licensed game based on a TV series it's pretty good. The combat is surprisingly fun and kinda intuitive if you watched the show (like needing to stake vampires or being able to use shovels to fight them and even stake them with it).
I generally preferred the more linear levels as the puzzles in between fighting can get a bit "point and click" like, like needing to find the right item and then use that to blow something up or recording a voice to get by a security door or something. In the less linear levels I found that to be a tad tiresome. Sadly, the bosses in the later levels are also not the best, as most of them just spam adds at you and you constantly need to de-activate or destroy something to get to damage the bosses at all.

The real appeal is definitely just the amount of love put into this. Not only can you play as many different characters from the cast (though my best gal Faith only got a single level, which is definitely not enough), most actors also returned to voice their characters in-game, paired with the quippy one-liners from the show this was definitely a highlight in presentation. The title screen also starts with the classic Buffy intro music and the menus in general definitely have that Buffy flair.
There is also a plethora of bonus content like interviews with a lot of cast members or even the whole fucking ass comic that this game's story is based on. Imagine getting something like that in modern game!

All in all you will enjoy this game if you're a) a Buffy fan or b) really into retro PS2 games. Luckily I'm both so this was really nice, while not the absolute pinnacle the system has to offer.

idk, kind of a confusing ordeal for me. i never watched this show, but was alive when it was really relevant, and also when people were rewatching it when i was like in college. as a game, it actually plays and feels pretty fine, just nothing revolutionary or interesting -- could basically be any licensed third-person action game. idk, maybe because i was stoned i actually did like it, but at the same time after like an hour I completely vaporized it out of my mind and just turned it off and even forgot i played this now writing this a couple days later. i guess that's how a lot of these are though.

Well, this sucks.

I appreciate the bonus content like interviews and what have you but playing the game itself is just unpleasant and not particularly fun.

The actors that do return sound off compared to how they are on the show (except James Marsters as Spike) and characters like Buffy and Willow aren't even voiced by their original actors and it shows.

Combine that with drawn out levels and generally uninteresting combat and you have a very dull game that I can't recommend to even the most die-hard of Buffy enjoyers.

Game #5
Right off the bat you have some absolute gold standards when it comes to licensed games. You can play as basically every character in the show, with complete voice acting and loads of bonus features with interviews and behind the scenes content. The game itself, is reasonably fun. The levels are cool with varied types of enemies and the stake system makes what could be overlysimple beat em up combat much more engaging. (Although I do wish you started each level with a stake) My biggest complaint would be it needs to be more immediately apparent what objects you can interact with. There were multiple times I got stuck because I simply didn't realize there was a button blending into the wall I needed to press. I'd wager a large percentage of my time in the game was spent just testing doors to see if they would open. Additionally, the boss fights, while varied, were ultimately very tedious.

Cute lines, fun combat variety, and great recreations of Sunnydale are hampered by often frustrating to the point of baffling puzzles, harsh checkpointing, and confusing level designs. Worth playing for the Buffy devotee, and definitely some good here - an extensive array of extras, and a dedicated multiplayer mode are inessential so inherently welcome surprises - but it feels a little like cookie dough - lovely, but a little more baking required. But I got to fight vampires as Spike and Faith, so can't all be bad.

Look at this with the Roger Ebert philosophy of rating something on the relative merits of what it’s trying to achieve and it’s a huge success. The original Devil May Cry’s gameplay is a perfect fit for the world of Buffy, and this Fox Studios imitation brand of Capcom’s masterpiece is surprisingly satisfying to play. Land a stake through the heart of a vampire who’s spinning in the air with all the aggression of an LA stunt actor and you’ll be in a heaven that feels incredibly close to the world of the television show it’s trying to replicate.

It’s unfortunate, then, that the game also has you spending hours collecting keys for doors and fuses for fuseboxes and levers for broken switches - anyone remember the episode where Buffy does a block puzzle? I guess this item-fetching filler is a natural drawback of this being a budget TV tie-in that needed to have “OVER 20 HOURS OF GAMEPLAY!” in its Game Informer review.

The story here is straight out of the Whedon mid-season template, which certainly isn’t a complaint. The dialogue has a decent number of the corny chuckle-able quips that the show was known for, and the writers somehow managed to work in a bunch risque lesbian riffs that I’m surprised exist in a mid-2000s 20th Century Fox product. My only complaint is that the game never gets meta with itself - not that I love metanarratives or anything, but the show was always down to get outside itself and examine itself in a fun way fitting of its Twilight Zone roots. Sadly, there’s nothing here like the iconic dream or musical episodes, and the game’s all the poorer for it. Go collect another crypt key.

The best thing about Chaos Bleeds? Anthony Head - who played Giles on the show - is the game’s 'tutorial voice'. I have never heard a trained thespian sound so deeply, utterly strained in my life before and it is amusingly unpleasant. You haven’t lived until you’re heard Giles say “Buffy, press the UP D-PAD button to use an item in your inventory, or press SELECT to see this again.” and punctuate it with a huge sigh that the sound techs simply chose not to cut out. Brilliant.