Pretty cool vampire action game. Though it is rough in some places.

Let's get some obvious stuff out of the way, Rayne is a baddie, first video game girl to appear topless in Playboy even, there is an official topless render of Rayne, that is AWESOME, developers are truly based. The FMV where she finished off the last nazi in act 2 was fucking badass. And I dig that trenchcoat jumping around vibe of the era they clearly took inspiration from...mostly from The Matrix if the developer messages are to be believed lol.

So let's start with gameplay and general idea...cool vampire chick first hunts monsters...then nazis! Entire game is basically a nazi hunt, which is a nice sport. Story isn't anything crazy or something you never heard of...but that's just fine! Cuz it's really fun with some great lines, honestly I didn't expect Laura Bailey of all people in the role, especially when she speaks so low and natural, compared to the more overreacted animesque roles I heard in comparison (Saints Row Boss, Rise Kujikawa).

Further on Rayne herself, I like how agile she is, even if the game doesn't always execute it great with how it's coded, team's experience, unfamiliarity with tech etc. I get what they're going for and it's pretty cool and I'd be lying if I said they didn't truly capture that Matrix/Underworld/Blade/Riddick vibe. GOD I love that vibe.

Feeding system is pretty damn cool and how it doubles as a human shield. They definitely knew what they were doing when they made the sucking sound like THAT. Although, I never consiously thought it before but there is always a certain amount of unavoidable eroticism that comes with vampires, huh? Not even Hotel Transylvania is devoid of it...
I like the GET OVER HERE chain too.

Mynce was alright, just mentioning here.
Hendrox is really cool, both idea and design, I really like his multplying shtick and how his boss battle wanted you to use your brain....quite a change of pace lol

Though in general it really felt like the game was falling apart in some places near the end, how RPGs screw you up and ESPECIALLY the minefield part, ugh...but the game is still mostly pretty good to make up for it.

Cheats are really damn fun, their names are so damn funny and are some of the highlights here...(NAKEDNASTYDISHWASHERDANCE, JUGGYDANCESQUAD, ANGRYXXXINSANEHOOKER, LAMEYANKEEDONTFEED) I absolutely love them and this energy. They even made so many that simply do nothing but give quirky developer messages...like say you try to enter this game's version of Nude Raider or expressed your opinion on the developers or The Matrix...the game will have something funny to say!

What do the cheats do? Usually stuff...God Mode, Full Health, Let you fuck with the time factor of the game, A mode that gives all female models bigger breasts on top of the already existing jiggle physics...did I mention the developers of this game were based? I also dig that there is a cheat that makes the weapons display on Rayne's body...wouldn't surprise me if that was a cut feature due to it looking cluttered or clashing with aesthetic and then just keeping that as a cheat...I also tried the secret level after beating the game....there's really nothing special about it, not even a dedicated cutscene or dialog...did they also wanted to cut this and simply kept it this way? Wouldn't be the first time a game from this era kept a cut level as an extra...(Looking at you, Time 2 Die in Manhunt)

I like all her versitale moves even if their animations are usually cooler than their actual use. I like all the different view modes...except the sniping, it's goddamn useless, I barely used it and quickly dismissed it. I like the way you can walk on cables and such.

Bosses are...so so, honestly most of them feel like they expect you to abuse what you got, I beat the Queen by abusing Blood Rage and the special weapon. Oh yeah she can use weapons! They get the job done, also her whole blades on arm shtick is really original and I dig it.
That priest guy definitely felt like an abusing of the slow mo too...but yknow the thing with bosses is, once you figure em out, they become easy, atleast the game is like that.
Also why did they make the nazi nurse...yknow...hot? You trying to confuse gamers, Terminal?! Thanks to Castlevania, I understood that Barthory reference tho!
Beliar is easily the worst offender, goddamn his hitbox...
I want to thank this video by Julien67 for help getting me through it, DON'T WATCH IF YOU WANNA AVOID SPOILERS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_o-0MLptII

Mech level sucked ass, it's slow, clunky and just not that fun, easy to get fucked over too when it expects you kill 1 mech, then 3 mechs at once and then a boss...but the strategy of keep moving and keep shooting definitely worked big time...aand putting more effort into avoiding the fire.

I personally consider this an almost gold example of what a remaster should be, make fix all the technical hiccups, make it work smooth as shit with support for all that modern jazz and truly remaster whatever needs to be (in this case, textures). No half assedly "smoothing" models in blender, no censorship (in this case, it launched with censorship from Japanese and original PC releases but it wouldn't surprise me if it was a mistake as they patched it out a long time ago), no making the game quadruple times it's size for no good reason, no laying around copies of FMVs that is unreadable by the game that is just taking up extra space....yeah these are all specific examples referencing specific remasters, can you find them all?!

But yeah, as a remaster, it runs and looks beautiful and leaves the original game intact. You probably noticed I said ALMOST gold standard because there were still some problems and strange jank, such as Rayne easily getting locked in place by the enemies sometimes...some of the stronger enemies easily able to wipe you out, the braindead AI of the already shitty RPG soldiers often firing the stupid gun near you, there being no checkpoints and having to start the entire level all over whenever you die (albeit levels themselves aren't that long), it crashed on me when I game overed one time and only the audio of the post-credits scene played for some reason....

Now, the more clear cut thing here is that, I think we can all agree truly bad technical stuff can be left behind with a remaster...a new remaster port shouldn't crash on the same spots the original did nor introduce any new spots for it, y'know? Cuz that would be a stupid misunderstanding of "faithfulness"

What's not more clear cut is...the game jank itself, yknow the things that stem from simply how the game is programmed. I'm personally in favor of leaving it behind...but there's also an argument on leaving the original experience intact here. A good example would be Dead Rising 1 Remaster leaving the survivor AI as it is, so we truly expeirenced it how it was back in 2006. I didn't mind this as it truly made a fun type of miserable gameplay sometimes lol, In this case making the AI smarter could honestly take away from the intentional tense atmosphere of the game...but at the same time I have no problem with the PSP and now patch versions of Mega Man Legends 2 fixing the underwater FPS thing and giving the game a better economy, yknow?
I suppose it's ultimately a bit subjective, when should you truly change coding jank under the hood for a game when you remaster it? I'm all for games being their definitive selves and truly terrible aspects being left as long as it doesn't distrupt the genuine challenge or genuinely good design philosophies...but I also understand the argument of keeping the original experience intact...it's definitely a discussion for sure. For BloodRayne specifically, I wouldn't mind if they atleast didn't make Rayne get so easily stuck on enemies when moving, especially on the larger ones.

Hmmm what else can I say...drink good blood, don't be a nazi...uhh, vampire boobs yeah!

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'Pharaoh' still remains a timeless gem in the world of city-building strategy games. For a game released in 1999, it still holds up very well today thanks to its gameplay nature, numerous city management mechanics, and rich historical setting.
Seriously, building all those temples and ornate monuments is a very satisfying process. There's a decent attention to detail in the game, this ancient Egyptian theme really is a journey back in time.
But i must say, the game is quite hard. The scenarios are challenging but at least they keep you coming back for more.
Also, the soundtrack is very memorable.

"People need jobs"
"Not enough workers available" 🤦‍♂️
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