I am one of the few people I know who did not like the original Blade film. So, when Blade II hit the theaters, I didn't exactly rush to see it. In fact, I didn't see it at all. So when I found out that I was going to review Blade II for the PS2, I rented the DVD and am happy to say that I enjoyed it thoroughly. I wish I could say the same for this game.

Blade II takes place a few months after the movie ends. Blade's mentor, Whistler, explains that a local gang is exchanging blood with some shady character. And, since shady blood dealers are never good news Whistler wants Blade to go investigate with his, well, blade.

Blade has several weapons he can use, but almost all of them have to be earned, so you'll start the game with a pistol and your fists. Hand-to-hand combat is performed with the right analog stick in an interesting 360-degree type of system. Say an enemy is in front of you and another behind you. Pressing up on the right analog stick will have Blade punch in front of him, while pressing down will have him perform a kick or an elbow to the enemy behind him. Hitting up, then down, then up again will let Blade strike both opponents where he performs one of a whole three or so combo moves. These combo moves fill up Blade's bloodlust meter, giving him the ability to use his sword, regenerate energy faster, and even become invulnerable.

The left analog stick controls forward and backward movement and camera rotation. You don't actually move Blade from side to side, rather you can turn him, as well as move him forward and backward. Because of this control scheme, there's no looking up and down. Blade can strafe, but doing so makes him move at a snail's pace, and Blade is fast in the movies. Blade can block with L2 and pull out his sword with R1. The D-Pad is mapped to weapons, so pressing down on it will choose a shotgun, and pressing right will have Blade pull out his glaive (if you've equipped it). Pressing X fires his weapon and pressing Square lets Blade jump, a move that really isn't used much in the game.

One of the game's big problems is its camera. Blade doesn't have the ability to look around, and if you're ever stuck fighting in a doorway, the camera will do all sorts of unpredictable things. The early levels are set in a parking garage, and you'll hear cars heading towards Blade while he's fighting some enemies. The problem is that you can't actually see them coming, and just hearing if they're to the left or to the right isn't good enough to dodge them. What I'm saying is that more than likely, most players will be hit by a car in the first couple of levels in the game, and it's really not their fault.

As mentioned above, Blade can pull his sword out to slice and dice his opponents, and doing so is the game's epiphany. It's bloodier than the movie and it rocks! You can cut off people's heads and arms, and stab them through the chest and neck. It sounds as cool as it is. Since the sword has to be earned and is only available for a limited time, this ultimately hurts the game, as it's really fun hacking with the sword. I guess the developers didn't want to make the title too easy, but I think letting players use the sword at any time would have made the game more like the movie.

Most of the combat in Blade II is hand-to-hand, and this also makes the game play suffer. Players are just pushing the right analog stick around and don't have any control over the actual moves Blade uses, just the direction of his attack. While this is a wonderful control scheme when enemies surround you, it's just not as good as letting the player decide to punch, kick, or throw. After a few levels, it feels as if you're just pushing the right analog stick around, and it certainly doesn't help that the enemies get faster and block more often later on in the game, when Blade's enhancements are meager in comparison.

Ouchie.
The coolest thing about the hand-to-hand sequences is that sometimes Blade will perform a "finishing move." According to the instruction booklet, these finishing moves are performed after stunning an enemy, but I found them to be almost completely random. They're still cool, though, as if Blade doesn't have a weapon, he'll headlock a vampire and put a stake through his brain. If he's got a pistol, he'll shoot a guy in the chest at point-blank range. Of course, when the vampires die, they disintegrate, but the effect in the movie is far better than the one in the game.