BloodRayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites

I am starting to like the concept behind publisher Ziggurat Games’ vision. Their whole schtick is to revive long forgotten franchises from twenty, thirty, or even forty years ago by remastering and re-releasing them to modern platforms. One of the most notable titles in their portfolio at the moment is BloodRayne, an edgelord-as-hell action franchise that spawned a handful of games and even a terrible Uwe Boll movie back in the day. It also spawned a 2D side-scrolling spinoff called BloodRa...

Revived and reanimated, BloodRayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites returns for the modern generation with bloody bliss! Developer WayForward is tasked with reworking their 2011 hack n' slash title to greater effect. Whether or not it succeeds may depend solely on one's tolerance for archaic touch-ups.

Ten years ago, WayForward released BloodRayne Betrayal, a 2D hack n’ slash spin-off from the usually-3D BloodRayne franchise. While the series has been mostly dormant since then, the recent PC remasters of the original BloodRayne and its sequel have led the way for BloodRayne Betrayal to also receive an updated port. Thus, we have BloodRayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites, which brings with it all-new voice acting and a re-balanced difficulty setting. Although these additions are certainly welcome, ...

BloodRayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites is a barebones remaster of a middling action experience that does not hold up by today's standards.

It isn’t a terrible game. If anything, the BloodRayne Betrayal remaster could and should have done a lot more to fix some of the issues that were present even in the original game. Platforming is the biggest offender here – and there’s, unfortunately, a little too much of it throughout the short runtime. With this in mind, BloodRayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites does feel like a missed opportunity at reviving a classic from the Xbox Live Arcade days.