One thing I’m always down for is a good light-gun game. Heck, most of the time they don’t even have to be particularly ‘good.’ There’s something euphoric about holding a light gun in your hands and blasting away at an army of oncoming digital foes. Unfortunately the genre has mostly died off by now. Because of the ease of making such a game there are many hidden gems on older consoles. Today I’m here to talk about one of these. Vampire Night was developed by Sega’s Wow Entertainment and published by Namco. Is it worth playing today? Well, let’s dig in and find out.
Vampire Night stars two gunslinging vampire hunters named Michel and Albert. The game begins as they start an assault on a dark castle inhabited by the undead, and along the way uncover a grander and all encompassing plot. It’s pretty schlocky and overacted. At least the setting is decent with an alternate reality wherein the modern world is full of gothic architecture. Also, vampires. Odds are if you found the plot and characters from House of the Dead entertaining then you’ll like what Vampire Night has to offer as well.
That’s because this game was made by the House of the Dead team. The inspiration is evident at every turn. Everything from the cheesy voice acting, projectiles you have to shoot, and weak points on the boss characters. This is House of the Dead, but with vampires, and not as interesting set-pieces or gameplay scenarios. Sega could have thrown zombies in and called it House of the Dead Gaiden and no one would have questioned it. That’s why it’s surprising then that they created a new IP instead of relying on a name that would sell better. Perhaps that’s how it started development.
Either way, Vampire Night is a pretty standard light-gun game. You view the action from a first person viewpoint and your character moves on rails automatically until they encounter enemies. You shoot said foes (using either a light gun or the reticule via the controller) and when they’re defeated you simply move on to the next area. Lather, rinse and repeat. You can take three hits before losing a life, and when you’re out of lives you have to spend a credit in order to continue. What’s nice is that, in such a case, you don’t have to restart the current level you’re on.
That’s all standard for this genre, and that’s kind of the weak point of Vampire Night. It doesn’t really do anything different. If you’ve played any other light-gun shooter from this era then you know what to expect here. Vampire Night tries to introduce a few new concepts, such as small monsters you must shoot off of innocent humans to stop them from transforming into beasts. This is just a fancy re-skinning of the classic ‘save the hostage’ element from any other game like this. I suppose it’s kind of neat considering it fits the horror motif, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen.
Generally the enemies jump on-screen and charge at your character. There are other times when you’ll be dealing more with their projectile attacks. These can be shot to be disabled, and they vary in size and trajectory. Often times you’ll have only a small window of opportunity to take them out. Vampire Night loves to throw groups of enemies at you instead of just solo foes, and you’ll often have multiple projectiles to tend with as well. It’s all about figuring out the order in which you’ll want to tend with the obstacles. As you increase the difficulty things become all the more hectic.
Unfortunately there just isn’t a whole lot of replay value. Vampire Night can be completed in less than an hour even on the higher difficulty levels, and it fails to pose a real challenge. There aren’t a whole lot of other options either. There’s a mish-mash of RPG elements thrown into a separate option, but that’s more boring than the main game. The best thing about Vampire Night is that you can play through the main quest with a friend, but that too is a pretty standard feature.
Vampire Night is a pretty decent looking game by PlayStation 2 standards. The opening scenes wherein your characters are approaching the castle with the lake in the background at sunset. It’s actually pretty breathtaking. If only the rest of the game looked this inspired. The scenery becomes bland quickly. The game takes place inside of a gothic castle with a lot of intricate architecture but the visuals don’t stand out in any meaningful way. The characters are very generic and throwaway. They’re very exaggerated in their features which harkens to the House of the Dead (never a bad thing in my opinion) but somehow here they’re just more forgettable. There are some breathtaking scenes, but for the most part, this one is a little boring visually.
I’m really not a big fan of the music. It’s… gothic electronic? I suppose that’s what you’d call it? At some points it’s pretty easy to compare to the style of House of the Dead but most of the time it’s doing it’s own thing. The problem is that’s not necessarily good. The soundtrack is incredibly generic with tracks that kind of blend together. It definitely didn’t impress me. The voice acting is in typical Sega light-gun fashion. In other words, it’s awful, but in the best way possible. Vampire Night features some of the most laughable voice acting of all time. It’s all very entertaining. The voice acting actually manages to make up for the forgettable soundtrack in my opinion.
Vampire Night is somewhat fun. It’s no House of the Dead or Time Crisis or anything like that, but putting bullet holes through bats and night walkers makes for a fairly entertaining romp. It’s just nothing special. Vampire Night is very much by the books to the point that it doesn’t really carve out its own identity. It feels like a poor man’s House of the Dead.
