The horror genre as we all know was sparked by Capcom with their Resident Evil series. After that we experienced several sequels as well as RE clones or maybe even knockoffs. Games like Konami's Silent Hill and Clock Tower have tried to do what RE does but they both failed. It seems as if only Capcom knows how to perfect a game such as Resident Evil, but that's not going to be like that for long. Ban Dai is stepping up to the plate and they are releasing a game of their own. Countdown Vampires is the name of Ban Dai's new title and it will might pose a big threat to the Resident Evil series. Keep reading this preview to know more info on this great looking game.

      The day is December 31, 1999 and vampires are invading Las Vegas. It is up to four people to save the "Gambling City", Keith J. Snyder, Mira Swish, Scheck Gardener, and Jules Doors are your main characters. The game should provide a nice value level, it should feature 27 stages and a weird feature where you can play either as Human or Vampire. I'm still not too familiar with the game but I am guessing that one of the characters is a vampire. Its action is a lot like Resident Evil's, walk, shoot, solve puzzles, fight big monsters etc. Gameplay is expected to be something that would wet your pants, vampires popping out of nowhere, blood all over the place, guns, guns, and more guns. This game will most likely not suffer from the same poor gameplay and story that made Silent Hill so dull, in fact I have high hopes about it. Before I end the gameplay, Countdown Vampires is a lot like the George Clooney flick "From Dusk 'til Dawn", everything from the spooky atmosphere, vampires, and almost exact tattoos on Keith in the game and George Clooney in the movie.

      From an early look at the game, the graphics look good. Countdown Vampires seems like it feature a lot of CGs, just take a look at some screens that we took from the demo video. The backgrounds look as if they are in real-time and not pre-renderings but that could change in the future due to the reason that the game is still in its early course. The character detail is almost there, not really on comparison to Resident Evil but still good, and who knows as the game progresses they may even be better. Still not much more I can talk about the graphics besides that they look to give Resident Evil some challenge.

       Countdown Vampires should be released 2nd Quarter of 2000, as the game moves along we will most likely provide with more coverage on the story and improvements. Keep an eye out on this one.

01/19/00  SolidSnake

Preview Index

Scheduled release date:
Q2 2000

Publisher:
Ban Dai

Developer:
Ban Dai

Genre:
Horror

Number of Players:
1