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Load your shotgun, put on your trench coat, and find your best black hat. Vampire Origins HD combines slick design and hardcore vampire-blasting action, but it falls short of great because of poor writing and repetitive game play.
The first thing you notice about Vampire Origins HD for iPad ($4.99) is its great artistic style and smooth interface. Chillingo, makers of InkVaders HD and Angry Birds, seems to have a great eye for design, but in the case of VOHD, game writing does not appear to be a priority.
Despite the coolness of the hero character, Vincent, and the fact that you get to destroy plenty of vampires, its transitional screen graphics contain less than inspired prose, such as:
Screenshot by Nate Smith
With its lackluster gameplay variety, Vampire Origins HD is a “fun for a minute, but not likely to keep me interested” sort of game. In this case, it seems as though most of the developer’s efforts went into the game’s art direction, sacrificing the total experience.
Screenshot by Nate Smith
Final thoughts
While Vampire Origins HD looks like it should be great, it seems more like a working concept of a game. With better writing and more interesting game play, Chillingo could bring Vampire Origins HD out of the throwaway pile and into your primary rotation of time-wasters.
