Blood Drive is one of those games where after an hour of play you will have seen and done everything it has to offer – after that first hour, you’re simply left doing the same thing again and again. In Blood Drive’s case that’s driving around dull arenas, mowing down zombies, firing projectiles at rivals and occasionally skidding out of control.
All the while your chosen character – which includes an ambulance driving psycho and a redneck in a lorry – blurt out their catchphrases constantly. Each has their own rage attack and before an event starts you can choose a loadout including the ability to start off with heavy armor or a full boost bar. This does add a slightly tactical element – for the checkpoint races it’s a good idea to have plenty of boost, for instance – but it’s not enough to distract the fact that games car combat been done many times before and often better.
As mentioned earlier, bland arena design is the biggest downfall. Despite a few ramps and some gas canisters to shoot there are no interactive elements. I seem to recall that even Twisted Metal Black on the PlayStation 2 had a ferris wheel that could be sent tumbling down a hill. The multi-story carpark arena is particularly badly designed – when playing the capture the skull events it’s hard to tell what floor the skull is on and because the roof is so low you spend about as much time colliding with it as you do driving on the ground. Like Left 4 Dead there are ‘special zombies’ such as ones that can punch your car flying into the air but these can be easily swerved around.
Online play fares a little better – after joining a game there’s no need to return back to the lobby; you just continue playing event after event and AI will step in place if a player quits. I did find though that the levels didn’t change very often.
A budget price does stop Blood Drive from being a total write off but for a game that features zombies, cars and guns it has somehow ended up being rather unexciting.