Blade II is a 2002 action beat 'em up video game developed by Mucky Foot Productions and published by Activision for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

Set six months after the film's events, it follows Blade and Whistler as they attempt to prevent the vampires from creating a race of super-vampires even more powerful than the Reapers.

[3] Blade can also block, chain attacks together into combos and perform "finishing moves", such as grabbing an enemy in a headlock and driving a stake into their head.

[3][7] The game opens with Blade (voiced by Tom Clark) and Abraham Whistler (Don Delciappo) receiving information that a blood exchange is taking place between a mafia outfit and a vampire clan in the parking lot of Karkov Towers, a multi-company tower block and possible vampire safe house.

Blade fights his way into the tower through the underground car park, and then passes through the "Exploitika" nightclub before destroying the computer mainframe of a vampire-run company called Nth Phase.

Upon returning to their base, however, Blade and Whistler discover that their ally, Dr. Grant (Kate Magowan) has been kidnapped by the Byron vampire clan.

Following her GPS signal leads to a subway station where Blade fights his way through the vampires into the sewers, where he is joined by Whistler, who plants a series of bombs.

Blade rescues her and she explains the vampires are torturing humans so as to capture "dark energy", an experiment they have called "Project: Vorpal".

Blade II was announced on January 22, 2001 when Activision revealed they had partnered with UK-based developer Mucky Foot Productions to produce the game for several as-yet unnamed next generation consoles.

[8][9] On February 2, in an interview with IGN, the game's director, Mike Diskett, revealed the gameplay would be melee-based, but players would also have access to Blade's sword and firearms.

Diskett also explained the combat system in Blade II had originally been created for Sky Ships, and revealed the game would be released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

He went into detail about the origins of the 360° combat system, which was born from the developers' frustrations with games that allow players to lock onto only one target at a time and force them to manually switch when they want to attack something else.

He was also highly critical of the fact that the sword is only accessible in Rage mode, he found the graphics average and the voice acting "worryingly bad".

He also disliked the combat system: "Players are just pushing the right analog stick around and don't have any control over the actual moves Blade uses, just the direction of his attack.

While this is a wonderful control scheme when enemies surround you, it's just not as good as letting the player decide to punch, kick, or throw".

He concluded: "Ultimately, Blade II plays more like a platformer for adults than like an action title [...] Clean up some of the rough language, give Blade a big, bulbous, cutesy head, and replace the millions of vampires per level with an equal number of collectible trinkets and you'll have something the Nintendo crowd can tackle when they're done with the latest Mario romp".

He was critical of the graphics, the sound and the controls, concluding, "if you find yourself out shopping for some Blade II-related items, take a pass on the game and stick to the movie.

Poor AI, dull design, and lackluster presentation all add up to make Blade II a game that you should definitely skip".

He was also critical of the graphics, and concluded, "Blade II has turned into our most recent poster child for how NOT to make a movie-licensed videogame".

When Mucky Foot acquired the Blade franchise, they had already developed two commercial failures: Urban Chaos and Startopia, both of which had been published by Eidos Interactive.

After finishing with Blade II, Mucky Foot began work on two more film adaptations: Bulletproof Monk for Empire Interactive and The Punisher for THQ.

THQ were unimpressed with Blade II and cancelled The Punisher, which left Mucky Foot unable to complete Bulletproof Monk without letting staff go.

They spent several months re-pitching Sky Ships, the game which had developed into Blade II, to various publishers, but were unable to generate any interest, and the company closed in October 2003.