Genre: Action
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Edios
# of Players: 1 Player
Memory: ???
ERSB: Mature
Also On: Xbox, GCN
Presentation
Shame on anyone who has not played the original Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain game on the Playstation. One of the most underrated titles on the system, it combined good action RPG gameplay with the bloodiest and most gothic story gamers had ever seen.After a successful spinoff series, Soul Reaver, Kain returns to his roots and becomes the main character once again. To truly get the most of this game, you MUST beat Blood Omen 1. Beating both Soul Reaver games does not matter. Blood Omen 1 and 2 occur thousands of years before Soul Reaver.
Graphics
While the stages look like they should(gothic and dark), the game has some pretty annoying graphical glitches. Lighting is very poorly done. Also, while most animations are above average, some are plain horrible and are amusing. The game suffers from pretty bad clipping. It is very common for enemies bodies to go straight through buildings and walls. Sometimes an enemy might be holding a weapon you can use, but when he falls, the weapon goes through the wall with him, and you are out of luck. The character models look good. You can actually see the fear in the enemies big wide eyes as you lift them in the air from thier throats. Kains model is better than any other in the game, brighter and more detailed. The graphical touches on the stages, such as really run down looking homes, cobblestone streets and poor looking townsfolke really stretches the image of life in rough Nosgoth. Each stage is huge, with virtually no load times other than the one initial load.
Sound
Sound wise, one thing stands out, and it is not suprisingly the voice acting. 4 Legacy of Kain games now, all four have great voice acting. You actually look forward to a cinema. Sound effects are equally impressive. I havent heard such delightful screaming, pleading and begging effects since Deception 2. Also, each weapon and death sounds different. Lobbing someones head off with a sword sounds different than gutting them from behind with a blade. The music is, like the game, dark and moody. You won’t be paying it any attention though. You’ll be listening to the civilians gargle on their own blood and plead for their lives.
Gameplay
Blood Omen 2 is an action game. You spend the majority of the game killing enemies. There are multiple ways to do it. You can attack someone with your claws. If you kill an enemy with a weapon, you can pick it up and use it. Some switches and levers will activate various things such as steam or dropping objects, also capable of ending someones life.
Combat in BO2 is very simple, and very bloody. Sadly, you have one combo without a weapon. Each weapon, however, has it’s own combo. You can also grab enemies and lift them into the air, and do different things to them depending on the weapon you have. Choke them and bitchslap them if you have no weapon. Ram a knife into them again and again or give them one good shot to the heart. Give the butt of a sword to their forehead a few times or give the entire blade to their torso. With the bigger weapons you can easily simply chop their heads off.
After awhile though, the combat in BO2 gets very old(but still very bloody). Over 75% of the enemies you will kill are simple civilians, with no weapons. They dont even attack you. There are a wealth of enemy types with weapons, including thugs, thiefs, Sarafan soldiers, among other things that would be spoilers if listed. You could simply avoid most enemies in the game, but then you wont get powerful. Imagine Kain as an RPG character and blood is EXP. The more EXP you get, the higher "level" Kain is. To the right of your health bar, there is a long blue bar. Each time you suck the blood of your victims, it fills a little. Each time it fills completely, Kain screams to the sky and his max health rises a bit. He supposedly gets stronger as well, but enemies and stronger the farther into the game you venture, so it is hard to notice a difference.
The story unfolds in the opening cinema. You are having dreams of a huge war between your army and an army of humans. You and the human leader are battling it out, and you lose. You awaken to realize the dreams were true, you’ve been asleep for hundreds of years and your empire has vanished. Vampires are no longer in power. The Sarafan are in power. They are a clan of fighters who protect the humans and kill all vampires. You awake from your slumber and set out on a mission to not only get revenge against the Sarafan Lord but to insure the survival of your kind.
Blood Omen 2 does have some interesting gameplay touches. Kain can use powers called "Dark Gifts". They range from being able to unleash a single attack of fury, become invisible when walking over mist, or leaping a huge distance. You start out with "mist" and "fury". Each other gift is obtained by defeating a boss. Others include "jump", explained above. Theres "charm", which is an awesome gift allowing you to take control of a nearby human. Unfortuneatly, you only use it when you need to open a door only a nearby human can reach. Telekinesis is another gift, used basically the same way.
The dark gifts are great to watch. Using mist allows you to sneak behind someone for a "death blow", basically a very bloody death scene. They range from punching completely through someone, lobbing off their head, or gutting them. Each time you kill someone, holding the triangle button starts a delicious stream of blood from their body and into Kains watering mouth. Did I mention blood?
The puzzles in Kain are better than those of Soul Reaver. While SR1 & 2 used boring box and color puzzles, Blood Omen 2 uses lever and switch puzzles. Some, you must assume control of humans to activate. Some you find yourself. Others are triggered by pulling random things like generators or statues away or into certain spots.
Overall, the gameplay definatly has aspects I enjoy. However the core of the gameplay, combat, gets tedious and repetitive after awhile. The boss fights are awesome, the cinemas are pleasing to watch and the dark gifts are extremely cool, but the time between isn’t fun for very long at all.
Conclusion
Before you play this game, play Blood Omen on PSX if you havent done so. It should be very cheap and will work on your PS2. You will be lost with some of the character appearances and references if you do not. Blood Omen 2 is basically just like Soul Reaver 2. Graphics, sound, control, story are all there. The gameplay though, mainly combat, gets repetitive too quick. You will want to play through it atleast once, but that is about it. The novelty of the insane amounts of gore wears off quick, and you’re left with a action game with no replay value. Hopefully, Crystal Dynamics will not let this series die. More combos, and more interaction with the backgrounds(less linear game overall) would make a good series and game even better.
~ditto~
