Blood Omen 2

"Rewarding Wait?"

Being a goth (vampyre... whatever) I have a natural love of this game from the start, actually playing what I act like every day of my life. after the first game I impatiently waited for a sequel (a true sequel, not the Soul Reaver offshoot), seeing the development team and whole Kain idea grow better and better with the two offshoots... and now that it has seen the light of day... er, moonlight of night(?) was it worth the wait? YES!, but as with most Eidos 3D games.. with some drawbacks.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics for the majority of the game were completely top notch, from the expansive looking areas to the detailed textures, and the look of fear on the faces of the cattle as they were about to become lunch ^_^. But it did suffer in certain areas such as around the checkpoints the ground textures would become unstable and become transparent, being able to see into the great beyond o.O
And sticking to the original game I would've rather seen FMV cut-scenes rather then the in-game engine ones.

Sound: 9/10
Once again the sound was completely top notch as well, with the great voice acting we'd come to expect. Even dinner if left alive long enough would talk amongst themselves, and most of the time it would prove amusing. But, once again there were some glitches with it, many of the cut-scenes seemed out of sync with the voices by as much as 10 seconds, which resulted in some words getting cut off (especially before the final battle).

Gameplay/Controls: 10/10
After the quick tutorial in the beginning of the game you quickly become use to the controls of the game (although I would've liked to have been able to feed from the very beginning... think of all that good blood wasted before you can!!). Blocking either in Skilled or Auto is a breeze thankfully and using the dark gifts is also as easy (although catching some of the jumps can be a bit tricky).

Every gameplay factor in the game rocks, from the way peasants and guards respond to your every move (hehe especially when you charm a peasant and go up to another and start screaming for help with O... they just look at ya like yer nuts, but I am, so it fits!). There are also a ton of fun weapons that allow you to do everything from clubbing someone in the nads to lopping off a head, everything seems to fit where it belongs in this game.

Story: 10/10
As to be expected from this game the story is absolutely top notch, taking place about 400yrs after the first game, and aeons before the whole Soul Reaver series, which leaves alot of room to fill in for more sequels ^_^ yay! With quite a few old ties showing back up and plenty of new ones

Fun Factor: 10/10
This game is a blast to just play around in, 'specially if your a twisted individual like me 0}=) . There are 2 types of attacks for every weapon while in stealth kill mode or your holding your victim by the throat (which should've included the classic vampire feeding IMO)
(ie the retractable blade staff,
stealthkill 1: kain turns around and shoves the blade in their backs and then pulls up
stealthkill2: shoves the blade through their throats,
hold kill 1: kain shoots the blade through their guts
hold kill 2: putting the staff to the victims head he extends the blade through their it.)
Also the backgrounds give you alot to play with as well, like throwing your victim off of a building or in a river.

Replayability
Besides for the fun areas of this game, there is about no replay value unless you didn't catch something in the story the first time through.

Rent or Buy
For LoK fans, a buy, it makes a perfect addition to a gamers library, for the casual gamer its a tossup, it can be beaten anywhere from 15-20+hrs, so it may be better to rent first then buy if it suits you.

Overall: 9/10
Overall it's a great game, but I missed some of the features that were included in Soul Reaver 2, yes it had extras, but only 3 trailers (missing the trailer of BO2 that was in SR2 oddly), but no extra scenes of the voice actors or anything of the sort I found as a nice touch.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/02, Updated 03/26/02