Blood Omen 2

"Kain returns to reclaim his thrown as king of the Legacy to Kain series!"

When Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was first shown off in magazines I took one look and said ''Hey, that looks and sounds like an interesting game.'' Well, I must say after buying it and playing through it I realized that ''interesting'' was a HUGE understatement. I mean God! That game was awesome. The story was great, and the voice acting seemed so advanced especially with games using speech at the time. I was more than impressed, and it soon became one of my favorite games of all time. But years later came Soul Reaver, which was pretty cool I must admit. But I missed Kain, a true vampire, he had a dark demeanor and attitude which left me wanting more of his grim story. I didn't really care for Soul Reaver 1, or 2. So I drifted away from the series, but then it happened! Blood Omen 2 arrived! I felt a little weary buying it, especially after reading IGN's review and the Blood Omen 2 GameFAQs message board. But I wanted to see more of this dark, and gothic story from Kain's prospective once again. I bought it, and played it nonstop for hours on end. The game was addicting, and quite fun for something so linear. But linear isn't a problem with me. Lets just get started with my little review shall we?

GRAPHICS: 9/10

The graphics in Blood Omen 2 are awesome, simply awesome in my opinion. Definitely A LOT better than IGN gave it credit for I'll tell you that right now. The dark atmospheric style of Blood Omen 2 are done very well from slums cluttered with trash, rats, and a couple low life peasants. To a fortress' full of sword wielding soldiers, and servants. The characters all look very cool, and are done splendidly. However the civilians seem to have less work put into them, but this is only a small issue as most of the time they'll be laying face down in the gutter. If you catch my drift. The effects are awesome as well, Kain's mist form looks great making him look somewhat like living breathing clear dry ice. I also like when you receive Dark Gifts after defeating a vampire boss, it looks as if you are absorbing their very essence or life force if you will. The mist looks great, the explosions look great, blood looks great, all in all the graphics are great. Let's move on.

CONTROL: 8/10

The controls seem to be very well done as well, and I have had little problem with them. But so many other people has apparently, so there must be some issues. Just none with me. The response in the controls seem spot on, and the only real problem I've had is with trying to jump away after dropping my guard. It'll enable a few slashes for the guards, but nonetheless they all die in the end. One other problem occurs as well, but it's not to much of an issue in controls. But I will mention it here because it can mess you up from time to time. Well, in small areas or backed against a wall the camera angle may make it hard for you to see. It's not a problem while exploring, but in battle it may decide the outcome in you enemies favor if you don't move away.

SOUND: 10/10

The sound is everything I've expected it to be. It is without a doubt some of the best voice acting you will hear in a video game, and the sound in general is also some of the best. The echoing foot steps, screams, weapon clashing, and anything else in there. It's all great. However, some people have said to run into problems where sounds and speech will repeat itself over and over. But all you need to do it save, quit, and load saved data back up. Should be fixed. But I have yet to experience this.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10

The gameplay is definitely great, and I found little wrong with it besides the occasional slow down do to constant loading but it doesn't hamper the gameplay at all. Besides that the camera angles will become difficult when pinned against a wall, like I stated before. Otherwise it flawless in my opinion. The battle system it solid, as well is the exploration control. You will come across tons of different enemies, characters, and weapons during your play time and you find yourself even more addicted finding so many new ways to eliminate your enemies in true Kain fashion. Boss battles are more than attacking too, you will have to use you brain sometimes to figure out how to beat them. Granted it's not too hard to figure out what you have to do, but like the saying goes ''Easier said, than done.'' It's also true that this game is linear, but it's not a problem at all. I mean it has great graphics, awesome sound, solid controls and high fun factor. What is the problem with linear when you have all of this? Nothing, at least to me.

REPLAY VALUE: 10/10
FUN FACTOR: 10/10

In my opinion, the replay value is high. I didn't even finish the game before I wanted to start replaying it again, that's how good it is to me. Slaughtering the many helpless servants, villagers, and commoners is surprisingly as fun as it can get. The many Stealth Kills, and uses of the Dark Gifts make the game even funner. The story itself also is worth reliving over again with it's superb voice acting, and portrayal using the many gothic environments.

OVERALL: 10/10

Overall, I say it's a definite 10 out of 10. It's worth a purchase as a casual gamer, and it's imperative to own as a Legacy of Kain fan. It's a very awesome game, and even with the bugs I keep hearing about. I say it's well worth going through them to experience the game to it's fullest. If you miss out on this game, then you are missing out in general on a great game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/02, Updated 03/27/02