Blood Omen 2

"Mmm...Blood"

I'm sure a lot of us remember playing Soul Reaver 2, and remember hearing about Kain. So when you heard about this game, playing as Kain himself. It's like Whoa! playing as Kain, cool! Well listen here my friend. It is...it is... Your going to love this game, even though it can get boring at times, it's still fun to play. I personally, though this game was much better than Soul Reaver 2.

Story 9/10
A rich, and detailed story, but not too detailed that you can't follow it. I personally, didn't not play the first Blood Omen, so I can't say I know this series story like the back of my hand. Anyway, the story in Blood Omen 2 is...You have been asleep for over a thousand years. You lead an army of darkness against the evils of the Sarafan. You finally get your chance of a duel against the Sarafan Lord, but somehow, he is able to defeat you with your own Soul Reaver, and drive you to your death. Your mission, as Kain, is to regain all your powers before defeat, destroy the Sarafan Lord and his minions, and retake your throne...To live, you must feed on others blood, and no one may be safe...

Game play 8/10
When you first pick up this game, you'll probably find it a bit...boring. Why? Because of the boring training. You just have to walk around the place, killing people every now and then, and follow your guide. After that, things get much more interesting. When you’re on your own, you have the whole town of Nosgoth to explore. To get health, you must feed off the blood of people, first by killing them. No one is your ally; you can kill a normal civilian, to a punk to survive. So, why 8/10? Reason is, it simply...gets boring after while, and those switches!!!! It's switch after switch, it's absurd. As well as sucking blood all the time gets boring as well. The game might seem to get dry after awhile, but for others, it could stay good.

Audio 8/10
It's basic. It's nothing that really caught my eye. The music is usually pretty creepy, to quiet music for being in a lifeless and boring town. The sounds aren’t something you’re probably going to really pay much attention too.

Graphics 7/10
Graphics could of been better in this game. The environments you could tell were nicely done. The characters on the other hand, don't look as detailed as they could be. Games like Metal Gear Solid 2, and Final Fantasy X, really showed the graphical power of the PlayStation 2. The graphics are not bad, but this game is more jaggies than most other PlayStation 2 games. So this has nothing to really stare at.

Replay Value 6/10
Eh...So-So. You probably wouldn't want to play this game anymore after you get it. The only reason you might want to is to get Kain's ultimate sword to use throughout the whole game, after you beat it once. Which is really cool, it kills just about anything in one hit. That’s about it...

Rent Or Buy?
I'm not really sure on this one. Again, it depends on you. You could probably beat this game in a simple 5-day rental, but for those who are really big fans of the series, would probably want to buy this game. It'll really fun at first, but it kind of trails during the middle. So my best guess here, is to Rent

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/02, Updated 07/19/02