Customer Reviews

Blood Omen 2

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a fan of the Legacy of Kain series since the very first Blood Omen, released on the PSX in 1996, I was dying to get my hands on this game. Finally being in control of Kain again after all this time was quite a pleasure, but unfortunately, the game is not all its cracked up to be...

First off, the gameplay is strictly mediocre. Soul Reaver veterans will recognize the mechanics right away. Unfortunately, it seems the problems of the Soul Reaver games have come over as well. This game focuses more on combat than anything else, and is designed as such. However, given that the game is loosely a Soul Reaver clone, you'll find yourself wanting to avoid combat more than actually throwing yourself into it. Unfortunately, the game's central focus is combat, and successful progression in the game is based on your ability to fight. A pity, because the problems begin there.

Enemies, just like in Soul Reaver 2, are always better fighters, with many more attacks than Kain, and a plethora of unblockable moves. You may find yourself outnumbered, and while you can easily handle your enemies if you're good, Kain will probably just end up on the ground, and you'll be shaking your head in frustration. And once again, the ATROCIOUS auto-targeting system of Soul Reaver 2 has returned. When you auto-fix on an enemy, all it takes is a sidestep, and you'll have Kain hacking away in the opposite direction while the enemy charges up his unblockable attack or unleashes his own combo on you.

'Stealth Kills', like in such games as Tenchu, are probably one of the better parts of combat, but serve little purpose. The only time a 'stealth kill' can be performed is if there is mist on the ground. Even if you sneak up on an enemy without mist on the ground, you cannot perform a 'stealth kill', which makes stealth kills utterly useless and just forces more of the mediocre combat on you.

Collision detection is pretty awful. In fact, it seems to be 2-d, shown in the simple fact that you cannot seem to jump over enemies. If you are standing in front of an enemy, although you clearly jump higher than his head level, you cannot jump OVER him, thus making you an easy aerial target. Also, your weapon seems to pass through enemies more than it hits them, leaving you as an open target yet again.

Sound is strange...often times, ambient sound that is completely inappropriate for the moment(such as the blood guzzling sound) begins to play out of nowhere during cutscenes. The sound is so loud that it drowns out the voice-overs, effectively ruining whatever story element there is(and there isn't much). There are also many other glitches in the game that are just too glaring to be overlooked.

Story.....all the games in the past had a great, involving story. This game lacks the gripping story element of the previous games, which is why even die-hard LoK fans may overlook this game. What little story there is gets expressed through small cutscenes, which could basically be considered 'Mission Briefings' as opposed to story progression. Sometimes there are cut-scenes during the mission which convey the story rather well, but overall, the strongest element of the previous games is very weak in this game.

The bottom line: Only Die-Hard LoK fans will enjoy this game, and even as such may find the game to be bland, devoid of story and interesting gameplay. By today's standards, this game is mediocre in every sense of the word. Gamers who are not knowledgeable about the LoK series will definitely want to avoid this game all together, and LoK/SR fans also may want to avoid this game due to lack of story and good gameplay. Being a diehard LoK fan, I found the game remotely enjoyable, but the game simply gets too repetitive as it goes on. Very disappointing, but good entertainment for a little while.

Rented this over the weekend and I actually enjoyed enough that I'm thinking of buying it. First off, I'm not into vampire stuff, but I did find this game a lot of fun to play. I had seen some screen shots and didn't like them because of their messy look, but turns out the graphics is excellent and actually quite clean. (Saw some kids play the PS2 version in store and I'm happy to report that the Xbox version has much better graphics and also smoother framerate.)

One thing that I really like about the game is the easy-to-master controls. A lot of first-person adventure games [are bad] because playing them requires more skills than fighting an F-18. But this game is easy to learn. At the beginning Umah, a female busty vampire, trains you in the basic controls. It's important to master them as you'll get quite busy later on. The environment is large and well done. Occasionally you do run into a camera-angle problem (i.e., you can't really see what you are doing), but that's rare.

While Kain looks pretty ugly -- this is my first LoK game -- I have to admit that I actually liked him a lot by the time I finished the trainings. Which, of course, made me enjoy the game more. :)

Excellent game, and there is more than enough content to make it more than a rental title.

Kain finally returns in Blood Omen 2, but this latest installment in the series is missing some of what made the first Legacy of Kain such an enjoyable game.

Gameplay is very straightforward. Kain must progress through the world of Nosgoth by killing his enemies and solving puzzles. This is where some of the problems come in. Combat is all right, but Kain has very few options available to him. Attack, block, grab, and that's it. Occasionally you can use a Dark Gift (more on that in a minute) in battle, but it's nothing more than a stronger attack. Boss battles are usually more interesting, but in general, combat leaves something to be desired. The puzzles in the game are all very simple, and so they get tedious. Finally, the game is linear in the extreme. There is never a time when you can deviate from the path and explore a little; you're always on the one, pre-set course through the game.

Kain also has a number of Dark Gifts at his disposal, which he collects throughout the game. These can be pretty interesting. For example, you can change into mist (if there is mist present) and sneak past guards, or kill them stealthily, instantly. You can make insanely long jumps from one rooftop to another, like you'd see in The Matrix. You can control NPCs and force them to do your will. This is good stuff, but I wish there had been more of a focus on it, and that Kain had more varied abilities. The first Blood Omen had more variety.

Graphically, the game is fairly good. The atmosphere of Nosgoth is conveyed very well; it's definitely not a place you'd want to live, and it shows in the scenery, the ambient sound effects, and the bits of overheard conversation. The character models (other than Kain) seem relatively basic. There are some clipping problems as well. All in all, the graphics could be better for the XBox version of this game. They're decent, and get the job done, but it's not a game you'd use to show off the graphical power of the XBox.

The cutscenes in the game are top-notch. The first Blood Omen featured some of the best voice acting you could find on the PSX, and the quality does not disappoint here either. Plus, Kain is such a cool character, you look forward to seeing him interact with the other characters in the game (aside from drinking their blood, that is).

Ultimately, the game's many good points can't completely make up for the often-repetitive gameplay. Nosgoth is a fascinating world, and Kain a fun character to play, but the game can get boring at times, and with its very strict linearity, replay value is virtually zero. It's definitely worth a purchase, since you can now buy this at about half its original price (or less), but the first Blood Omen was the superior game.

Much of what I'm about to say has probably been covered by others, but I'll try my best to make things concise. This game could have been quite good, but unfortunately has major flaws that make it more annoying than anything else.

I found some difficulty with the controls. While all games require an adjustment period to get used to the new controls, these are combersome no matter what. To turn your character around you must actually walk him around in a circle, which can be quite difficult (and deadly) especially when getting attacked. While other games have a rotate button for fighters in 3D environments, this does not.

Next I found the cut-scenes to be horrible. Not that the voice acting or animation were bad at all, but rather that you can't skip over them with a press of a button. Obviously if you're into a game, you'll want to watch a scene once to follow the story. But it's just too much to take when you reach a difficult point in the game and get killed only to have to watch the same 5 minute cut-scene over and over again until you figure out how to beat the particular situation.

Lack of problem solving is another issue. Why have a mature rated game with child level problem solving? All problems are obvious and usually only take a couple of minutes to solve at the most. The majority have a flashing beacon over the objective so you know exactly where you need to go and there's always only one very obvious solution to the problem.

Finally, the gameplay just gets old. I suppose because the rest of the game is so annoying that you just get tired of dealing with the same old thing. There are difficult controls that once mastered make it easy to beat all enemies. Tiresome cut-scenes that seem to never end and problems that are all to easy to solve. And let's not forget the animation that causes many enemies (and some much needed weapons) to fall halfway or all the way through walls and floors. I was amazed to see that enemies will end up buried halfway into walls or stairs simply because that's where they landed rather than bouncing. If I didn't know any better I would think that this game had been made 5 years ago. This last problem is a programming error (or laziness) that there's simply no excuse for.

In the end, rent this game if you have to, but don't buy it.

There is just something undeniably fun about slashing, hacking, and dismembering innocent (and not so innocent) villagers and then sucking their blood for sustenance. This game had it all, silent decapitations, attacking and slashing women out with their baby carriages, and finishing off wounded victims with a series of ruthless kicks! It is so politically incorrect, and so, so, fun.
One thing that elevates Blood Omen above some of the competition (like Hunter, The Reckoning) is that their is more to it than just fighting. Scattered throughout the game are various puzzles that must be solved to advance to the next level. Alternating the violence with strategy and puzzle solving is what makes this game good for hours of entertainment. I finally made it through the entire game, but it took me a week of long nights and consulting on-line strategy guides.
Two minor critisisms of this game:
1. It is a little bit too linear. The game usually forces you down one path only with little or no options. i.e. the only door that is open is the one you must go through.
2. It needs a little polishing graphically. Don't get me wrong, the scenery is fantastic, but slain victums fall into solid walls, and lie in impossible positions over the edges of cliffs, bridges, etc.
Is it worth buying? YES!. Is it perfect? no

Blood Omen 2 is number four in the Legacy of Kain series. The first Blood Omen was an excellent game. Soul Reaver was very playable, and Soul Reaver 2 was a good sequel to it, but Blood Omen 2 is by far far the best game. To start off with, Blood Omen 2 takes place 400 years after Blood Omen, and several hundred years before both of the Soul Reavers. In Blood Omen 2, you as Kain are slain by the Sarafan Lord and have been asleep for 200 hundred years. The goal in Blood Omen 2 is to destroy the Sarafan Lord. The graphics in this game are extremely good, and the sound is great. One of the best features of this game is that you can replay the beginning cutscene, and watch two Blood Omen 2 trailers, and also the trailer for Mad Dash Racing (another game by Eidos Interactive). Blood Omen 2 received a mature rating, and it is not a game for anyone under 10 years of age. Blood Omen 2 is one of the best games out there for XBox.

I love vampire games, but Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain was a let down.

The GOOD:
- The storyline.
- Great vampiric/magical abilities.
- Ability to pick up weapons.

The BAD:
- PS2 ports, why do they keep porting over the graphics of PS2 games, beef up the light/shadow a little and then peddle it as if it had superb graphics? Once again, the graphics of this game (like so many other XBOX titles) only touches the capabilities of the XBOX.
- Limited controls, and they are somewhat cumbersome.
- Enemies can do a lot of things that you cannot do, and their ability to block Kain's attacks is amazing.
- Setting is rendered well, but you cannot interact with much and it suffers from a static, 2D feel.

The UGLY:
- Same horrible puzzles that plauge the entire series of games.
- Many of the sounds and voices are horrible, and very poorly implemented. You can [destroy] everyone in a bar and then stand there and listen to them talk (as if they were still alive).
- The cutscenes (movies) are not as great as many other games.

Blood Omen 2 is a beautiful game, full of interesting gothic locales, well-designed characters, who are beautifully voice-acted. The storyline is intriguing enough to provide sufficient motivation to keep playing, and the combat is deep enough to not get repetitive and boring too quickly.

However, Blood Omen 2 is also one of the most staggeringly linear games I've ever played, and with little motivation to actually even look around and explore, there's little reason to do anything other than run from one locked door to the next. The puzzles' solutions are always close at hand, and there's only one way to solve them. Exploration leads you to chests that contain items to "level up", but the levelling up process is almost without payoff, considering the only thing you'll find is a small step towards giving your character more life.

Had there been a compelling reason to explore the world thoroughly, as in the Soul Reaver series, had there been a more compelling interactiveness to the story elements, BO2 could have been great. The production values are uniformly high, and the setting is interesting enough to warrant further games in the series.

But BO2 is fundamentally, a flat game, bogged down by its overbearing linearity, and a distinct lack of motivation to actually look at the world you've been put in.

I started the SR series with Legacy of Kain (SR2). I was sadly disappointed in Blood Omen 2, which has none of the ingenuity or artistry of the SR series. So I settled in for an action game, and was disappointed in the fighting engine (very tricky, and often results in your character getting killed from behind). Halfway through the game, emphasis seems to switch from action to lever-pulling, as you have a series of nonsensical puzzles to solve. Definitely the most depressing part of the game is the cut-scenes. Everyone in the game talks like they're fresh out of a vampire soap opera (kind of like an Anne Rice rip-off but without the sex). Plus, if your character gets killed after listening to a 3-minute dialogue segment, you have to watch the whole thing over again. And again. And again, until you get to the next save point. Very frustrating. I would NOT reccommend this game.

The Blood Omen series is very different from its sister series Soul Reaver (which I highly recommend). Don't get me wrong, this game is pretty cool at times. But I have a hard time getting past the lame combat system ( you have to hold down the left trigger and then press ONE button to attack). The blood drinking is cool, but the meter gets annoying. You have to constantly drink blood or the meter will run out and you'll die. This is also a very linear game, you have one path to go and thats all you can do, go forward down a straight path (I have a hard time believing in a huge city there is only one road or alley). BUT, this game is alot more accessible than the Soul Reaver series. People not familiar with the Legacy of Kain saga can pick up this game and have a good time. Soul reaver focuses more on building on the plot while Blood Omen focuses on action. If your a fan of action games with a good story I would definetly recommend picking up all of the Legacy of Kain games (Blood Omen and Soul Reaver tie in together). Start with the first Blood Omen, as is the start of this engrossing tale.