Give Me The Secret....To The Fountain of Blood!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Kain is a damn cool main hero, solid gameplay engine

Cons: choppy as hell, game feels rushed and is

The Bottom Line: 
I am the bottom line, bow down before me!

Author's Review
I went into Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 with a vague memory of the events in BO 1. It's been a good 3 years since I've played it last, and even back then I didn't get too far in. But I did play through a good portion of Soul Reaver and it's shoddy PS2 sequel, so I can safely say that, so far, this is the best release in the Legacy of Kain series. Blood Omen 2, despite being filled to the brim with typical rush-job flaws, has a very solid gameplay engine and a cool cast of characters. Here's my review...

You play as Kain (the enemy from the Soul Reaver sub-series and the hero from the first Blood Omen), who has awoken after 200 years of sleep, seeking blood and answers. He's first guided by Uma, a fellow vampire, in the first Chapter (a training mission of sorts). Eventually, when he reaches the second area, his quest begins. I won't give away any more of the plot, but I will say this: It gets very interesting from here on.

Now before I initiate this praise of Crystal Dynamics' baby, it's imperative to discuss the few severe flaws Blood Omen 2 suffers from. First, and perhaps the most annoying problem, is with the terrible clipping. This isn't an occasional problem - it pops up everywhere you go. There are only certain moments where the game is running at a clean 25-30 FPS (approximately), othertimes (especially in combat), things can get ugly. The clipping, coupled with some serious slowdown and in-game loading almost ruins the R3 free-look feature. It may look beautiful in screen shots (because in part, thats what this feature is for), but when you see it in action it's sometimes rather horrid-looking.

There are also a few issues with the combat system. While sound, and definitely workable, the combat could have been better with a stronger emphasis on strafing (or an ability to strafe that wasn't so hard to pull off). You can slowly circle your opponent, but that usually doesn't help matters being that they circle with you. The only way circling can be beneficial is if the enemy is attacking, in which case you'd have enough time to either break out of a combat stance and jump, or move 90 degrees to an opponents side. So basically, combat involves little more than circling around your opponent, blocking, and/or attacking. Whether an attack lands seems to be entirely based on luck, as its usually Kain and an enemy trading attacks until one of them is successful. Also, some later enemies seem to have indestructible weapons, with no amount of offensive attacks costing them any damage. However, any sword that Kain wields automatically becomes breakable, even if it's the same weapon type used by your enemies. Hmm, that's fair.

Qualms aside, the battling is well done. Unless you're fighting more than two opponents at a time, there are no major slowdown issues and combat flows decently. Some enemies are harder than they should be (particularly the ones that are immediately alerted to Kain's presence when he's near), but for the most part it's fine.

The only time combat gets really exciting is when you're fighting a boss. Kain must employ more than simple blocking and attacking tactics to crush his vampiric and sarafan-lord enemies. For instance, one boss has you racing against his jumping speed to light the furnace he'll land on before he can jump to a different one across the room. Another involves running to the opposite side of a round arena before the boss lunges at you, so he'll land right in an electrical storm field. Needless to say, the chapter-end bosses in Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 are creative and make good use of the environments.

Divided by Chapters, the world of Blood Omen 2 is expansive and well-designed. While it may seem fairly simple early on, the later areas are nothing short of brilliant. Whenever you gain a new ability, such as a long-jump or Charm (hypnotise victims), that ability is implemented into the proceeding areas very well. This adds a welcome challenge to the game over the lame block and key puzzles that occur early on.

One thing that elevates this game above most others on PS2 is how simply awesome Kain is. In many ways, Kain is the video game equivalent of Neo from The Matrix. Blood Omen 2 boasts some excellent cinematic gaming moments as a result, such as Kain leaping from one platform high above the ground to another, seemingly hundreds of yards away and leaving behind a cool blur-streak, or when he does a stealth-kill on an enemy while cloaked in "Mist".

Visually, the PS2 version of Blood Omen 2 suffers from the aforementioned clipping and slowdown. But otherwise, the game showcases impressive lighting techniques and generally high poly counts among the NPCs (although still not very impressive considering what PS2 hype got me anticipating). Kain himself is probably Eidos' best designed character, featuring the requisite pale skin of vampires with torn robes and an unforgettable scowl that's made only better when he sucks blood out of defeated enemies or innocent civilians (note to Leiberman, this game is your bitch).

Defying the standard of the atypical rush release, Blood Omen 2 features competent voice actors playing the parts of every character. They even went so far as to voice casual conversations between pedestrians, which range from the informative to the funny (such as a discussion about theatrical artistry between a housewife and a play critic). Music is somewhat forgettable, but if you think about who's publishing this game, we should be thankful of this.

With eleven overall chapters, each ranging from twenty minutes to two hours, Blood Omen 2 has enough gameplay to justify a purchase - or if not, at least a rental. It is somewhat disappointing that Crystal Dynamics was forced to rush this one to stores, thus leaving it half-complete and riddled with annoying errors. Thankfully, the game is still highly playable if you're willing to forgive its glaring errors. Though, whether it's good or not, Eidos are still to be frowned upon for rushing BO2 to stores in such shoddy condition.

Overall: 8.1 / 10