Honest Opinion

Author's Rating:

Pros: gothy atmosphere and story, bloodsucking protagonist

Cons: dark graphics, forgettable soundtrack

The Bottom Line: 
Buy it! It's cheap enough that you don't need to rent!

Author's Review
I'm a collector of good games, and I can't play sequels w/o first playing the original. When I heard how great Soul Reaver was, I decided I should pick up this game first to see if the premise was to my liking. I wasn't dissappointed.

The voiceovers of the cast in Kain is marvelous and adds to the dark atmosphere that is only improved in Soul Reaver. You feel for the poor guy, kinda. He was a snobbish nobleman in the beginning of the game (for a total of 2 minutes) before being clubbed to death by brigands. He is resurrected and sent on a missiong to save the world, supposedly. One thing to note, the characters in the game are extremely to my liking, especially the head vampire in the game that acts as a mentor of sorts to you. Saying anymore would just be giving it away... :P

The graphics... well.. what can you expect from one of the first games for the console? It isn't terrible perse, it's just dark... you'd have to turn up the brightness and contrast on your screen in order to see anything (just think Soul Reaver but 2D and grainy) A lot of people complain about the slow loading time, and i don't know if it's just that i'm a man of patience or what, but it didn't bother me all that much. True, it does kind of get on your nerves when you have to change weapons or armor to get through certain puzzles, but if you just stick with a weapon, you could go for a scenario or two without it bothering you much at all. The ingame cinematic, while horrible compared to what you see now, adds a certain flavor to the reest of the game.

The music is suitable, but not all too memorable, only part of it that will stick in your mind isn't the music at all, but the phrase that Kain would repeatedly shout, Fae Victus!

Gameplay is where you get to the meat of the game, you're a vampire! That's right, you get access to all their powers, even down to the part where you need to suck blood. There's nothing more satisfying than to hear the shriek of your enemies as you drain them of the life giving liquid. (really, they scream) You get to turn into a wolf (a form which i prefer) and other powers. Combat is a bit dreary, as all you do is hack away at the enemies, not much strategy is involved until you get to the bosses, where things REALLY pick up. Even though you can't permanently die, to know that you finally solved a piece of the puzzle to defeat a boss is really satisfying.

The game itself really isn't that long, you could finish it in a day or two if you really go at it, (took me 4 with semi long breaks in between) The ending is a real kicker, and one of them provides for the premise of the Soul Reaver sequel. All in all though, this is a game that every psone gamer should own, if not at least rent to give it a good try. Once you get past the graphics and hyped up loading time, then you have a classic on your hands that you'll remember fondly for many years to come.