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An Awesome Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: March 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Blood Omen 2 is the best of the Legacy of Kain games, barnone. The story, the gameplay, and the intangibles simply make this a fun and engaging game to play.

For those who aren't familiar with the series, Legacy of Kain's main hero/villain (depending on which game you're playing) is Kain, a vampire in the land of Nosgoth who eventually ends up taking over the entire world and plunging it into darkness. Blood Omen 2 takes place roughly 200 years after the first Blood Omen and after Kain's first attempt to conquer Nosgoth ended at the city of Meridian. Kain wakes up and sets out to destroy the Serafan Lord, the head of the Serafan order and the one who beat Kain two centuries earlier.

The game's controls are very basic, but to make sure you understand it, the story starts with a tutorial in the slums of Meridian. This helps you to get the mechanics down before you're thrown into battle. The fighting mechanics are very simple. You can do a three-hit combo or grab, hit, and throw your opponent. There are also several different kinds of weapons at your disposal, but they all pretty much do the same thing, although the speed and power of the attacks vary.

There are also several dark gifts for you to use in the game, including Mist, which lets you perform stealth kills, and Charm, which allows you to control the ordinary humans in the game. You can't get through the game without using these, so you really have to learn them well.

There's also a wide variety of enemies, ranging from knights to demons. Each battle is different as well, as each opponent blocks your attacks and uses their own. The boss battles are really the highlight of combat though, as each battle requires you to do more than just fight. You have to use your dark gifts in order to defeat them, for the most part, and you also must use ingenuity.

There are puzzles in the game, but they aren't nearly as challenging as the ones in the Soul Reaver games. Most of them take a little time to figure out, but eventually exploring and a good eye allow you to figure it out. I think the most time I spent on one puzzle is ten minutes.

The storyline and the cutscenes are also extremely engaging. The story is as good as any supernatural drama, with twists and turns that keep you interested in the story. There are also little touches in the gameplay, such as the regular humans conversing with each other.

The only complaint I have about this game is that it is too short. Part of that is because this game is so engaging and fun that you can end up spending hours playing it without even knowing it. But that is a minor thing.

Overall, this game is incredible and is a must-own for anyone who is a fan of either the Legacy of Kain series or action/horror games in general.

Not bad, but not great either

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: March 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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.

Such Potential, Such Waste

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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.

Fun, large game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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.

Good, perverse, fun.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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

A good game, though the first Blood Omen was better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

A vampire game that's full of problems

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: May 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

After playing this game I now understand why Extended Play gave this game only 2 stars out of 5 and I can only give it 1 star out of 5. Where to begin? The first major problem with this game is with all the graphics flaws throughout the whole game. In fact it amazes me this game was released in it's current form. After playing it, it's obvious that EIDOS rushed this game out and released a very poor game. The graphics flaws just make the game seem so silly at times. You'll notice right away that characters will fall INTO walls and only half their body will be sticking out of walls or surrounding objects. In one of the chapters a lady character actually walked right through Kain. During a portion of the game where you must release a demon from a cage the game went a little crazy on me, it shot my character Kain from one location to another location on top of some mesh-wire type floor and locked Kain into position here while you heard sounds of battle going on but could see or do nothing until this battle was over and then it transported me back to my original position on the ground. I just thought it was some sort of weird programming error. Anyway, to continue with the list of errors, another major error is that this game forces you to kill an enemy in only a certain way. Example: When I first ran into the vampire that sets things on fire, I tired to kill him right there by slashing him up with my sword and even though blood was coming from the fire vampire and I was also knocking him to the ground, NO DAMAGE was being reported by the game since you were not suppose to kill him then. You must basically let the vampire go until you meet him again later and then try to kill him. This kind of "lock you into a story line" is stupid especially when they let you engage an enemy that you're really not suppose to be near yet. This is also true of the last battle scene when you can walk right up to the Sarafan Lord and hit him bringing blood and knocking him down but NO DAMAGE is counted since the game won't let you kill him in that way. Also a very major graphics flaw was where I get ready to fight the Sarafan Lord at the end and during the movie video showing them talking to each other, Kain has a sword sticking right through his chest instead of it being hostered across his back like it's was suppose to be when you carry a weapon and Kain doesn't seem to mind at all! Also this game lies about several things, telling you one thing only to show the opposite later. Examples: In the beginning of the game they clearly tell you that water will hurt and kill any vampire, only to then later on show the fire vampire falling into deep water several times and it did not hurt the fire throwing vampire and did not kill him either! Example 2 is that they clearly tell you that the Soul Reaver sword can't hurt you so long as if you're wearing the Nexus stone, but later in the game when you battle the Sarafan Lord and he has the Soul Reaver sword and Kain has on the Nexus stone that when the Sarafan Lord shoots these power shots at Kain with the sword it actually hurts Kain not only in blood life level but also knocks him down. Could EIDOS explain why such errors are present all through the game? I doubt it. The so-called puzzle are just a bunch of switches placed all over the place and you have to just throw them to open a door, etc. Not much of a puzzle if you ask me and really unnecessary through most of the game. This is one of the worst games I've ever played, not only in the amount of errors in the game but also very limited gameplay. The 1 star is for the fact I like vampire stuff but as far as a vampire game goes, this game fails. There are other errors also but I'm not going to bother to continue to list them.

Atmospheric, beautiful, but ultimately as linear as a laser.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: April 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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.

Kain rocks!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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.

A let down

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

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