Blood Omen 2, the second instalment in the Legacy of Kain Series, is a 3rd person 3D action/combat game in which you assume the role of the vampire Kain. A compelling story takes you through huge, lushly detailed 3D environments and challenges your skills in combat, puzzle solving, stealth and exploration. With each success, you’ll gain new dark gifts that will grant Kain the ability to access treacherous new areas to explore and the power to face stronger, more aggressive enemies. As you develop a stronger, more skilled vampire, you’ll be rewarded with dozens of dazzling in-game cinematic sequences that unfold the continuing epic of Nosgoth, and Kain’s attempts to ultimately rule over it.
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Blood Omen 2 is a weird one. It's got cool ideas, like the vampire abilities and the time travel mechanic, and Kain himself is such an awesome anti-hero. But the controls are clunky, the story gets super confusing, and some of the design choices are just...questionable. It's still worth playing if you're into the Legacy of Kain series, but be prepared for some jank and a story that goes off the rails.
A classic. I really wish for a new game.
I've beaten almost 200 games so far and none of them made me feel the way Blood Omen 2 did. It's not fundamentally broken or unplayable, but it's like if you distilled the idea of having a boring game to its purest essence, then this game would be the putrid concoction that would come out of it. Anytime I picked it up, I dreaded the fact that I wasn't close to being done with it. I hate this game.
It didn't start off that way to be fair, I had fun for the first two chapters because the game does add some positive changes to combat. The sound design saw a big step up and Kain's claws felt way more impacful and satisfying than the flaccid wraith blade that Raziel used, the lock-on and dodge also feel much more responsive in this game. The biggest thing I liked though, was the lore meter which increased as Kain drew blood from enemies and with enough blood siphoned, Kain's health would increase. This seemed like such an amazing addition since it meant that enemy encounters actually served a purpose now so for once in this series, I felt motivated to fight enemies. I liked the game for the first hour, but then chapter 3 happened, took me an hour and a half to finish and it just felt like more of the same. Then chapter 4 was more of the same, then chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 etc.
Every chapter in this game feels the exact same, it's the videogame equivalent of being in groundhog's day. As you progress through the game you get these Dark Gifts from bosses and I thought they'd be used to spice up level design and offer some interesting puzzles but no, the way these are utilized is so surface-level. You see a big gap? Use the Jump spell. You see an NPC in an area you can't get to? Use the charm spell. You see a green seal? Use Telekinesis on it. It's so bland but you do these in every level multiple times and it's Boring.
When you're not doing the same thing with dark gifts for the 20th time in a stage, you're fighting enemies and almost every enemy encounter is the exact same shit. SR2 had braindead combat where you mashed the square button and could sometimes kill enemies in one swing, it sucked, but was atleast quickly over and done with. In contrast to this, Blood Omen 2 prioritizes defense since enemies seem to be infatuated with blocking Kain's attack in this game so you're best off blocking their attacks and trying to punish afterwards. If you can hold block as the enemy hits Kain 5 times, then dodge out of the way in case they do an uninterruptible/unblockable attack then congratulations, you beat Blood Omen 2 since that's what every single enemy encounter boils down to, even the final 2 phases of the final boss are beaten in the same vein of blocking 5 attacks. dodging their next attack and then attacking back. By the endgame, the game decides to break its own rules by having enemies that can't be punished even when they should be so you're best off hitting them with Immolate, one of the dark gifts that one shots enemies once the bar is full which can only be done by blocking attacks. So most of the time, you're just stood there waiting for the enemies to attack and it's Boring, yet the game has the uncanny ability to turn to being aneurym-inducingly annoying the instant you fight two or more enemies since they'll circle around you to hit you where you can't block and disengaging from combat to get a better position feels so stiff here. Keep in mind you're best off fighting and killing as many enemies as you can to get your lore meter up, and that includes watching the same blood-sucking animation over and over and over and over and over again and I think I spent almost 2 hours of my full playthrough doing nothing other than watching this animation play.
When you're not fighting enemies or using dark gifts, you're flipping switches. SR1 had a hard-on for block-pushing whereas BO2 seems to have a fetish for having you flip switches. Blood Omen 2s idea of good level design is by having a locked door that you need to turn the only switch in the room to open and you do this ad nauseum throughout the game, to call this game's level design amateurish is selling it short. The game does try to have puzzles, and some are okay, but they're extremely few and far apart. The game even has a few block pushing puzzles and they're somehow worse here than in SR1 since you're only able to push them forward and backwards from where Kain is standing. But that's the jist of BO2s gameplay, it's basically like 17 hours of unnecessarily long combat encounters and laughably banal puzzles. It's insane how this game manages to be the longest LoK game by some margin yet is the most empty and desolate in its gameplay.
But okay the gameplay is a travesty but gameplay always felt like an afterthought when compared to the polish and care that goes into the plot of these games so how good is BO2's story? Well, BO2 decides to take the series in a bold new direction by being the only LoK game to have an underwhelming plot. It's set in an alternate timeline and I never got over the dissonance that's felt between this game and the other entries so it was hard to get invested. I also don't really care for how they're treating Kain's character here, I hate the idea of him getting usurped after BO1s ending because to me it just lessens the impact of the first games ending, other than that Kain just doesn't do much here. He spends the whole game doing what the resistance tells him to do like he's an obedient errand boy, even getting betrayed in the process. Characters like Janus and Vorridor make a return here but it's never explained how they're alive so their appearances are more confusing than anything and in terms of graphics, dialogue and cutscene direction this game is uncharacteristically weak when compared to the rest of the games. A lot of the designs look so strange with Kain looking like a rodent and Vorridor looking like a reptile and in cutscenes the models are so wooden, which is made blatantly apparent when contrasted with how expressive SR2s characters were. The shakespearean dialogue of past games is heavily decreased here. Dialogue as a whole is just lesser here, there are no vista markers that have Kain comment on his situation and it's a damn shame because their addition could've really helped these areas not feel as vacant as they end up being.
I wasn't even going to originally play BO2 because I was aware of how this game is viewed by the fanbase but curiosity got the better of me and I ended up suffering through it despite wanting to put it down multiple times. If I could turn back time like I'm Mobius then I would because this game did nothing for me, you're better off just watching a plot recap and skipping straight to Defiance. This is probably the worst thing I've ever played
It didn't start off that way to be fair, I had fun for the first two chapters because the game does add some positive changes to combat. The sound design saw a big step up and Kain's claws felt way more impacful and satisfying than the flaccid wraith blade that Raziel used, the lock-on and dodge also feel much more responsive in this game. The biggest thing I liked though, was the lore meter which increased as Kain drew blood from enemies and with enough blood siphoned, Kain's health would increase. This seemed like such an amazing addition since it meant that enemy encounters actually served a purpose now so for once in this series, I felt motivated to fight enemies. I liked the game for the first hour, but then chapter 3 happened, took me an hour and a half to finish and it just felt like more of the same. Then chapter 4 was more of the same, then chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 etc.
Every chapter in this game feels the exact same, it's the videogame equivalent of being in groundhog's day. As you progress through the game you get these Dark Gifts from bosses and I thought they'd be used to spice up level design and offer some interesting puzzles but no, the way these are utilized is so surface-level. You see a big gap? Use the Jump spell. You see an NPC in an area you can't get to? Use the charm spell. You see a green seal? Use Telekinesis on it. It's so bland but you do these in every level multiple times and it's Boring.
When you're not doing the same thing with dark gifts for the 20th time in a stage, you're fighting enemies and almost every enemy encounter is the exact same shit. SR2 had braindead combat where you mashed the square button and could sometimes kill enemies in one swing, it sucked, but was atleast quickly over and done with. In contrast to this, Blood Omen 2 prioritizes defense since enemies seem to be infatuated with blocking Kain's attack in this game so you're best off blocking their attacks and trying to punish afterwards. If you can hold block as the enemy hits Kain 5 times, then dodge out of the way in case they do an uninterruptible/unblockable attack then congratulations, you beat Blood Omen 2 since that's what every single enemy encounter boils down to, even the final 2 phases of the final boss are beaten in the same vein of blocking 5 attacks. dodging their next attack and then attacking back. By the endgame, the game decides to break its own rules by having enemies that can't be punished even when they should be so you're best off hitting them with Immolate, one of the dark gifts that one shots enemies once the bar is full which can only be done by blocking attacks. So most of the time, you're just stood there waiting for the enemies to attack and it's Boring, yet the game has the uncanny ability to turn to being aneurym-inducingly annoying the instant you fight two or more enemies since they'll circle around you to hit you where you can't block and disengaging from combat to get a better position feels so stiff here. Keep in mind you're best off fighting and killing as many enemies as you can to get your lore meter up, and that includes watching the same blood-sucking animation over and over and over and over and over again and I think I spent almost 2 hours of my full playthrough doing nothing other than watching this animation play.
When you're not fighting enemies or using dark gifts, you're flipping switches. SR1 had a hard-on for block-pushing whereas BO2 seems to have a fetish for having you flip switches. Blood Omen 2s idea of good level design is by having a locked door that you need to turn the only switch in the room to open and you do this ad nauseum throughout the game, to call this game's level design amateurish is selling it short. The game does try to have puzzles, and some are okay, but they're extremely few and far apart. The game even has a few block pushing puzzles and they're somehow worse here than in SR1 since you're only able to push them forward and backwards from where Kain is standing. But that's the jist of BO2s gameplay, it's basically like 17 hours of unnecessarily long combat encounters and laughably banal puzzles. It's insane how this game manages to be the longest LoK game by some margin yet is the most empty and desolate in its gameplay.
But okay the gameplay is a travesty but gameplay always felt like an afterthought when compared to the polish and care that goes into the plot of these games so how good is BO2's story? Well, BO2 decides to take the series in a bold new direction by being the only LoK game to have an underwhelming plot. It's set in an alternate timeline and I never got over the dissonance that's felt between this game and the other entries so it was hard to get invested. I also don't really care for how they're treating Kain's character here, I hate the idea of him getting usurped after BO1s ending because to me it just lessens the impact of the first games ending, other than that Kain just doesn't do much here. He spends the whole game doing what the resistance tells him to do like he's an obedient errand boy, even getting betrayed in the process. Characters like Janus and Vorridor make a return here but it's never explained how they're alive so their appearances are more confusing than anything and in terms of graphics, dialogue and cutscene direction this game is uncharacteristically weak when compared to the rest of the games. A lot of the designs look so strange with Kain looking like a rodent and Vorridor looking like a reptile and in cutscenes the models are so wooden, which is made blatantly apparent when contrasted with how expressive SR2s characters were. The shakespearean dialogue of past games is heavily decreased here. Dialogue as a whole is just lesser here, there are no vista markers that have Kain comment on his situation and it's a damn shame because their addition could've really helped these areas not feel as vacant as they end up being.
I wasn't even going to originally play BO2 because I was aware of how this game is viewed by the fanbase but curiosity got the better of me and I ended up suffering through it despite wanting to put it down multiple times. If I could turn back time like I'm Mobius then I would because this game did nothing for me, you're better off just watching a plot recap and skipping straight to Defiance. This is probably the worst thing I've ever played
Played for like 6 hours and lost 2 hours of progress to a game crash and completely worthless checkpoint system, but honestly this game was a 5/10 at best anyway. Still the best LoK game so far.
My initial thoughts of Blood Omen 2 were quite positive. The world is quite a far cry from the other Kain games (replacing the epic broad strokes of Nosgoth with a smaller, dark and grimy medieval city with mystical and steampunk elements), but I actually thought it was a pretty good setting. It's developed rather well, its inhabitants can often be found chatting to each other about various things, and it generally drips with atmosphere, which helps a lot to hide some of the rougher bits. I think part of it might just be that it reminds me of the Thief games' City, but hey, that's a good thing.
Speaking of Thief, the developers have stated in an interview that they were trying to allow for multiple options in gameplay, and you can see the remains of that. You have an arsenal that widens across the game, and theoretically, it should allow for various strategies in combat... unfortunately, that doesn't work. The invisibility can only be used in foggy areas (which are basically just screaming USE STEALTH HERE LOL), and every other ability is either just a big attack you need to build up energy for, or just solely dedicated to "puzzles". As much as I'd have loved to play a vampire imsim... well I guess VtM: Bloodlines is there.
Speaking of combat, it's simple stuff. A guard, a dodge, and an attack combo (and a grab that works on tired enemies for more damage). It's overly simplistic (there's an option to turn the guard into a timed parry, but I messed with it and it seemed awkward- generally the last thing I'd like for a bad combat system is for it to be harder), but it isn't awful on every level like Soul Reaver 2's combat, so it still felt like an upgrade. BO2 seemed to pace itself quite well too, so no problem there.
I was having a good time. Again, I was in love with the setting, and the story was engaging enough- I'll cherish any opportunity to play as my favorite bastard Kain, even though the writing was a bit less sharp than previous entries. I also liked how he would change outfits between chapters (although this game's character designs are... really bad), and the boss battles were alright. I'd say these thoughts persisted about... halfway through the game, roughly until I hit chapter 6.
And then the game got bad. Don't get me wrong, it's not that there was a massive drop in quality, Blood Omen 2 is just not the kind of game that can last too long without getting boring. It's a 15-hour game, and it felt like 25, despite barely having enough content for like, 6. There was a drop though. The levels got both worse, less interesting (In chapter 6, Kain leaves Meridian City, and only comes back for one chapter, in favor of much less interesting environments), far more focused on the mediocre combat against much spongier enemies, and worse of all, a lot longer. Blood Omen 2 is such a slog to get through. It's difficult to get it across just how mind-numbingly awful the experience is but I was internally begging for it to end by the final stage.
Blood Omen 2 is ugly as hell. I'm normally very partial to lower budget aesthetics from this era, but half the models are just revolting. Kain fares alright thankfully but look at this. Also, it's broken as hell. Cutscene SFX were out of sync and had no OST at all, which I only realized was a bug upon looking them up on YouTube. This may be an emulator problem, but apparently the PC version isn't great either. Which is a shame, because the soundtrack is actually quite good.
Onto the story, usually the saving and selling point of any Kain game. It's... weirdly simple? I expected some massive earth-shaking twists but it just boils down to Kain wanting revenge on the Sarafan Lord and to rule the world again, and then doing just that, with some stuff in the middle. Some details are revealed, but no big revelations happen, Kain's goal remains the exact same throughout the game, and the only thing that actually affects him as a character is a weird bad love story with Umah, the vampire lady that helps him out early on, but disregarding the inherent weirdness of giving Kain a love interest it's just bafflingly handled in every way.
The ending is just Kain, after his victory, thinking about how exactly he will rule the world, and I do appreciate how this game bridges the gap between completely self-interested, arrogant, egotistical and nearly sadistic Blood Omen Kain, and the wise, true neutral manipulator genius that Soul Reaver Kain is. I expressed confusion about that before, and I think this does quite a bit in that regard [Unintentionally, it turns out - this game was made by a different team who allegedly had little interest in the series' lore]. Still, it's a weirdly simple story and even for those planning to go through the series, it's not really worth bothering with. Don't play this game, and honestly don't even watch the cutscenes on Youtube.
Blood Omen 2 was not necessarily a disappointment cause I kinda knew it wouldn't be great, but after the promising-ish beginning its overall quality was a shame nonetheless. Defiance is next and last... man I'm going to be honest, I'm legitimately a bit worried. While I liked BO1 and SR1 well enough, I don't really know if it was worth it to dive into this series that so far has mostly just consisted of cliffhangers and unresolved potential, and Defiance is the last opportunity for that to change. Fingers crossed. EDIT: Yeah it was pretty nice
Speaking of Thief, the developers have stated in an interview that they were trying to allow for multiple options in gameplay, and you can see the remains of that. You have an arsenal that widens across the game, and theoretically, it should allow for various strategies in combat... unfortunately, that doesn't work. The invisibility can only be used in foggy areas (which are basically just screaming USE STEALTH HERE LOL), and every other ability is either just a big attack you need to build up energy for, or just solely dedicated to "puzzles". As much as I'd have loved to play a vampire imsim... well I guess VtM: Bloodlines is there.
Speaking of combat, it's simple stuff. A guard, a dodge, and an attack combo (and a grab that works on tired enemies for more damage). It's overly simplistic (there's an option to turn the guard into a timed parry, but I messed with it and it seemed awkward- generally the last thing I'd like for a bad combat system is for it to be harder), but it isn't awful on every level like Soul Reaver 2's combat, so it still felt like an upgrade. BO2 seemed to pace itself quite well too, so no problem there.
I was having a good time. Again, I was in love with the setting, and the story was engaging enough- I'll cherish any opportunity to play as my favorite bastard Kain, even though the writing was a bit less sharp than previous entries. I also liked how he would change outfits between chapters (although this game's character designs are... really bad), and the boss battles were alright. I'd say these thoughts persisted about... halfway through the game, roughly until I hit chapter 6.
And then the game got bad. Don't get me wrong, it's not that there was a massive drop in quality, Blood Omen 2 is just not the kind of game that can last too long without getting boring. It's a 15-hour game, and it felt like 25, despite barely having enough content for like, 6. There was a drop though. The levels got both worse, less interesting (In chapter 6, Kain leaves Meridian City, and only comes back for one chapter, in favor of much less interesting environments), far more focused on the mediocre combat against much spongier enemies, and worse of all, a lot longer. Blood Omen 2 is such a slog to get through. It's difficult to get it across just how mind-numbingly awful the experience is but I was internally begging for it to end by the final stage.
Blood Omen 2 is ugly as hell. I'm normally very partial to lower budget aesthetics from this era, but half the models are just revolting. Kain fares alright thankfully but look at this. Also, it's broken as hell. Cutscene SFX were out of sync and had no OST at all, which I only realized was a bug upon looking them up on YouTube. This may be an emulator problem, but apparently the PC version isn't great either. Which is a shame, because the soundtrack is actually quite good.
Onto the story, usually the saving and selling point of any Kain game. It's... weirdly simple? I expected some massive earth-shaking twists but it just boils down to Kain wanting revenge on the Sarafan Lord and to rule the world again, and then doing just that, with some stuff in the middle. Some details are revealed, but no big revelations happen, Kain's goal remains the exact same throughout the game, and the only thing that actually affects him as a character is a weird bad love story with Umah, the vampire lady that helps him out early on, but disregarding the inherent weirdness of giving Kain a love interest it's just bafflingly handled in every way.
The ending is just Kain, after his victory, thinking about how exactly he will rule the world, and I do appreciate how this game bridges the gap between completely self-interested, arrogant, egotistical and nearly sadistic Blood Omen Kain, and the wise, true neutral manipulator genius that Soul Reaver Kain is. I expressed confusion about that before, and I think this does quite a bit in that regard [Unintentionally, it turns out - this game was made by a different team who allegedly had little interest in the series' lore]. Still, it's a weirdly simple story and even for those planning to go through the series, it's not really worth bothering with. Don't play this game, and honestly don't even watch the cutscenes on Youtube.
Blood Omen 2 was not necessarily a disappointment cause I kinda knew it wouldn't be great, but after the promising-ish beginning its overall quality was a shame nonetheless. Defiance is next and last... man I'm going to be honest, I'm legitimately a bit worried. While I liked BO1 and SR1 well enough, I don't really know if it was worth it to dive into this series that so far has mostly just consisted of cliffhangers and unresolved potential, and Defiance is the last opportunity for that to change. Fingers crossed. EDIT: Yeah it was pretty nice
Such a brilliant world were forgotten