The first Blood Omen game released for the PSone made many heads turn. The fact that you played as a blood thirsty Vampire was never done before. Playing as a bad guy ended up being a great pleasure. To slit a man’s throat while he’s in chains begging “help me kind sir” brought joy to me and many other gamers. Originally developed by now second party Nintendo videogame development house Silicon Knights. The Legacy of Kain spawned a series of games played by millions. To be a LoK fan you have to be in one of two groups… Kain fans & Raziel loving punks (can you tell what group I’m in?). Enter Blood Omen 2… a sequel of the first and prequel to the Soul Reaver games.

Here one main problem the graphics. When a new game comes out that is a continuation of a long line of previous games, people want bigger, badder and prettier. This game isn't bigger, it is a little badder because of the dark gifts, but it is certainly not prettier. Don't misunderstand me, this graphics are absolutely acceptable. Nice dark gothic levels with good textures. The further into the game you get the darker and more gothic. It's just that the graphics here don't surpass any that came before them. And the framerate can kill you… literally. Thankfully the game shines in the sound department. As usual crystal dynamics has brought in some great voice talent. Kain is his usual arrogant self. The background conversations of the townspeople are well done also. Spin your character and the voices and ambient sounds will spin around your head. If you are not sure where something is, spin to see what speaker it is coming from.

First of all, for those of you hoping that this game will blow the pants off the previous PS2 offering Soul Reaver 2, you are in for a bit of a disappointment. This game fun, but it is not superior to any of the previous games. The gameplay is very similar to SR2. It is still third person. You run around and kill stuff and solve puzzles. You are subjected to the same long but entertaining cut scenes. Unfortunately you cannot skip them if you have seen them before, so don't die right after you have seen one, or you get to sit through it again. The combat system is again similar to SR2. You can lock on to enemy, attack with claws, or if you have a weapon you attack with the weapon. You can also grab the enemy by the throat and either continues to beat him/her or you can throw the enemy like a rag doll. My favorites are to grab and enemy and stab him repeatedly in the gut with my weapon. This game is definitely mature with a capital M. Lot of blood spilling people. Once your enemies are vanquished, you can drain them of blood. Remember, you're a vampire here, blood is your life. A new twist over the previous games is the fact that your health will continually drain, so you must find new victims to suck. This adds a little strategy as you can't just go running around killing everyone you come across. You must save some for later. heh heh.
Yummy

Next is the "dark gifts". This is what sets this game apart from the previous adventures through Nosgoth. Dark gifts are abilities exclusive to the creatures of the night. You begin the game with only two, but there are a total of seven (Mist, Jump, Charm, Telekinesis, Fury, Berserk and Immolate). Three are offensive and four are defensive and aid in navigation. I won't go into them all, but Mist allows you to become invisible and sneak around. You can sneak up behind an enemy and perform a "stealth kill" which includes decapitation. Cool. As you gain lore, you eventually will attain new dark gifts. Using these abilities depletes yet another energy meter called the "Rage Meter". Blocking during combat recharges your rage meter.

Blood Omen 2 is good but can be better. I’m pretty damn sad Raziel PS2 game is better that Kain’s Next-Gen offering. And I hope it will be better next time. In his next game where Kain hopefully kills Raziel and rules the world forever. If you like Vampires and like to be a bad guy. Buy this one. If you’re just looking for an nice adventure rent.