N-Philes

Blood Omen 2

Posted by Kenny.

Making his appearance in a number of different titles for Sony's Playstation brand, Kain is finally bringing his legacy to Nintendo's latest console system. From the Blood Omen series of games, Blood Omen 2 continues the story of Kain's rise and fall from Nosgoth, and the eleven chapters that transcribe his journey back to power. The game features Kain in all his blood-sucking glory, giving players full control of both the blessing and the curse that comes with being a vampire. The title may be a worthy successor to other games of the series, but as a next-generation product, fails to break any boundaries or pass beyond the meaning of the word ‘mediocre.'

The Story

The following excerpt has been taken directly from the manual to Blood Omen 2. Since the events of Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, Kain had become a commander of an army of vampires bent on ruling the land of Nosgoth. In response to his rise to power, another faction appeared in the land: The Sarafan, a group of militant humans led by a mysterious and powerful figure, the Sarafan Lord. Determined to wipe out the vampire threat, The Sarafan clashed with Kain's army for years. This war ended with The Sarafan finally triumphant over Kain's army, and with Kain and the Sarafan Lord locked in mortal combat. The Sarafan Lord won this battle, stripped the Soul Reaver from Kain, and threw him off a cliff to his apparent death.

Umah tells Kain that his body was found and revived, and he has been brought to the capital of Nosgoth, the city of Meridian. Kain has been unconscious for over two hundred years, and in this time, The Sarafan have taken fascist control of most of Nosgoth. Vampires have formed a small resistance, called The Cabal, in Meridian to undermine The Sarafan. It is this resistance that Kain is now a part of. The goal of the resistance is simple: Kill the Sarafan Lord, and The Sarafan will crumble. Because The Sarafan do not know of Kain's existence, he becomes the perfect agent to find and kill the Sarafan Lord. Kain agrees to help The Cabal for the time being, but he fully intends to follow his own agenda, and seek revenge however possible...

Presentation

In general, Blood Omen 2 has on and off days typical of games ported to multiple consoles. Perhaps the most apparent example of this is the loading time to the game. Don't get me wrong, the loading times compete with most games out there; they're definitely not long nor do they occur very often. However, it's clear the developers at Crystal Dynamics tried some clever programming to minimize loading occurrence. Much of the game is loaded while you play, which results in a number of choppy moments that are, oddly enough, not related to the graphical prowess of the GCN. Although I had no troubles with this particular drawback, many gamers may be teed-off by the frequency that this happens, which is to say quite often. What did worry me though, were the absolutely horrid and painful noises my GCN made while it was thinking. Much like a computer without a proper cooling fan, my GameCube made crunching and grinding noises that frightened me so badly, at times I'd turn my system off before the explosion I was sure would come afterwards. And no, there is nothing wrong with my GameCube.

Although Blood Omen 2 looks and feels solid enough at first glance, the farther you get in the game the more problems occur. The lengthy opening full-motion video sequence is nothing spectacular, but does have its redeeming moments, and successfully explains Kain's current predicament. Of course, this proves redundant as the even lengthier in-game introduction explains everything once more in greater detail. Unfortunately the in-game cinematic sequences are not very well laid out and are plagued with odd cuts and poor execution, which is a pity because the game features tons of these story scenes. Whether it was time restraints or lack of effort, there's quite a bit of room for polish in this title. Despite that, it's easy enough to start playing right away through the menu, because the game features no additional gameplay elements, such as multiplayer or even unlockable items. So it's pretty much a one-time thing, but that proves not to be so bad. Each save file takes a single diminutive memory card space, which is completely understandable since linear gameplay and no inventory storage cuts down the amount of information to be saved.

Gameplay

Much like the presentation, Blood Omen 2's gameplay is a mixed bag. The story begins with a simple tutorial, quickly explaining Kain's current and weak abilities, and what he must do to enhance them. You're immediately given a vampire's skills in jumping, fighting, and of course, blood-sucking. It is up to you to utilize and strengthen your powers for the inevitable showdown against the Sarafan Lord. Basic survival tactics in Blood Omen 2 revolve around your fast hands and quick reflexes. With a fighting engine slightly more intricate than most third-person action/adventure games, Blood Omen 2 requires you not only to attack your enemies, but to block and evade their assaults as well. By pressing and holding the R shoulder button, Kain immediately locks on to his nearest adversary. As you move left and right, you rotate around your target respectively. From here, you have the option to attack, block, or evade. Each action proves absolutely vital if you wish to live long enough to become the ruler of Nosgoth. By pressing the L shoulder button, Kain lifts his arms to block an opponent's attack. Time it too early and you'll receive a mouthful of fist; time it too late and you'll receive... well, yet another mouthful of fist. While you block their attacks, prepare to unleash a flurry of punches of your own. However, keep in mind that your opponents can also defend against your strikes, and even more frustratingly can execute moves that are unblockable. The only way to avoid such moves is to evade them. The timing to the fighting system is near perfect, however the hit detection is not, making this game a little too difficult to master.

Kain does not like to get his hands dirty, so throughout the game you're given a wide assortment of weapons to deal major damage to your enemies. All weapons vary in strength, and some have special attributes. If you like to play cheap, you can also grab your foes by the throats and beat the life out of them bit by bit. Or if you're on a tight schedule, use certain weapons to perform moves that automatically kill, such as decapitation. As well, be careful not to allow your enemies too much leeway with their attacks, since blow after blow can cause your weapon to break, leaving you with only your fists to defend you. Also, enhance the damage you deal even more by enchanting your weapon with aptly named vampire weapon power-up chests.

But what good is a vampire game if you don't have supernatural powers? Blood Omen 2 features special vampire abilities known as Dark Gifts to aid Kain in his quest for revenge. What Dark Gifts entail are incredible feats of physical or mental prowess that only the strongest vampires can accomplish. The game starts by giving you two of these abilities: Fury and Mist, from a total of seven. Fury is a simple yet powerful attack that you can perform on your hapless rivals but requires you to fill up your rage meter. The rage meter is bar at the top of the screen that goes up with every successful block executed. Once it hits a certain level, you can carry out a number of different attacks, provided you have located the Dark Gift that allows such an action. Mist, one of the more unique powers bestowed to you, gives Kain the option to hide in specific places to ambush his enemies. Mist is one of the few pleasant surprises found within Blood Omen 2. As you progress through the game you will receive more of these Dark Gifts, some rather obvious and uninteresting, others very nicely thought-out and designed.

Last but not least is Kain's thirst for blood. Once you defeat an opponent, you can suck whatever vitality they have left in them by pressing the B button. As you suck their blood, two bars rise in the HUD. One indicates the replenishment of your health, while another specifies your lore meter. The more blood you drink, the higher the lore meter increases. Once the bar reaches its apex, Kain does a funny animation and your health or blood meter is increased slightly. Sucking every single drop of blood can be very time-consuming, so Crystal Dynamics chose to add lore chests that raise the lore meter faster than by ordinary means. This proves absolutely vital later in the game, since your blood levels slowly drain, and certain powerful adversaries can defeat you in a single blow.

Aside from the technical aspects to the game, how does Blood Omen 2 play in general? Once you get past jittery controls and poor hit detection, the game plays fairly decently overall. As a linear action title, Blood Omen 2 provides everything expected of games in this genre, which at times actually works against it. Much of the problem solving consists of hitting the right switch, which causes a chain reaction of events that makes no sense whatsoever. Of course, a blue moon does happen to shine once in a while, and you may come in contact with a true brainteaser that is actually satisfying to complete. And some boss battles couldn't have been done any better. If the developers worked to flourish this hidden talent, Blood Omen 2 would have been more of a game and less of a test in patience. This becomes painfully clear when you begin sucking blood. It looks cool the first time, but the gimmick wears off much too quickly, and yet the blood-sucking must relentlessly go on. As I mentioned earlier, it truly is a mixed bag of ideas.

Visuals

Unfortunately, while the gameplay to Blood Omen 2 feels outdated, the graphics are comparably archaic. The game does have some extensive architecture, for the most part pre-used textures and blocky character design are the recurring themes in this game. And though the system choppiness has nothing to do graphically, it certainly doesn't help. The visuals were my biggest turnoff from this game. It may have been a big competitor on the Dreamcast, but in no way does this title display the performance of any next-generation console. Even the draw distance is too limiting. While you can see far off into the environments around you, moving objects such as NPC's are notorious for popping up now and then. If there's anything positive to say about the graphics, it's that the game does manage to instill the proper mood and atmosphere. It is always nighttime, and the structure of the city of Meridian resembles a gothic old-time style that is nicely portrayed.

If this review is painful to read for Legacy of Kain fans, I suggest you close your browser right now, because it doesn't get any prettier. And neither does this game. I wonder whether the developers are really tired of working on the Legacy of Kain series, because what should be standard isn't. I say this with the game's camera system in mind; or in particular, the lack of a camera system. For the most part, the camera remains glued behind your character, refusing any dynamic movement whatsoever. Using the C-stick, players are given the option to roam their view around in three-dimensionality, however the control is extremely sensitive, and unlike certain games that revolutionized how we play 3rd-person adventures, I.e Mario 64, the camera adamantly returns to its previous position behind your character the moment you let go of the stick. It's too sensitive and too difficult to play the game while holding your thumb on the C-stick, making this element virtually useless. Blood Omen 2's only redeeming quality in terms of camera view are the preset angles that appear when you perform special moves.

Fortunately Blood Omen 2 should satisfy certain cravings since the game has well earned its mature label. At the start of the game, killing civilians and sucking blood seems timid to what this title could entail, but that's only the beginning. Later on your techniques become more gruesome and thusly more entertaining, so little children beware. Although most of the blood and killing found in Blood Omen 2 reflected off of my desensitized scruples, I was grossed out by Kain's massive appetite and his broad tastes. You'll come into contact with a number of creatures other than humans, such as giant spiders, and ironically Kain is more than willing to suck their blood.

Audio

This mixed bag gets more and more jumbled when you stick in Blood Omen 2's audio quality. On one hand, we have mediocre gameplay and outdated graphics; on the other we have absolutely stellar voice acting. The team responsible for the vocal clips in Blood Omen 2 have done an incredible job of playing their respective characters. Some aren't so good, but the important ones, such as the Sarafan Lord and Kain himself, couldn't have been pulled off any better. The screams of pain that civilians express are a little funny sounding, but their death gurgles are much more convincing. The sound quality is slightly fuzzy, but nothing in comparison to other perpetrators, like Turok: Evolution and James Bond: Nightfire. Musically, much of the game is played in utter silence to add an ominous atmosphere, and the score you can hear is often quiet and played in low tones. There is also only a small library of sound effects, but this game runs in a linear pattern, meaning you do much of the same thing, and therefore a large variety of ambient sound effects aren't needed. All in all, Audio is the only aspect in Blood Omen 2 that does not have any prominent drawbacks.

This game gets an N-Philes score of D.

While Blood Omen 2 does have good elements, and at times can actually be fun to play, its shortcomings inhibit the game from being any true keeper for your GCN library. It's mediocre at best, and while mature GameCube owners may want to consume as many adult-themed games as they can, Blood Omen 2 will leave a bad taste in your mouth. Linear and repetitive gameplay, inferior hit detection, and unattractive visuals makes a good deal of this title difficult to go through even once. And if you do buy or rent this game, going through it once will be all you shall do since no additional bonuses have been included whatsoever. The fact that this title was the fourth in a long running franchise got me to expect more, but instead I was treated to a shabby port of a lackluster game. Some fans of the series will definitely like it, but for me Blood Omen 2 has left Kain's legacy much to be desired.

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