Archview #27: Legacy of Kain : Blood Omen 2

 Now that is how you suck blood.

 Blood Omen 2 is a third person action game in which you play as a depowered Kain. After a war between the vampires, led by Kain, and the Sarafan Lord, Kain was slain, and his sword, the Soul Reaver, taken from him. Years later, Nosgoth is under the rule of the Sarafan Lord, and Kain is revived in order to aid the Vampire Resistance take him down.
 To do battle, Kain has access to Claws, the natural weapon of all vampires, but he can also take the weapons of his fallen enemies. Every weapon has a 3-hit combo, only varying in speed and damage. The combat itself feels a bit wonky, colision detection is iffy, and most battles are dealt with in the same manner: Avoid Yellow and Red attacks, block 2 or 3 normal attacks, and then counter attack with your combo. Bosses, however, are more puzzle-like in nature, requiring your to use your enviroment or your vampiric powers to take them down.

 Thoughout the 11 chapter adventure, Kain will regain access to his powers, 5 in total, which must be used to complete the many puzzles that lay ahead. Kain can blend into misty areas, which allow him to score stealth kills, "Charm" civilian-enemies in order to have them push levers, Telekinesis, which is used to activate certain switches and a long-range jump. Where you must use what is always very clear, albeit some puzzles may take a couple of minutes to figure out. Kain can also suck the blood out of his dead enemies to heal himself, and he is constantly losing HP, so it is a must. Interestingly enough, there are loads of harmless civilians around the stages, but weather they die or not is entirely up to the player, with no negative consecuence of any kind.
 The AI in this game is really bad. Civilians will run away if they see Kain doing shady stuff, but even if you kill someone in front of them, after a couple of seconds they will have forgoten everything about it. The enemies are a bit smarter, but they are prone to... questionable stuff, like not reacting to seeing an ally die right next to them.

 This is a very ugly game. Models are very ugly, specially the hands. Everyone has malformed hands, and the fingers are spikes, even on human characters. Everyone but Kain has some of the lamest and most uninspired designs I´ve seen. On the other hand, the cities of Nosgoth are very engaging, and look very nice. The few chapters that take place outside the city are not as interesing though. Music is used sparingly, and it´s nothing special. Voice acting is a mixed bag, Kain is astoundingly good, but the rest or the cast are either good or really bad. The dialogue is also a mixed bag, some lines are incredibly good, some are cheesy and some are borderline stupid.
 The game has plenty of design flaws, specially the controls. Blood Omen 2 uses the Resident Evil style controls, which means that Kain moves like a tank, and in a fast-paced game, where you´ll be facing off in melee combat against up to three enemies at the same time, it´s not fun. And attacking? You can´t attack unless you are targeting the enemy, which is just dumb. Something that left me scratching my head is when they placed misty areas.... next to an enemy that can detect Kain even when cloaked. What´s the point of the mist? Geez.... Oh, and checkpoints are placed in the most random areas. Sometimes they could be just a room away, other times you´ll be wishing for one, and the thing that makes this even more annoying? Unskippable cut-scenes. Died after a long cut-scene? You´ll have to watch it again, and some can get quite boring.

 Bottom line, Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 is not a bad game. It´s also not a particularly good one either, it´s just... there. You are not missing anything by skipping it, but it´s no Xenosaga.
6 out of 10