some of the best voice acting in the medium of videojames.
the gameplay is not as good as the story being told and that really is such a shame, Vae Victus.
the gameplay is not as good as the story being told and that really is such a shame, Vae Victus.
Ahead of its time. Very hard to get into it nowadays and desperately needs a remake.
I played Blood Omen directly after playing Zelda: A Link to the Past and my god are these two games similar and very very different at the same time. Zelda gets so many things right and it's strange to see Blood Omen, released over 4 years later, get so many of them wrong. Wonky combat system, uninspired level design, weird inventory management, storyline at times strangely disconnected. The game feels like it is just going to fall apart at any moment of it's playtime. And even my incredible amounts of low-poly nostalgia couldn't make me not cringe at the incredibly ugly 3d animated cutscenes.
Despite all that, Blood Omen manages to create an unparalleled dark, gothic atmosphere. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing. The voice acting is on a level I don't remember ever hearing in a video game. Kain's voice actor went full in on his role. The way Kain is written is very engaging, developing slowly from being just a bitter, arrogant, self-centred misanthrope into contemplating the strange, cruel world around him and developing a complex relationship with fate.
The spells and magic items are so good. They are so over the top and gory and brutal, they really feel like the type of magic a bloodthirsty vampire would use. The first magic item flays the skin of the enemy, killing them instantly, and at first it feels a bit overpowered are extremely brutal. But it just keeps getting better from there. Expect to kill enemies in very very bloody ways. The mind control spell also gets my commendation for how well it was implemented.
Favourite spell: Blood Shower
Also, the UI design is so good. Bring back that UI that takes up almost half of the screen for no good reason.
For all it's flaws, I love Blood Omen with my entire heart.
Despite all that, Blood Omen manages to create an unparalleled dark, gothic atmosphere. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing. The voice acting is on a level I don't remember ever hearing in a video game. Kain's voice actor went full in on his role. The way Kain is written is very engaging, developing slowly from being just a bitter, arrogant, self-centred misanthrope into contemplating the strange, cruel world around him and developing a complex relationship with fate.
The spells and magic items are so good. They are so over the top and gory and brutal, they really feel like the type of magic a bloodthirsty vampire would use. The first magic item flays the skin of the enemy, killing them instantly, and at first it feels a bit overpowered are extremely brutal. But it just keeps getting better from there. Expect to kill enemies in very very bloody ways. The mind control spell also gets my commendation for how well it was implemented.
Favourite spell: Blood Shower
Also, the UI design is so good. Bring back that UI that takes up almost half of the screen for no good reason.
For all it's flaws, I love Blood Omen with my entire heart.
In a FAQ on Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. It was revealed that "The Vision of Kain'' was conceived to be a game which adults would want to play. The character Kain was modeled in part after Clint Eastwood's character in the movie "Unforgiven". In this movie, there were no "good" or "evil" characters, they were all "gray". The vision of Kain was to create a game where the player is put in the position where everyone believes you are evil, perhaps even yourself. We wanted to ask the question "What is evil? Perhaps it is merely a perspective."
The notion of evil has long been exercised for, against, and studied at length for varying degrees across countless years before the release of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Most often against the opposite side of ‘good,’ yet intensely analyzed with a fine pen from the schools of philosophy and psychology. Yet, here the concept is used in a uniquely interesting manner compared to all the other titles in the PSX library I’ve played thus far. Since released back in 1996. Offering a nuanced dark story, featuring an unconventional ‘hero’ protagonist. Where you play as the aforementioned character. A recently slain petty noble turned vampire on his quest for revenge and cure for his vampirism status. His quest is fraught with peril at every turn. He’s weak and isn’t a badass for one turned into a dark creature of the night. Hasn’t adjusted well to his transformation thus his monologues both external and internal display a cynically arrogant personality throughout. A type I vehemently abhor in video games. Yet I cannot help but become allured to his actions throughout as he marches across the lands of Nosgoth.
A medieval fantasy land full of vampires, humans, and other manner of terrifying supernatural creatures prowling the night and day. And before I entered the game, I checked the world map to see what the world is like from a geographical perspective. Nosgoth is filled with large swathes of diverse terrain. Mountainous regions, lush forests, spots of bustling towns, and fortified cities lie amidst the gentle rivers and calm lakes. Most eye-catching of all is the unusually large architectures: big skull, floating island, tall fortress near flowing lava, nine giant pillars, some kinda frozen water temple? A haunting mansion, and one colossal knight statue similar to the Argonath from Lord of the Rings. There’s more I could list but hopefully you get the picture. Jutting out with varied names attached related to the Circle of Nine. Nine powerful sorcerers who protect the pillars of Nosgoth. These pillars reflect the health of the lands. And I was struck with a burning wanderlust to travel to each exotic location and see what each experience has to offer me.
A clear strength at the forefront to lure me like bait on a hook for subtle worldbuilding. Sure it’s not as rich and dense as the Forgotten Realms universe or how nuanced the deep characters of the Witcher are in complexity. Nor does it boast the rich history from Fallout or the sinister and epic clashes from the Diablo games spilling into the world of man. Nay, Nosgoth’s light world-building is steeped in the powerful echelon of the circle, the unholy might of vampires grip onto fearful mortals, breeding suspicion, fear, and all manners of dark monsters waiting, watching to grab innocents and thus bring them closer to death's embrace. Oh yes, right off the bat the unforgiving tone and presentation caught me unawares to the point my wonder was viscerally torn at how brutal events play out here. Evil thrives in all forms and I am here for it.
Despite the malevolent atmosphere, I had plenty of fun here with some caveats I’ll talk about later. For now, I’ll reminisce on the good memories. My first impressions as several hours passed shocked me. To find the gameplay remarkably similar to the Legend of Zelda (LoZ) formula except twisted in a Vampire’s tale filled with a darker domain and dubious individuals at nearly every turn. Short to medium-length dungeons with multiple rooms and puzzles. Seen from a top-down perspective. Linear with non-linear segments for optional items or for the most studious in exploring to be richly rewarded in permanent upgrades to health and magic capacities. Different weapons, armor, spells, and transformations can be found and earned in optional caverns and cleverly tucked away basements in mausoleums or normal houses. Not a wide selection, but useful nonetheless in overcoming multiple obstacles in your path. Use a mace to break stone formations, and axes to chop trees blocking your way. Turn into a wolf to leap across great distances, a bat to fast travel and so much more. Hell, spells are useful when you’re in a pickle like summoning a lightning bolt to activate a switch from a fair distance. A light spell to illuminate your surroundings, and my favorite mind control. Oh, man! You can assume control of any enemy except bosses to reach inaccessible areas, activate a mechanism on the wall, procure consumable items, and even kill enemies! Seriously, I'm amazed at how versatile his powers are in both equipment and utility. I used them habitually time and time again as I progressed further into my quest. Removing anyone and anything from my path.
Vae Victus
In the opening FMV, those lines were uttered by Kain as he suffers with a big sword lodged through his chest and again used during combat as a battle cry. The iconic line and more is profoundly voiced by Simon Templeman. A man who eloquently becomes the aforementioned character to deliver rich monologues both external and internal. His many years of theatre experience provide such a dash of realism to the protagonist to the point I am instantly captivated by his voice just as any time Morgan Freeman talks. And this without a shadow of a doubt is one of the game's strongest points. “Where the entire story is conveyed through voice-over and first-person narrative.” told by Denis Dyack, who created the original concept of Kain. & director. I was engrossed any time Templeman spoke, and beyond the cutscenes lies numerous mystical signs littering the grounds of Nosgoth where he would speak. Of his internal thoughts. The Shakespearean-like voiced lines provide a fascinating look into the thought process, habits, personality, beliefs, values, history, relationships and so much more. Through Kain’s eyes, we see the story in a personal nature arise and combine with the mature plot. Complementing the FMV and plot beats in tandem with the excellent voice acting. In layman’s terms think of our central figure commentating aloud on the previous events, of goals in mind, self-doubts, and ruminations. It is here I felt the voiced narrative intertwine with the inhabitants ranging from all kinds of human hierarchy. Commoners, beggars, nobles, knights, guards, kings, and of course the nine sorcerers who become major subjects of interest to our 'hero' within thirty minutes of starting the game. Their voices contribute a stark contrast to the audacious personality our titular character conveys. Mortanius the necromancer, speaks to the newly turned vampire via telepathy. Supporting him with new goals. Vorador the elder vampire, a mighty being who without remorse advocates embracing blacker-than-night tendencies. Ariel, the balance of the circle, offers our main character an unusual proposal to cure his sickness. Common folks are not spared either. Granting hints via gossip on unnatural events occurring nearby. Spells, weapons, armor, and items are also given fair treatment. Our key player will briefly talk about the item at hand, any relevant history, and their purpose during battle. Never was tiring hearing these precious lines or other beings like foes. Administering an immersive quality and thus bringing liveliness and deadliness as we journey onward.
His journey, for a closer inspection underneath the surface, upholds a somewhat deadly, but mostly fair design in how dungeons, puzzles to a certain extent, and boss fights are constructed. Tying to the fun gameplay I mentioned earlier. The adequate Legend of Zelda-esque dungeon designs are designed with a mix of traps, like spikes coming from walls and floors. While pesky enemies like skeletons, wraiths, ghosts, murderous humans, etc litter rooms. Thankfully, the game employs a lot of enemy variety so we're not bored seeing mob #1 to mob #2. Switches and levers on walls to open a passageway, sometimes big puzzles requiring more than simply hitting a switch reside. Tingling the brain to use other means within your arsenal. Traveling to another location in a specific path, do so wrongly and I am teleported back to the beginning, one had me teleporting to different places, so backtracking may be needed to remember paths, some walkways may seem insurmountable, but using a handy spell or transformation will make the march trivial. There’s more I could list, but hopefully, you get the picture. To contend with these endeavors in dungeons lies a dungeon boss. Most bosses can be eliminated by any means of weaponry or ability at your disposal. The hard part is getting close to them. Usually, they’ll have a gimmick or two involved making any movement closer hastily punishing. For example, bullet hells. Illusion of death, oh you thought this would be a fair fight man vs. man, bouts of strength and attrition, etc. Overall I would say most of the encounters with each big baddie were decent to very satisfying. Some worrying signals to know though.
And this is where I'll talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Simply some concerns I found that may prove troublesome for others in varying degrees. For me, all of these points brought the all-embracing experience a tad. Yet doesn’t detract too much from the positives the game entails.
First, every time you re-enter a room or corridor all enemies will re-spawn. In spite of already defeating them into oblivion. This wouldn’t be so egregious if we could gain a reward like extra items to replenish our vitality. Yet some adversaries are troublesome to defeat since they will always be without end once your character moves closer to them. Become public enemy #1 where you cannot escape until you run a sufficient amount of distance. Distance from what I experimented with leads from afar. You go into another room. And two. Run a decent amount so they cannot catch up to you. Both parts aren't really helpful in the long run if I need to go back to a previous room. Driving the knife deeper are several enemies like wraiths shooting magical bolts dealing a decent amount of damage and flinging you to one side. The game loves to slap several of these infuriating dudes in a room and have us try to kill or evade them. Imagine killing the insufferable apparitions only to forget there was a spare hidden path tucked cleverly. Oh, I should head back. OH, MAN. You guys again f%^ my life. For what it’s worth, these occurrences didn’t happen often, merely uncommon to rare times. Doesn’t help that we can't suck the essence out of foolish enemies to recover our strength. And more often than not I faced scores of foes where I cannot possibly suck their juice. Thereby taking my enjoyment a bit at times in a minor form.
Second, speaking of opponents. I think the game needs to lessen the attackers' devastation in the middle to late game. Enemies hit hard, so you’ll need to be careful of wasting precious items and spells. Dying here and using up your remaining heart of darkness(these are the only consumables to automatically restore you to life with 1/7 of your max health) sucks. I think more enemies chained on walls to freely replenish our vigor would’ve helped and a decrease in overall damage from 10-25% towards endgame would’ve helped smoothen my slight frustration. He doesn’t have a lot of health in the beginning. Regardless of the player exploring thoroughly to upgrade their total HP supply. Therefore, my endgame suffered a bit until I decided to use cheats the game employs. Starting from the halfway mark. Think button commands ala Grand Theft Auto III to restore health. Only used the commands as a last resort to recover my magic/health. And only when I had less than three hearts of darkness in my pockets. Die without any of the hearts and goodbye save file. Hello, game over screen and back to your last known save location. I should confess to prevent any misconceptions. I explored thoroughly to grab as many health and magic upgrades. To the point I was still struggling somewhat with this amount of health and magic Yet I still suffered through bloodshed. Even when I ran away most of the time. I barely used any blood spells which according to the spell description can restore your health from enemies. Using the heart as a consumable might also mitigate loss in endurance due to restoring a decent amount of health instead of dying and reviving. So maybe my playstyle suffered more because of this. Thus, your mileage may vary.
Third, both qualities of constant re-spawning of enemies as we re-enter rooms and high damage output from assailants lead me to believe the Silicon knights(the developers who created Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain) perhaps had trouble configuring the right balance of enemy placement and harmful properties. The fact there are cheats available leads me to believe that the devs saw this as a temporary bandaid to solve possible frustrations from lack of healing/revival items. I suspect perhaps if I were more vigilant and prepared properly with some tips and hints then maybe I wouldn’t have any issues. However, one other factor that may cause further difficulty is how the save system is implemented. Innately players cannot save manually anytime. They have to approach a blood shrine to activate. I found these shrines constantly in caverns, mausoleums, castles, towns, cities, and homes where a multiple-floor level resides. The problem is that they only appear at the start. So if you die mid-way through a dungeon. Welp, my dude back to square one. Only if you have no heart of darkness. If you do, you can come back alive. Thankfully before hitting a major boss, the devs saw fit to include another shrine before a bossfight. A large sigh of relief overcame my being once I saw this implemented again and again, yet this doesn’t remove the underlying dilemma. Progress lost is still progress lost. Losing minutes to half an hour can be morale-inducing to my detriment. So beware of each shrine location and how far you are from one. Still, the aspect isn’t a major negative in my books, since I was able to complete the game using the titular mechanic constantly. Merely a warning for those curious about how to save properly.
That’s it for my mixed feelings. Honestly quite a lot of my troubles I feel were attributed to my negligence to seek help in favor of a blind playthrough. I don’t regret it. But a lingering doubt in my head feels like it could’ve been better to smoothen out my overall experience. Nevertheless, the sheer strengths Silicon Knights employed back in 1996 deserve special praise to this day. The music hits the orchestral high notes while giving off epic drums and beats to intensify our moods into mythical dimensions. Complementing well with Templeman’s impeccable voice acting among others. Luring me like a helpless slave to their magnificent voices. Reminiscent of Louis de Pointe du Lac detailing his past stories as a vampire to a reporter in the film Interview with a Vampire(1994). And similar, but different in some respects to Sang-hyun. A priest who turns into a vampire. From the Korean film Thirst(2009).
In the end. The dark fantasy & bloodthirsty LoZ-like formula works almost perfectly, the solid arsenal and wicked powers our titular character can utilize are maximized to a degree, I didn’t have trouble figuring out the right solution to solve the puzzles. Sufficient amount of paths to back-track for the curious fella in need of any upgrades to become stronger. A large and dense world to traverse while listening to Kain’s constant monologues is alluring, if not horrifying to witness. As a consequence, we are treated to a captivating nuanced character development take, of a 'hero' into something else. A remarkable campaign experience from the good old days and most certainly punches above its weight class for the grayish gothic story-telling. Delving without excess on what shapes evil, different forms that come to be, why the notion exists, and for what purpose does evil maintain in a world against a different ‘evil.’ And ultimately what is the result of our malicious acts? Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain asks these mature questions without forgiveness. Through his eyes and actions, the unmaking of the human soul surges. Blackened with dark tapestry and removed of all sensible feeling. Hmmm… I wonder what awaits me plus others, as the saga moves forward to Soul Reaver. And what fate ultimately lies to Kain in the end.
Vae Victus. Suffering to the conquered.
7.7/10
References & Additional Material:
FAQ on Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. - Frequently Asked Questions on BO:LoK. Inspirations, original concept, creator etc.
Evil. Origins and all forms from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - More reading material on Evil.
Nosgoth world map - Lord of the Rings Argonath - Picture example
Playing Catch-Up - A conversation with Denis Dyack, founder of Silicon knights and creator of the original concept of Kain
Interview with Denis Dyack - On Simon Templeman who voices Kain
2nd interview with Denis Dyack - on Silicon Knights and what they tried to achieve with the first entry of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain “Where the entire story is conveyed through voice-over and first person narrative.” and more like Too Human and guild philosophy.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain cheats - Cheats if you need it. Think of button commands like GTA III cheats
Example of my endgame health and magic - Disregard the subtitle
Youtube example of slow load times on PS1 - Compared to fast loading speed on PC -
Simon Templeman - who voices Kain in every game.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain on Mobygames - Interesting to see the narrative in the genre section is horror. When wikipedia classifies the game as dark fantasy.
Plot Guide to the whole series - For all games + observations after the ending
Highly Recommend installing fan-patch on PC - Verok's GL wrapper & patch should be enough. Was easy to add after first installing the GOG version. Game is super cheap when on sale at less than 2 bucks.
Essential tips on for newcomers to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain - Previously prior to this review. There was no section for BO:LoK. On the Before I play website. So I contacted the owner and sent him my tips! Hope this helps newcomers!
The notion of evil has long been exercised for, against, and studied at length for varying degrees across countless years before the release of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Most often against the opposite side of ‘good,’ yet intensely analyzed with a fine pen from the schools of philosophy and psychology. Yet, here the concept is used in a uniquely interesting manner compared to all the other titles in the PSX library I’ve played thus far. Since released back in 1996. Offering a nuanced dark story, featuring an unconventional ‘hero’ protagonist. Where you play as the aforementioned character. A recently slain petty noble turned vampire on his quest for revenge and cure for his vampirism status. His quest is fraught with peril at every turn. He’s weak and isn’t a badass for one turned into a dark creature of the night. Hasn’t adjusted well to his transformation thus his monologues both external and internal display a cynically arrogant personality throughout. A type I vehemently abhor in video games. Yet I cannot help but become allured to his actions throughout as he marches across the lands of Nosgoth.
A medieval fantasy land full of vampires, humans, and other manner of terrifying supernatural creatures prowling the night and day. And before I entered the game, I checked the world map to see what the world is like from a geographical perspective. Nosgoth is filled with large swathes of diverse terrain. Mountainous regions, lush forests, spots of bustling towns, and fortified cities lie amidst the gentle rivers and calm lakes. Most eye-catching of all is the unusually large architectures: big skull, floating island, tall fortress near flowing lava, nine giant pillars, some kinda frozen water temple? A haunting mansion, and one colossal knight statue similar to the Argonath from Lord of the Rings. There’s more I could list but hopefully you get the picture. Jutting out with varied names attached related to the Circle of Nine. Nine powerful sorcerers who protect the pillars of Nosgoth. These pillars reflect the health of the lands. And I was struck with a burning wanderlust to travel to each exotic location and see what each experience has to offer me.
A clear strength at the forefront to lure me like bait on a hook for subtle worldbuilding. Sure it’s not as rich and dense as the Forgotten Realms universe or how nuanced the deep characters of the Witcher are in complexity. Nor does it boast the rich history from Fallout or the sinister and epic clashes from the Diablo games spilling into the world of man. Nay, Nosgoth’s light world-building is steeped in the powerful echelon of the circle, the unholy might of vampires grip onto fearful mortals, breeding suspicion, fear, and all manners of dark monsters waiting, watching to grab innocents and thus bring them closer to death's embrace. Oh yes, right off the bat the unforgiving tone and presentation caught me unawares to the point my wonder was viscerally torn at how brutal events play out here. Evil thrives in all forms and I am here for it.
Despite the malevolent atmosphere, I had plenty of fun here with some caveats I’ll talk about later. For now, I’ll reminisce on the good memories. My first impressions as several hours passed shocked me. To find the gameplay remarkably similar to the Legend of Zelda (LoZ) formula except twisted in a Vampire’s tale filled with a darker domain and dubious individuals at nearly every turn. Short to medium-length dungeons with multiple rooms and puzzles. Seen from a top-down perspective. Linear with non-linear segments for optional items or for the most studious in exploring to be richly rewarded in permanent upgrades to health and magic capacities. Different weapons, armor, spells, and transformations can be found and earned in optional caverns and cleverly tucked away basements in mausoleums or normal houses. Not a wide selection, but useful nonetheless in overcoming multiple obstacles in your path. Use a mace to break stone formations, and axes to chop trees blocking your way. Turn into a wolf to leap across great distances, a bat to fast travel and so much more. Hell, spells are useful when you’re in a pickle like summoning a lightning bolt to activate a switch from a fair distance. A light spell to illuminate your surroundings, and my favorite mind control. Oh, man! You can assume control of any enemy except bosses to reach inaccessible areas, activate a mechanism on the wall, procure consumable items, and even kill enemies! Seriously, I'm amazed at how versatile his powers are in both equipment and utility. I used them habitually time and time again as I progressed further into my quest. Removing anyone and anything from my path.
Vae Victus
In the opening FMV, those lines were uttered by Kain as he suffers with a big sword lodged through his chest and again used during combat as a battle cry. The iconic line and more is profoundly voiced by Simon Templeman. A man who eloquently becomes the aforementioned character to deliver rich monologues both external and internal. His many years of theatre experience provide such a dash of realism to the protagonist to the point I am instantly captivated by his voice just as any time Morgan Freeman talks. And this without a shadow of a doubt is one of the game's strongest points. “Where the entire story is conveyed through voice-over and first-person narrative.” told by Denis Dyack, who created the original concept of Kain. & director. I was engrossed any time Templeman spoke, and beyond the cutscenes lies numerous mystical signs littering the grounds of Nosgoth where he would speak. Of his internal thoughts. The Shakespearean-like voiced lines provide a fascinating look into the thought process, habits, personality, beliefs, values, history, relationships and so much more. Through Kain’s eyes, we see the story in a personal nature arise and combine with the mature plot. Complementing the FMV and plot beats in tandem with the excellent voice acting. In layman’s terms think of our central figure commentating aloud on the previous events, of goals in mind, self-doubts, and ruminations. It is here I felt the voiced narrative intertwine with the inhabitants ranging from all kinds of human hierarchy. Commoners, beggars, nobles, knights, guards, kings, and of course the nine sorcerers who become major subjects of interest to our 'hero' within thirty minutes of starting the game. Their voices contribute a stark contrast to the audacious personality our titular character conveys. Mortanius the necromancer, speaks to the newly turned vampire via telepathy. Supporting him with new goals. Vorador the elder vampire, a mighty being who without remorse advocates embracing blacker-than-night tendencies. Ariel, the balance of the circle, offers our main character an unusual proposal to cure his sickness. Common folks are not spared either. Granting hints via gossip on unnatural events occurring nearby. Spells, weapons, armor, and items are also given fair treatment. Our key player will briefly talk about the item at hand, any relevant history, and their purpose during battle. Never was tiring hearing these precious lines or other beings like foes. Administering an immersive quality and thus bringing liveliness and deadliness as we journey onward.
His journey, for a closer inspection underneath the surface, upholds a somewhat deadly, but mostly fair design in how dungeons, puzzles to a certain extent, and boss fights are constructed. Tying to the fun gameplay I mentioned earlier. The adequate Legend of Zelda-esque dungeon designs are designed with a mix of traps, like spikes coming from walls and floors. While pesky enemies like skeletons, wraiths, ghosts, murderous humans, etc litter rooms. Thankfully, the game employs a lot of enemy variety so we're not bored seeing mob #1 to mob #2. Switches and levers on walls to open a passageway, sometimes big puzzles requiring more than simply hitting a switch reside. Tingling the brain to use other means within your arsenal. Traveling to another location in a specific path, do so wrongly and I am teleported back to the beginning, one had me teleporting to different places, so backtracking may be needed to remember paths, some walkways may seem insurmountable, but using a handy spell or transformation will make the march trivial. There’s more I could list, but hopefully, you get the picture. To contend with these endeavors in dungeons lies a dungeon boss. Most bosses can be eliminated by any means of weaponry or ability at your disposal. The hard part is getting close to them. Usually, they’ll have a gimmick or two involved making any movement closer hastily punishing. For example, bullet hells. Illusion of death, oh you thought this would be a fair fight man vs. man, bouts of strength and attrition, etc. Overall I would say most of the encounters with each big baddie were decent to very satisfying. Some worrying signals to know though.
And this is where I'll talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Simply some concerns I found that may prove troublesome for others in varying degrees. For me, all of these points brought the all-embracing experience a tad. Yet doesn’t detract too much from the positives the game entails.
First, every time you re-enter a room or corridor all enemies will re-spawn. In spite of already defeating them into oblivion. This wouldn’t be so egregious if we could gain a reward like extra items to replenish our vitality. Yet some adversaries are troublesome to defeat since they will always be without end once your character moves closer to them. Become public enemy #1 where you cannot escape until you run a sufficient amount of distance. Distance from what I experimented with leads from afar. You go into another room. And two. Run a decent amount so they cannot catch up to you. Both parts aren't really helpful in the long run if I need to go back to a previous room. Driving the knife deeper are several enemies like wraiths shooting magical bolts dealing a decent amount of damage and flinging you to one side. The game loves to slap several of these infuriating dudes in a room and have us try to kill or evade them. Imagine killing the insufferable apparitions only to forget there was a spare hidden path tucked cleverly. Oh, I should head back. OH, MAN. You guys again f%^ my life. For what it’s worth, these occurrences didn’t happen often, merely uncommon to rare times. Doesn’t help that we can't suck the essence out of foolish enemies to recover our strength. And more often than not I faced scores of foes where I cannot possibly suck their juice. Thereby taking my enjoyment a bit at times in a minor form.
Second, speaking of opponents. I think the game needs to lessen the attackers' devastation in the middle to late game. Enemies hit hard, so you’ll need to be careful of wasting precious items and spells. Dying here and using up your remaining heart of darkness(these are the only consumables to automatically restore you to life with 1/7 of your max health) sucks. I think more enemies chained on walls to freely replenish our vigor would’ve helped and a decrease in overall damage from 10-25% towards endgame would’ve helped smoothen my slight frustration. He doesn’t have a lot of health in the beginning. Regardless of the player exploring thoroughly to upgrade their total HP supply. Therefore, my endgame suffered a bit until I decided to use cheats the game employs. Starting from the halfway mark. Think button commands ala Grand Theft Auto III to restore health. Only used the commands as a last resort to recover my magic/health. And only when I had less than three hearts of darkness in my pockets. Die without any of the hearts and goodbye save file. Hello, game over screen and back to your last known save location. I should confess to prevent any misconceptions. I explored thoroughly to grab as many health and magic upgrades. To the point I was still struggling somewhat with this amount of health and magic Yet I still suffered through bloodshed. Even when I ran away most of the time. I barely used any blood spells which according to the spell description can restore your health from enemies. Using the heart as a consumable might also mitigate loss in endurance due to restoring a decent amount of health instead of dying and reviving. So maybe my playstyle suffered more because of this. Thus, your mileage may vary.
Third, both qualities of constant re-spawning of enemies as we re-enter rooms and high damage output from assailants lead me to believe the Silicon knights(the developers who created Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain) perhaps had trouble configuring the right balance of enemy placement and harmful properties. The fact there are cheats available leads me to believe that the devs saw this as a temporary bandaid to solve possible frustrations from lack of healing/revival items. I suspect perhaps if I were more vigilant and prepared properly with some tips and hints then maybe I wouldn’t have any issues. However, one other factor that may cause further difficulty is how the save system is implemented. Innately players cannot save manually anytime. They have to approach a blood shrine to activate. I found these shrines constantly in caverns, mausoleums, castles, towns, cities, and homes where a multiple-floor level resides. The problem is that they only appear at the start. So if you die mid-way through a dungeon. Welp, my dude back to square one. Only if you have no heart of darkness. If you do, you can come back alive. Thankfully before hitting a major boss, the devs saw fit to include another shrine before a bossfight. A large sigh of relief overcame my being once I saw this implemented again and again, yet this doesn’t remove the underlying dilemma. Progress lost is still progress lost. Losing minutes to half an hour can be morale-inducing to my detriment. So beware of each shrine location and how far you are from one. Still, the aspect isn’t a major negative in my books, since I was able to complete the game using the titular mechanic constantly. Merely a warning for those curious about how to save properly.
That’s it for my mixed feelings. Honestly quite a lot of my troubles I feel were attributed to my negligence to seek help in favor of a blind playthrough. I don’t regret it. But a lingering doubt in my head feels like it could’ve been better to smoothen out my overall experience. Nevertheless, the sheer strengths Silicon Knights employed back in 1996 deserve special praise to this day. The music hits the orchestral high notes while giving off epic drums and beats to intensify our moods into mythical dimensions. Complementing well with Templeman’s impeccable voice acting among others. Luring me like a helpless slave to their magnificent voices. Reminiscent of Louis de Pointe du Lac detailing his past stories as a vampire to a reporter in the film Interview with a Vampire(1994). And similar, but different in some respects to Sang-hyun. A priest who turns into a vampire. From the Korean film Thirst(2009).
In the end. The dark fantasy & bloodthirsty LoZ-like formula works almost perfectly, the solid arsenal and wicked powers our titular character can utilize are maximized to a degree, I didn’t have trouble figuring out the right solution to solve the puzzles. Sufficient amount of paths to back-track for the curious fella in need of any upgrades to become stronger. A large and dense world to traverse while listening to Kain’s constant monologues is alluring, if not horrifying to witness. As a consequence, we are treated to a captivating nuanced character development take, of a 'hero' into something else. A remarkable campaign experience from the good old days and most certainly punches above its weight class for the grayish gothic story-telling. Delving without excess on what shapes evil, different forms that come to be, why the notion exists, and for what purpose does evil maintain in a world against a different ‘evil.’ And ultimately what is the result of our malicious acts? Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain asks these mature questions without forgiveness. Through his eyes and actions, the unmaking of the human soul surges. Blackened with dark tapestry and removed of all sensible feeling. Hmmm… I wonder what awaits me plus others, as the saga moves forward to Soul Reaver. And what fate ultimately lies to Kain in the end.
Vae Victus. Suffering to the conquered.
7.7/10
References & Additional Material:
FAQ on Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. - Frequently Asked Questions on BO:LoK. Inspirations, original concept, creator etc.
Evil. Origins and all forms from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - More reading material on Evil.
Nosgoth world map - Lord of the Rings Argonath - Picture example
Playing Catch-Up - A conversation with Denis Dyack, founder of Silicon knights and creator of the original concept of Kain
Interview with Denis Dyack - On Simon Templeman who voices Kain
2nd interview with Denis Dyack - on Silicon Knights and what they tried to achieve with the first entry of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain “Where the entire story is conveyed through voice-over and first person narrative.” and more like Too Human and guild philosophy.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain cheats - Cheats if you need it. Think of button commands like GTA III cheats
Example of my endgame health and magic - Disregard the subtitle
Youtube example of slow load times on PS1 - Compared to fast loading speed on PC -
Simon Templeman - who voices Kain in every game.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain on Mobygames - Interesting to see the narrative in the genre section is horror. When wikipedia classifies the game as dark fantasy.
Plot Guide to the whole series - For all games + observations after the ending
Highly Recommend installing fan-patch on PC - Verok's GL wrapper & patch should be enough. Was easy to add after first installing the GOG version. Game is super cheap when on sale at less than 2 bucks.
Essential tips on for newcomers to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain - Previously prior to this review. There was no section for BO:LoK. On the Before I play website. So I contacted the owner and sent him my tips! Hope this helps newcomers!
EL ZELDA DE LOS VAMPIROS
Muchos conocen a Soul Reaver y Raziel ¿Pero sabéis que antes existió Blood Omen?
¿Queréis saber como inició la tiranía de Kain, se convirtió en vampiro y toda la historia de Nosgoth que se contaba parcialmente en Soul Reaver 2? Pues aquí está.
Blood Omen es un juego de mazmorras con vista cenital donde encarnaremos a Kain, el recién convertido en vampiro en busca de una cura para purificar su estado pero...¿Querrá al final curar su estado? ¿O será consumido por la sed de poder y sangre que su condición como vampiro le da mientras observa a todo Nosgoth caer? Vive su aventura con su excelente narración y con sus poderes vampíricos acompañado por sus armas y armaduras al más puro estilo Zelda, pero para góticos.
Muchos conocen a Soul Reaver y Raziel ¿Pero sabéis que antes existió Blood Omen?
¿Queréis saber como inició la tiranía de Kain, se convirtió en vampiro y toda la historia de Nosgoth que se contaba parcialmente en Soul Reaver 2? Pues aquí está.
Blood Omen es un juego de mazmorras con vista cenital donde encarnaremos a Kain, el recién convertido en vampiro en busca de una cura para purificar su estado pero...¿Querrá al final curar su estado? ¿O será consumido por la sed de poder y sangre que su condición como vampiro le da mientras observa a todo Nosgoth caer? Vive su aventura con su excelente narración y con sus poderes vampíricos acompañado por sus armas y armaduras al más puro estilo Zelda, pero para góticos.
Interessante!
é um rpg estilo diablo mas beeem simplao, hitbox zuado e combate fraquinho. porém com uma historia beeem massa (foda é que nao tem legenda e o audio deve ter sido gravado naqueles mic que vinha no windows 95 completo com caixa de som) recomendo assistir algum video no youtube depois pra sacar tudo 100%.
jogo relativamente curto, mas como o combate nao é lá essas coisas e vc fica meio que solto no mapa, pode demorar um pouquinho.
recomendo :)
é um rpg estilo diablo mas beeem simplao, hitbox zuado e combate fraquinho. porém com uma historia beeem massa (foda é que nao tem legenda e o audio deve ter sido gravado naqueles mic que vinha no windows 95 completo com caixa de som) recomendo assistir algum video no youtube depois pra sacar tudo 100%.
jogo relativamente curto, mas como o combate nao é lá essas coisas e vc fica meio que solto no mapa, pode demorar um pouquinho.
recomendo :)
An amazingly well written vampire story attached to a pretty solid action adventure game. While the gameplay may have aged a bit (mostly with the hit boxes during combat), everything else about it is more than good enough to make up for it. I could honestly listen to Simon Templeman narrate anything and I'd be interested after hearing his performance as Kain in this.
A masterpiece of a video game. All I need to say
This review contains spoilers
I have somewhat of an admiration of what I’d define as ‘good edge’. By this, I mean stories and characters which take on a darker disposition, typically fueled by vengeance against perceived transgression against a specific character or system which they are a part of. Some classic edgy fellows include Shadow the Hedgehog, Jak, Magus, Bass, Riku, etc. I think these are all great examples of how to create an edgy character. All the characters mentioned are, as well, relatively contentious. For every person you find who loves Shadow the Hedgehog, you’re bound to find a vocal detractor.
The late 1990s to mid-2000s was an incredibly transgressive era for video games. The rise of 3D graphics gave way to the chance for developers to create more complex stories and more intense methods of inflicting violence upon pixels. Despite the formation of the ESRB in the wake of successes like Doom and Mortal Kombat, legislative entities still kept a close eye on the medium, with some opportunistic activists and politicians using the medium to devise agendas which hurt the creative integrity of the artform. And while video games are thriving more than they ever have today, with the violent imagery in the medium rarely being noted as troubling outside of some fringe theories, usually created as a means to protect guns of their right to shoot people, there was an era of fear that legitimate works of art would be suppressed by the systems of powers which governed them.
This is all, of course, purely my interpretation of the events as I experienced them when I was a teenager who really enjoyed playing video games. There’s a definite chance I said some things in there which resonated with most of the people on this gaming-centric website. The likelihood of me sharing this story with, say, my mother, would probably result in her feeling like I was being silly. That I shouldn’t be exposed to the scenes of violence present in many games from that era because I was too young and impressionable, and that political meddling to prevent this was fine. At the risk of shitting on my mother who loves me dearly in spite of the fact I still play an absurd amount of video games whilst pushing 30, she, and the many parents who thought like her, were inadvertently causing somewhat of a counterculture to develop. One where glorification of sex and violence would become synonymous with the video game medium.
‘Blood Omen: The Legacy of Kain’ has little to nothing to do with any of this. It released in 1996 during the aftermath of the ESRB’s inception, yet before ‘Grand Theft Auto III’ let us kill innocent people and sleep with prostitutes. The PlayStation and it’s home console contemporaries brought us one of the stranger, more experimental points in the medium, as developers took some time to truly understand how to make 3D design work. Some developers didn’t even try this, however, leading to the creation of more cinematic experiences. While teams weren’t really sure how to design fun characters into 3D environments, they could for sure design pre-rendered cinematics without player agency to build narratives which hadn’t been possible in previous generations. ‘Blood Omen’ is this type of game, utilizing some, at the time, impressive visual effects to craft one of the more unique stories within the medium.
Without butchering it too much, you play as Kain, a nobleman living within the land of Nosgoth, who is murdered by a gang of brigands while on a journey of undisclosed purpose. While in purgatory, Kain is approached by Mortanius, a necromancer who offers Kain the chance of revenge, which Kain gladly accepts. Kain is then resurrected as a vampire, with his only goal being to murder the same men who took his life. You immediately proceed to achieve this goal within the opening minutes, as he gleefully narrates the ecstasy he achieves from brutalizing this band of lowly criminals. However, Mortanius then convinces Kain he did not achieve said goal, and that he would only be able to truly reap his vengeance if he toppled the systems which allowed the criminals to exist in the first place. Kain is immediately convinced, and adapts his goals to this new quest.
I don’t want to delve too deeply into the rest of the story, as it’s pretty complex, and I’d likely do a poor job of hitting on all the important details while spoiling everything. Needless to say, this is odd, isn’t it? The human, Kain, is a nobleman, birthed into wealth and without any known empathy for those less fortunate than he is. From future narrations, we can tell that Kain hates peasantry. He deems them lowly people who lack intelligence and basic hygiene. These are views he continues to hold following his loss of humanity, the only difference being he now sees himself as an abomination as well. Kain, for his entire life, has been contributing to systemic oppression of the unfortunate. He chooses to judge people based on their socioeconomic status and makes no effort to assist them in their suffering. It’s abundantly clear that Kain simply doesn’t even understand his role in contributing to the oppression of these people. It’s why he viewed his killing as a reprehensible act of cold-blooded murder, when it was likely done because his murderers needed his money to feed themselves. Why, then, is Kain the one who is tasked with dismantling such a system? His blind hatred toward those who killed him is merely being leveled at anyone who could have possibly contributed to his death. It is a deeply misguided and emotionally immature way of bringing about legitimate structural change.
Kain is what I would consider to be perfect edge. His narration is filled with a blatant disregard for human life, as he speaks of using his weapons and spells to spill the blood of anyone in his way in some of the most gruesome fashions possible. Just take this excerpt of one of his spells, for example:
"Of all the methods I employ, this is perhaps the cruelest, causing my victim's body to shrink on itself, crushing bones and rupturing organs 'til the pressure inside bursts the sac of fleshy skin, spraying its contents for all to see."
It’s one thing to say this, acknowledging the cruelty and gruesomeness of the act, but it’s another thing entirely to commit these acts. Not even as a necessary means to reach your goals, but a deliberate act you consciously decide to commit. The game can be beaten without this spell. Quite easily, in fact.
Kain’s recklessness with human life is made apparent through many of the gameplay mechanics. One of the more potentially controversial pieces of design is that Kain is always slowly losing his health. While I didn’t personally have an issue with this, as it’s slow enough to not actually be all too noticeable, I can see where it could create undesired stress to a player. Regardless, Kain refills his health by drinking the blood of those around him. This can sometimes be enemy knights or brigands who will attack you, but more often than not, you will be consuming the blood of innocents, as they are far more easy to extract from. The people around Kain are commodities to discard once they fulfill his specific needs. There’s no guilt or shame in using the innocents. They’re as much a resource as hearts in Zelda or mushrooms in Mario. There’s not even a punishment to these killings. There’s no missable ending or quests linked to your actions. There’s no morality system at play to tinker with based on playstyle. You drink blood to fill your health bar so that you can continue killing. Interestingly, you later can be punished for consuming blood, but only the blood of monsters or the undead. Their blood is tainted and can result in loss of health or poisoning. That means, especially in later areas, human lives are a rare and crucial commodity which must be devoured. You’re more likely to avoid combat with mindless beasts than you are with a knight who we presume to have thoughts and feelings, simply because the knight has more use to us.
And so, the biggest question I personally have is, “When did Kain become like this?” Is this disdain toward human life the result of Kain’s vampirism? Or was he always like this? I mean, obviously he wasn’t a murderous sorcerer who fed on human blood before he became a vampire. But was this tepid morality the result of his curse or an extension of beliefs he’s held throughout his life. The only thing we really know about Kain, the human, is that he was the type of person who saw it reasonable to sacrifice his humanity in order to seek revenge on those who murdered him, and I think that’s intentional. ‘Blood Omen’ isn’t just about the revenge fantasy and subsequent power fantasy which plays out on its surface. It’s an exploration of how one develops morality. What kind of world must one live in, and what sort of systems must one be exposed to in order to become who they are. Kain exists in a world which disregards the plight of its most vulnerable, where the most powerful entities freely wreak havoc upon the weak. Kain once played a role in ignoring the issue thanks to his relative quality of living, and in doing so, became victim to the exact same system of inequality. And instead of looking inwardly to seek out an answer as to why his life ended the way it did, he jumps at the opportunity to ignore it, and to become the exact type of power which led to his prior demise. The canonical ending sees Kain sitting upon a throne of bones, drinking blood from a chalice as he admires his strength. Kain views himself as having succeeded in his goal of exacting revenge, but in reality, those systems of oppression didn’t go away. They merely shifted from one party to the other.
‘Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain’ is ‘good edge’. 4/6
The late 1990s to mid-2000s was an incredibly transgressive era for video games. The rise of 3D graphics gave way to the chance for developers to create more complex stories and more intense methods of inflicting violence upon pixels. Despite the formation of the ESRB in the wake of successes like Doom and Mortal Kombat, legislative entities still kept a close eye on the medium, with some opportunistic activists and politicians using the medium to devise agendas which hurt the creative integrity of the artform. And while video games are thriving more than they ever have today, with the violent imagery in the medium rarely being noted as troubling outside of some fringe theories, usually created as a means to protect guns of their right to shoot people, there was an era of fear that legitimate works of art would be suppressed by the systems of powers which governed them.
This is all, of course, purely my interpretation of the events as I experienced them when I was a teenager who really enjoyed playing video games. There’s a definite chance I said some things in there which resonated with most of the people on this gaming-centric website. The likelihood of me sharing this story with, say, my mother, would probably result in her feeling like I was being silly. That I shouldn’t be exposed to the scenes of violence present in many games from that era because I was too young and impressionable, and that political meddling to prevent this was fine. At the risk of shitting on my mother who loves me dearly in spite of the fact I still play an absurd amount of video games whilst pushing 30, she, and the many parents who thought like her, were inadvertently causing somewhat of a counterculture to develop. One where glorification of sex and violence would become synonymous with the video game medium.
‘Blood Omen: The Legacy of Kain’ has little to nothing to do with any of this. It released in 1996 during the aftermath of the ESRB’s inception, yet before ‘Grand Theft Auto III’ let us kill innocent people and sleep with prostitutes. The PlayStation and it’s home console contemporaries brought us one of the stranger, more experimental points in the medium, as developers took some time to truly understand how to make 3D design work. Some developers didn’t even try this, however, leading to the creation of more cinematic experiences. While teams weren’t really sure how to design fun characters into 3D environments, they could for sure design pre-rendered cinematics without player agency to build narratives which hadn’t been possible in previous generations. ‘Blood Omen’ is this type of game, utilizing some, at the time, impressive visual effects to craft one of the more unique stories within the medium.
Without butchering it too much, you play as Kain, a nobleman living within the land of Nosgoth, who is murdered by a gang of brigands while on a journey of undisclosed purpose. While in purgatory, Kain is approached by Mortanius, a necromancer who offers Kain the chance of revenge, which Kain gladly accepts. Kain is then resurrected as a vampire, with his only goal being to murder the same men who took his life. You immediately proceed to achieve this goal within the opening minutes, as he gleefully narrates the ecstasy he achieves from brutalizing this band of lowly criminals. However, Mortanius then convinces Kain he did not achieve said goal, and that he would only be able to truly reap his vengeance if he toppled the systems which allowed the criminals to exist in the first place. Kain is immediately convinced, and adapts his goals to this new quest.
I don’t want to delve too deeply into the rest of the story, as it’s pretty complex, and I’d likely do a poor job of hitting on all the important details while spoiling everything. Needless to say, this is odd, isn’t it? The human, Kain, is a nobleman, birthed into wealth and without any known empathy for those less fortunate than he is. From future narrations, we can tell that Kain hates peasantry. He deems them lowly people who lack intelligence and basic hygiene. These are views he continues to hold following his loss of humanity, the only difference being he now sees himself as an abomination as well. Kain, for his entire life, has been contributing to systemic oppression of the unfortunate. He chooses to judge people based on their socioeconomic status and makes no effort to assist them in their suffering. It’s abundantly clear that Kain simply doesn’t even understand his role in contributing to the oppression of these people. It’s why he viewed his killing as a reprehensible act of cold-blooded murder, when it was likely done because his murderers needed his money to feed themselves. Why, then, is Kain the one who is tasked with dismantling such a system? His blind hatred toward those who killed him is merely being leveled at anyone who could have possibly contributed to his death. It is a deeply misguided and emotionally immature way of bringing about legitimate structural change.
Kain is what I would consider to be perfect edge. His narration is filled with a blatant disregard for human life, as he speaks of using his weapons and spells to spill the blood of anyone in his way in some of the most gruesome fashions possible. Just take this excerpt of one of his spells, for example:
"Of all the methods I employ, this is perhaps the cruelest, causing my victim's body to shrink on itself, crushing bones and rupturing organs 'til the pressure inside bursts the sac of fleshy skin, spraying its contents for all to see."
It’s one thing to say this, acknowledging the cruelty and gruesomeness of the act, but it’s another thing entirely to commit these acts. Not even as a necessary means to reach your goals, but a deliberate act you consciously decide to commit. The game can be beaten without this spell. Quite easily, in fact.
Kain’s recklessness with human life is made apparent through many of the gameplay mechanics. One of the more potentially controversial pieces of design is that Kain is always slowly losing his health. While I didn’t personally have an issue with this, as it’s slow enough to not actually be all too noticeable, I can see where it could create undesired stress to a player. Regardless, Kain refills his health by drinking the blood of those around him. This can sometimes be enemy knights or brigands who will attack you, but more often than not, you will be consuming the blood of innocents, as they are far more easy to extract from. The people around Kain are commodities to discard once they fulfill his specific needs. There’s no guilt or shame in using the innocents. They’re as much a resource as hearts in Zelda or mushrooms in Mario. There’s not even a punishment to these killings. There’s no missable ending or quests linked to your actions. There’s no morality system at play to tinker with based on playstyle. You drink blood to fill your health bar so that you can continue killing. Interestingly, you later can be punished for consuming blood, but only the blood of monsters or the undead. Their blood is tainted and can result in loss of health or poisoning. That means, especially in later areas, human lives are a rare and crucial commodity which must be devoured. You’re more likely to avoid combat with mindless beasts than you are with a knight who we presume to have thoughts and feelings, simply because the knight has more use to us.
And so, the biggest question I personally have is, “When did Kain become like this?” Is this disdain toward human life the result of Kain’s vampirism? Or was he always like this? I mean, obviously he wasn’t a murderous sorcerer who fed on human blood before he became a vampire. But was this tepid morality the result of his curse or an extension of beliefs he’s held throughout his life. The only thing we really know about Kain, the human, is that he was the type of person who saw it reasonable to sacrifice his humanity in order to seek revenge on those who murdered him, and I think that’s intentional. ‘Blood Omen’ isn’t just about the revenge fantasy and subsequent power fantasy which plays out on its surface. It’s an exploration of how one develops morality. What kind of world must one live in, and what sort of systems must one be exposed to in order to become who they are. Kain exists in a world which disregards the plight of its most vulnerable, where the most powerful entities freely wreak havoc upon the weak. Kain once played a role in ignoring the issue thanks to his relative quality of living, and in doing so, became victim to the exact same system of inequality. And instead of looking inwardly to seek out an answer as to why his life ended the way it did, he jumps at the opportunity to ignore it, and to become the exact type of power which led to his prior demise. The canonical ending sees Kain sitting upon a throne of bones, drinking blood from a chalice as he admires his strength. Kain views himself as having succeeded in his goal of exacting revenge, but in reality, those systems of oppression didn’t go away. They merely shifted from one party to the other.
‘Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain’ is ‘good edge’. 4/6
A really fun old school zelda-like with a beautifully crafted world. Amazing voice acting for this kind of game. A pleasure to play from my usual taste in games!
I was really enjoying this game but a little bit past the halfway point I was starting to get a bit bored and didn't really find any reason to continue going.
Might just watch the cutscenes online and start the next game: Soul Reaver.
Might just watch the cutscenes online and start the next game: Soul Reaver.
VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS VAE VICTUS
Blood Omen has lots of cool individual elements, and stalking around a dark fantasy open world and committing unspeakable amounts of murder as an eloquent, powerful, vengeance-seeking vampire is a very solid conceit for a game.
I just found the action in it to be sludgy in the worst way, and the RPG and exploration stuff didn’t give me enough to compensate in the first few hours.
Overall though, I can respect it.
I just found the action in it to be sludgy in the worst way, and the RPG and exploration stuff didn’t give me enough to compensate in the first few hours.
Overall though, I can respect it.
Suffers from some fucked up hit boxes and balancing issues but it does a great job at making you feel like an absolute powerhouse overall and the voice acting, music and storyline is really great. I'd say give this a shot on PC (PS1 version has super annoying loading times)
what a rocky start to a rockier series, shoutouts to classics of game
Played this when I was a teenager and was sick with a fever for like a week. Honestly this time around it wasn't as fun. It's not a bad game but I also don't think it's great. The writing and voice acting definitely prop it up out of the mud. And have to give it credit for giving us a great anti-hero way back when. Now it's such a treat to hear our boy Simon Templeton when he talks to Raziel. "Ohhh it's him."
1/5 of "BC relives his teen years and plays all of LoK"
1/5 of "BC relives his teen years and plays all of LoK"
I have been putting of actually releasing a review for a while now; for many reasons, but I will now do my best to force myself into actually releasing this one; in that way me actually releasing a review I wrote for once, is kind of similar to my experience with the Legacy of Kain franchise, which I’ve tried to get into for a while now.
I’ve had begun playing Soul Reaver, the second instalment in the series, for about an hour in 2022, but had set it off until now, because I had just completed Link’s Awakening and usually need some time between two Zelda(-like) games, to deflate for a bit, and because I knew, I wanted to experience the entire series (or at least the ones I still can cough, cough Huge thanks to @Detectivefail for helping me fix this hyperlink), I wanted to start with the first entry in the series, and that brings me here Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.
If you have ever heard about this series, but never experienced it by yourself, you have probably been exposed to tons of praise for their story, which is mostly deserved, being one of the earlier examples of an action game that cares about these aspects, while reportedly bringing on great voice talent to deliver it (I wouldn’t know, I played the German version).
But the game unfortunately fumbles when it comes to actually playing it.
One of the first things you will notice about Blood Omen is that it is surprisingly somewhat open world. There are still obstacles in the way, as to limit your progress to closed of areas, but the order in which and whether you even complete certain dungeons is let completely up to you, go ahead and call it a Metroid-Vania if you will.
Your gameplay loop will look something like this:
”Find a vista-marker/Ariel telling you where the next big dungeon is, which you can at that point either fast-travel to directly, or preferably walk to; finding smaller dungeons, Blood Fountains, villages and miscellaneous pick-ups along the way; beating said big dungeon and defeating the ‘boss’ (I will talk about these a bit later); and then maybe backtrack.”
I don’t have a problem with this loop in theory, as it is constantly engaging and doesn’t get repetitive, but this basis will start to show its cracks if you look at it a bit closer.
First of combat, which is probably the aspect of Blood Omen that you will spend the most time with.
At first glance this games combat system might seem surprisingly fleshed out, with you being able to select between multiple armor sets, weapons, spells, items and transformations, which Kain will gradually be unlocking on his adventure through Nosgoth, but you will be discovering fairly quick that just using the Repel Shield and your strongest weapon (regular-/flame- sword) is just the most effective strategy.
If you don’t remember to renew your shield and take damage for some reason don’t worry, because Kain is not only almost as spongy as some of the regular enemies in the late game, but you will most likely have acquired enough Hearts of Darkness (this games instant revives), to never actually be in any amount of danger.
The only way I actually lost health later was by walking through water or waiting for my magic gauge to fill up again after using spells or such; you will do this a lot and it takes multiple minutes for most of the game, as the magic- and health- bar kind of work as opposites of each other.
Not only do you need one to keep yourself alive, while you use the other one to take them, but your health bar will slowly drain with time, while your magic gauge will refill, which could’ve been a really cool concept if it didn’t force you to use spells (which drain magic) and transformations (which also drain magic), for puzzles and straight up locking you progress if you don't refill it so often; which to be fair is somewhat remedied by the regular magic-pick-ups towards the end of the game and this system being easily cheesed as you can just either use one of your hearts of darkness, refilling Kain’s health or switch to the axes and the Flesh Armor, which automatically fills up your health every time you defeat a living enemy.
This games swordplay in general was just not very enjoyable to me. The game sometimes fails to signify if you are currently even damaging an enemy, which gets worse with boss fights and later way too spongy types of enemies. There is one boss fight, in which you first must defeat a guy that destroys the ground beneath you, but just ignores you otherwise, even if you hit him.
Kain will sometimes just not feel like attacking and instead yell out “Vae Victis!” and pose when you press the button to attack; this will also be a common occurrence and happen at the exact moments you don’t want it to happen during your playthrough.
You can skip this next paragraph if you want to, as it solely hinges on me talking about a weird link to another completely different game, I had made while playing, which is probably only interesting to me.
There is a point relatively early into the game where you acquire a lightning spell, which you can either use as a projectile attack or activating switches across gaps, which was the exact point where I drew a weird similarity between Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and another game I have played through and reviewed almost two years ago now, which is strangely similar in terms of puzzles, combat and the sort , being Lego Knights Kingdom. The connection is made even weirder by the fact that one of that games lead designers Alastair Cornish apparently had some kind of role within Eidos, which published the Legacy of Kain series and being credited in the game Nosgoth, the controversial last entry in the series. Just thought this was interesting enough for me, to keep in the review.
Now the game doesn’t only rely on its swordplay for combat, as already mentioned. There are some more or less useful spells, the Repel Shield probably getting the most use during yours and definitely during my playtime. Unfortunately, most other spells are severely outclassed by the items, whose power should be regulated by them being single use, but they are just so abundant that you will never be in a shortage of them.
You can only chose one spell, item or transformation to be used at a time, if you want to change them, you can either put up to four of each in a quick-menu, which were actually really tedious to access for me, because I for some reason decided to play this on the PS Vita and am now probably the only person to ever do so, as accessing said menus (or the map) requires you to hit the touch buttons on the back, which I didn’t even know existed and are situated exactly where you want to rest your hands.
Putting spells in and out of your quick menu will also be greeted with a loading screen, so I never really used any spells outside of the ones I needed for puzzles or again, the repel shield. It goes without saying that the same issue also applies to the items.
Moving around the world also is awfully clunky and slow. The devs knew this and tried to remedy this problem by introducing the Wolf-Transformation, which is faster, but weaker in combat and even clunkier to control, but it sometimes allows you to leap over small gaps; it sometimes also might just decide to not do this, but it also has the drawback of using up your magic, which is one better used in combat and two means that if you magic gauge is depleted, you won’t be able to use this transformation even if you need to, so you will just have to wait again.
There is also the Mist-Transformation, whose only use cases are walking over conveniently placed patches of water or moving through hard to see cracks in the wall, while using up your magic while being even less useful than the wolf and leaving you open to enemy attacks, while giving you no way to counterattack.
The Bat-Transformation is the only one that doesn’t use up your magic and thus is the best one. It lets you fast-travel across the world to various Bat-Beacons scattered around Nosgoth.
The final transformations name is offensive and will for that reason not be mentioned by name here. I also didn’t ever feel the need to use it. If I had to say something interesting about it, then I would like to mention it being the only one you can upgrade (as far as I know) and is notable for breaking my game when I used it in the upgraded state, luckily not enough to where I couldn’t finish it as this takes place during the last hour of playtime.
Still on the topic of moving around the world, this game visually doesn’t hold up to a point where it made it hard to differentiate between things you can or can not interact with. For example, you will usually not be able to move behind a roof, but there was at least one where you could do it and collect optional items. This isn’t the end of the world but did impair my experience with the game.
~1/3rd of the screen will be used up by really nice looking, but distracting UI.
I did enjoy the janky, early 3D cutscenes though.
I won’t really talk about the contents of the story in this review as the only things you need to know are, it isn’t really that present for most of the game, but when it is, it is a nice break of pace and fairly good, while not reaching the heights it will in later entries. It is the one thing I would recommend you play this game for, outside of historical relevance.
I will be honest. I didn’t really enjoy Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain as you might’ve noticed, but that doesn’t detract from its significance to the development of this medium. Completing it also made me pick up Soul Reaver again, which I have mostly really enjoyed so far.
If anything, I won’t ever forget my time with this first entry in the Legacy of Kain franchise.
I’ve had begun playing Soul Reaver, the second instalment in the series, for about an hour in 2022, but had set it off until now, because I had just completed Link’s Awakening and usually need some time between two Zelda(-like) games, to deflate for a bit, and because I knew, I wanted to experience the entire series (or at least the ones I still can cough, cough Huge thanks to @Detectivefail for helping me fix this hyperlink), I wanted to start with the first entry in the series, and that brings me here Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.
If you have ever heard about this series, but never experienced it by yourself, you have probably been exposed to tons of praise for their story, which is mostly deserved, being one of the earlier examples of an action game that cares about these aspects, while reportedly bringing on great voice talent to deliver it (I wouldn’t know, I played the German version).
But the game unfortunately fumbles when it comes to actually playing it.
One of the first things you will notice about Blood Omen is that it is surprisingly somewhat open world. There are still obstacles in the way, as to limit your progress to closed of areas, but the order in which and whether you even complete certain dungeons is let completely up to you, go ahead and call it a Metroid-Vania if you will.
Your gameplay loop will look something like this:
”Find a vista-marker/Ariel telling you where the next big dungeon is, which you can at that point either fast-travel to directly, or preferably walk to; finding smaller dungeons, Blood Fountains, villages and miscellaneous pick-ups along the way; beating said big dungeon and defeating the ‘boss’ (I will talk about these a bit later); and then maybe backtrack.”
I don’t have a problem with this loop in theory, as it is constantly engaging and doesn’t get repetitive, but this basis will start to show its cracks if you look at it a bit closer.
First of combat, which is probably the aspect of Blood Omen that you will spend the most time with.
At first glance this games combat system might seem surprisingly fleshed out, with you being able to select between multiple armor sets, weapons, spells, items and transformations, which Kain will gradually be unlocking on his adventure through Nosgoth, but you will be discovering fairly quick that just using the Repel Shield and your strongest weapon (regular-/flame- sword) is just the most effective strategy.
If you don’t remember to renew your shield and take damage for some reason don’t worry, because Kain is not only almost as spongy as some of the regular enemies in the late game, but you will most likely have acquired enough Hearts of Darkness (this games instant revives), to never actually be in any amount of danger.
The only way I actually lost health later was by walking through water or waiting for my magic gauge to fill up again after using spells or such; you will do this a lot and it takes multiple minutes for most of the game, as the magic- and health- bar kind of work as opposites of each other.
Not only do you need one to keep yourself alive, while you use the other one to take them, but your health bar will slowly drain with time, while your magic gauge will refill, which could’ve been a really cool concept if it didn’t force you to use spells (which drain magic) and transformations (which also drain magic), for puzzles and straight up locking you progress if you don't refill it so often; which to be fair is somewhat remedied by the regular magic-pick-ups towards the end of the game and this system being easily cheesed as you can just either use one of your hearts of darkness, refilling Kain’s health or switch to the axes and the Flesh Armor, which automatically fills up your health every time you defeat a living enemy.
This games swordplay in general was just not very enjoyable to me. The game sometimes fails to signify if you are currently even damaging an enemy, which gets worse with boss fights and later way too spongy types of enemies. There is one boss fight, in which you first must defeat a guy that destroys the ground beneath you, but just ignores you otherwise, even if you hit him.
Kain will sometimes just not feel like attacking and instead yell out “Vae Victis!” and pose when you press the button to attack; this will also be a common occurrence and happen at the exact moments you don’t want it to happen during your playthrough.
You can skip this next paragraph if you want to, as it solely hinges on me talking about a weird link to another completely different game, I had made while playing, which is probably only interesting to me.
There is a point relatively early into the game where you acquire a lightning spell, which you can either use as a projectile attack or activating switches across gaps, which was the exact point where I drew a weird similarity between Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and another game I have played through and reviewed almost two years ago now, which is strangely similar in terms of puzzles, combat and the sort , being Lego Knights Kingdom. The connection is made even weirder by the fact that one of that games lead designers Alastair Cornish apparently had some kind of role within Eidos, which published the Legacy of Kain series and being credited in the game Nosgoth, the controversial last entry in the series. Just thought this was interesting enough for me, to keep in the review.
Now the game doesn’t only rely on its swordplay for combat, as already mentioned. There are some more or less useful spells, the Repel Shield probably getting the most use during yours and definitely during my playtime. Unfortunately, most other spells are severely outclassed by the items, whose power should be regulated by them being single use, but they are just so abundant that you will never be in a shortage of them.
You can only chose one spell, item or transformation to be used at a time, if you want to change them, you can either put up to four of each in a quick-menu, which were actually really tedious to access for me, because I for some reason decided to play this on the PS Vita and am now probably the only person to ever do so, as accessing said menus (or the map) requires you to hit the touch buttons on the back, which I didn’t even know existed and are situated exactly where you want to rest your hands.
Putting spells in and out of your quick menu will also be greeted with a loading screen, so I never really used any spells outside of the ones I needed for puzzles or again, the repel shield. It goes without saying that the same issue also applies to the items.
Moving around the world also is awfully clunky and slow. The devs knew this and tried to remedy this problem by introducing the Wolf-Transformation, which is faster, but weaker in combat and even clunkier to control, but it sometimes allows you to leap over small gaps; it sometimes also might just decide to not do this, but it also has the drawback of using up your magic, which is one better used in combat and two means that if you magic gauge is depleted, you won’t be able to use this transformation even if you need to, so you will just have to wait again.
There is also the Mist-Transformation, whose only use cases are walking over conveniently placed patches of water or moving through hard to see cracks in the wall, while using up your magic while being even less useful than the wolf and leaving you open to enemy attacks, while giving you no way to counterattack.
The Bat-Transformation is the only one that doesn’t use up your magic and thus is the best one. It lets you fast-travel across the world to various Bat-Beacons scattered around Nosgoth.
The final transformations name is offensive and will for that reason not be mentioned by name here. I also didn’t ever feel the need to use it. If I had to say something interesting about it, then I would like to mention it being the only one you can upgrade (as far as I know) and is notable for breaking my game when I used it in the upgraded state, luckily not enough to where I couldn’t finish it as this takes place during the last hour of playtime.
Still on the topic of moving around the world, this game visually doesn’t hold up to a point where it made it hard to differentiate between things you can or can not interact with. For example, you will usually not be able to move behind a roof, but there was at least one where you could do it and collect optional items. This isn’t the end of the world but did impair my experience with the game.
~1/3rd of the screen will be used up by really nice looking, but distracting UI.
I did enjoy the janky, early 3D cutscenes though.
I won’t really talk about the contents of the story in this review as the only things you need to know are, it isn’t really that present for most of the game, but when it is, it is a nice break of pace and fairly good, while not reaching the heights it will in later entries. It is the one thing I would recommend you play this game for, outside of historical relevance.
I will be honest. I didn’t really enjoy Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain as you might’ve noticed, but that doesn’t detract from its significance to the development of this medium. Completing it also made me pick up Soul Reaver again, which I have mostly really enjoyed so far.
If anything, I won’t ever forget my time with this first entry in the Legacy of Kain franchise.
This review contains spoilers
Amazing game with a great atmosphere and story.
I loved Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. I had heard of the “Legacy of Kain” series but I did not now what the correct order of the games was or what it was all about in the first place. After discovering that this was the first game, I played it and was immediately impressed.
In this game, you play as Kain, a nobleman who was murdered and resurrected as a vampire. Hungry for revenge, he sets out to kill The Circle of Nine, a corrupt oligarchy of sorcerers who were responsible for his death and vampire curse. Over the course of time, you are consumed by your curse and start to see it as a blessing instead of a curse, corrupting you from inside and make you even more hungry for power. One by one, you slay the members of the Circle of Nine and take their token, making you much stronger and feared. In the end, you place all the tokens on the Pillars of Nosgoth, cleansing them from the corruption of the insane sorcerers and restoring balance to the world, or so is the plan. In an epic plot twist, Kain discovers that he himself is considered one of the nine mad sorcerers and has to make a choice, which spawns one of the two possible endings. In one ending, Kain refuses to sacrifice himself, letting the world crumble and turn into a barren wasteland with him as the most powerful entity in existence. In the good ending, he sacrifices himself to restore balance to the world and make sure that all the vampires are extinct.
I really liked the gameplay mechanics in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. In its core, it is just a top down third person RPG, but the vampire aspects and skills make this game an innovation of its time. You can explore the many dungeons on your own pace and there is no specific path that you must follow, making the game nonlinear.
What makes it unique is that you constantly need to keep an eye on your blood meter, which serves as a health bar, and as some sort of timer, because it depletes automatically over time. There are many human, animal and fantasy creatures in the world to feed on, but you need to think carefully about wounding them so you can feed, or outright kill them, if the situation becomes dangerous. When there are three enemies at once for example, you cannot take your time on slowly wound one enemy, because the other two are still on your back.
Besides your health meter, you also got a blue magic/mana meter, which is used to cast unique spells. This bar replenishes over time, but can be filled up faster by drinking the blood/energy of ghostly enemies.
You also need to stay away from drinking the blood of demons and undead, as they poison and hurt you. For the demons and undead, it is clear that you need to avoid them, but there are also some mutants in the game, which are tricky and mysterious at first, making you doubt if they can be fed on. Many times, the answer is no.
On your quest, you come across many upgrades, unique gear, new magic attacks and shapeshift spells. You collect Rune Pyramids, Blood Vials, drink from Blood Fountains to increase your strength, acquire weather resistance upgrades and much more. If you take the time to explore every inch of the dungeons, you can find some crazy powerful stuff.
There is a night and day cycle in place, in which Kain becomes more powerful in the night, and when there is a full moon, in which certain doors are also accessible. This is another unique and great mechanic.
Graphicly, this game looks amazing. The detail in the surroundings, characters and effects is stunning. It has a dark, Gothic theme over it and the lighting in certain areas looks very pretty. The effects of the blood, and the blood drinking animations are also very solid.
The music and ambient sounds are dark and unsettling, enhancing the Gothic theme even more.
The controls, navigation and menus are a little confusing and “illogical” at first, but when you get used to the unique layouts and shortcuts, it works fine.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is unique in every way with its excellent mechanics, powerful story, balance, fun factor, and challenge. There is so much to do and explore and the visible progression in your character’s development with your new spells, weapons and upgrades really motivates you to play for hours on end.
I can only praise this game and would recommend it to everyone.
I loved Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. I had heard of the “Legacy of Kain” series but I did not now what the correct order of the games was or what it was all about in the first place. After discovering that this was the first game, I played it and was immediately impressed.
In this game, you play as Kain, a nobleman who was murdered and resurrected as a vampire. Hungry for revenge, he sets out to kill The Circle of Nine, a corrupt oligarchy of sorcerers who were responsible for his death and vampire curse. Over the course of time, you are consumed by your curse and start to see it as a blessing instead of a curse, corrupting you from inside and make you even more hungry for power. One by one, you slay the members of the Circle of Nine and take their token, making you much stronger and feared. In the end, you place all the tokens on the Pillars of Nosgoth, cleansing them from the corruption of the insane sorcerers and restoring balance to the world, or so is the plan. In an epic plot twist, Kain discovers that he himself is considered one of the nine mad sorcerers and has to make a choice, which spawns one of the two possible endings. In one ending, Kain refuses to sacrifice himself, letting the world crumble and turn into a barren wasteland with him as the most powerful entity in existence. In the good ending, he sacrifices himself to restore balance to the world and make sure that all the vampires are extinct.
I really liked the gameplay mechanics in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. In its core, it is just a top down third person RPG, but the vampire aspects and skills make this game an innovation of its time. You can explore the many dungeons on your own pace and there is no specific path that you must follow, making the game nonlinear.
What makes it unique is that you constantly need to keep an eye on your blood meter, which serves as a health bar, and as some sort of timer, because it depletes automatically over time. There are many human, animal and fantasy creatures in the world to feed on, but you need to think carefully about wounding them so you can feed, or outright kill them, if the situation becomes dangerous. When there are three enemies at once for example, you cannot take your time on slowly wound one enemy, because the other two are still on your back.
Besides your health meter, you also got a blue magic/mana meter, which is used to cast unique spells. This bar replenishes over time, but can be filled up faster by drinking the blood/energy of ghostly enemies.
You also need to stay away from drinking the blood of demons and undead, as they poison and hurt you. For the demons and undead, it is clear that you need to avoid them, but there are also some mutants in the game, which are tricky and mysterious at first, making you doubt if they can be fed on. Many times, the answer is no.
On your quest, you come across many upgrades, unique gear, new magic attacks and shapeshift spells. You collect Rune Pyramids, Blood Vials, drink from Blood Fountains to increase your strength, acquire weather resistance upgrades and much more. If you take the time to explore every inch of the dungeons, you can find some crazy powerful stuff.
There is a night and day cycle in place, in which Kain becomes more powerful in the night, and when there is a full moon, in which certain doors are also accessible. This is another unique and great mechanic.
Graphicly, this game looks amazing. The detail in the surroundings, characters and effects is stunning. It has a dark, Gothic theme over it and the lighting in certain areas looks very pretty. The effects of the blood, and the blood drinking animations are also very solid.
The music and ambient sounds are dark and unsettling, enhancing the Gothic theme even more.
The controls, navigation and menus are a little confusing and “illogical” at first, but when you get used to the unique layouts and shortcuts, it works fine.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is unique in every way with its excellent mechanics, powerful story, balance, fun factor, and challenge. There is so much to do and explore and the visible progression in your character’s development with your new spells, weapons and upgrades really motivates you to play for hours on end.
I can only praise this game and would recommend it to everyone.
Legacy of Kain is a series I was aware of for over a decade after seeing it in a random Top 10 Bossfights video and it's been etched into my mind ever since I first heard about its concept of basically being a conflict between two characters that spans multiple games told with Shakesperean dialogue. Despite this though, I haven't got around to playing the series properly until now for a variety of reasons, one of which was that, from the outside, Blood Omen seemed so dated. But, after beating it I can safely say that this game was actually a pleasant surprise.
That's not to say this game isn't without faults, because it's actually got a ton of them. For starters, I technically "played" the PS1 version, but I don't feel confident in saying that since what I really did was wait and stare at the screen since this version has loading screens up the ass for just about everything. I got used to it eventually, but it took a lot of adjusting and deterred me from going to the menu and experimenting with different armors, spells, items and weapons since I just wanted to get a move on when I was nearing the end of the game.
The game's combat is another low point, the top down view just leads to a lot of janky hitboxes where I swear I'm hitting the enemy but my sword just goes through them without doing anything. In the early game, combat is just this awkward game of distance management where you're trying to hit the enemy with the tip of your sword so you hit them while being out of their range and it's just clunky. Not too far into the game you get enemies who hit you with homing projectiles that knock you back and fighting them is an absolute endurance test of getting pelted by their attacks while trying to nudge yourself a little closer to them and the amount of times I heard "The Heart of Darkness" when fighting them was driving me insane. If the entire game consisted of this, I'd probably give this 1 star, but you get the Repel spell early on which makes you invulnerable and when combined with the Chaos armor that reflects damage you'd take onto the enemies, it breaks the game in half. It's cheap, and trivializes any challenge that the game would otherwise have, but if it's a substitute for being frustrated with the game's whack combat then I'll take it. There is some fun to do be had though even with combat that feels as stilted as it does here, mainly in the form of spells. They range from something as lame as turning on the lights in a room to shooting lightning to draining the blood and soul of enemies and I did enjoy playing around with almost all of them. I wish I could say the same about the weapons and armors you get but the reality is that the majority of these suck. The Havoc and Malice axes as well as the Soul Reaver prevent you from using spells at all so they're automatically useless and the Bone and Flesh armor might aswell do nothing with how insignificant their perks are.
When it comes to Dungeons, they're pretty bland, occasionally they'll have you utilizing some cool gimmicks that mostly involve mind control, but the majority of the time is spent going through a linear set of rooms, avoiding spikes and killing enemies for a few rooms with very little that's done to make the areas stand out from eachother.
And yet despite all that, I forget all of this games shortcomings anytime I stepped on a vista marker and heard Kain commenting on the world and his own circumstances. Simon Templeman does an immaculate job here and I can't stress enough how much it adds to the game. Particularly to the items, functionally they all kill enemies without much to differentiate them but the descriptions that Kain gives them makes them seem so much more interesting. As for the story, it's pretty good but not what I expected. I thought the game would focus on Kain's corruption as he'd slowly succumbed to his vampiric powers but he seems pretty accustomed to them right from the get go. He's meant to be an Anti-hero but his cynicism and disdain for any creature he encounters makes him feel downright villainous though he's still extremely entertaining and the highlight of the game.
I loved the setting of the slowly dying Nosgoth too with it being a cool blend of fantasy and medieval europe. The world-building is pretty strong and I really enjoyed learning about how volatile the land is due to needing to be maintained by the 9 pillars or about the turbulent history between the Sarafan and the Vampires. The story gets quite convoluted near the end but is still overall really solid and it's all stitched together with an incredible soundtrack that fits the grandiose nature of the game to a T.
So that's Blood Omen, a game I was dreading to check out but ended up being pretty decent all things considered. It's got plenty of poor designs decisions that sully the experience but for the most part they're just minor annoyance and the overall package is held up by fantastic narration, world-building and music.
That's not to say this game isn't without faults, because it's actually got a ton of them. For starters, I technically "played" the PS1 version, but I don't feel confident in saying that since what I really did was wait and stare at the screen since this version has loading screens up the ass for just about everything. I got used to it eventually, but it took a lot of adjusting and deterred me from going to the menu and experimenting with different armors, spells, items and weapons since I just wanted to get a move on when I was nearing the end of the game.
The game's combat is another low point, the top down view just leads to a lot of janky hitboxes where I swear I'm hitting the enemy but my sword just goes through them without doing anything. In the early game, combat is just this awkward game of distance management where you're trying to hit the enemy with the tip of your sword so you hit them while being out of their range and it's just clunky. Not too far into the game you get enemies who hit you with homing projectiles that knock you back and fighting them is an absolute endurance test of getting pelted by their attacks while trying to nudge yourself a little closer to them and the amount of times I heard "The Heart of Darkness" when fighting them was driving me insane. If the entire game consisted of this, I'd probably give this 1 star, but you get the Repel spell early on which makes you invulnerable and when combined with the Chaos armor that reflects damage you'd take onto the enemies, it breaks the game in half. It's cheap, and trivializes any challenge that the game would otherwise have, but if it's a substitute for being frustrated with the game's whack combat then I'll take it. There is some fun to do be had though even with combat that feels as stilted as it does here, mainly in the form of spells. They range from something as lame as turning on the lights in a room to shooting lightning to draining the blood and soul of enemies and I did enjoy playing around with almost all of them. I wish I could say the same about the weapons and armors you get but the reality is that the majority of these suck. The Havoc and Malice axes as well as the Soul Reaver prevent you from using spells at all so they're automatically useless and the Bone and Flesh armor might aswell do nothing with how insignificant their perks are.
When it comes to Dungeons, they're pretty bland, occasionally they'll have you utilizing some cool gimmicks that mostly involve mind control, but the majority of the time is spent going through a linear set of rooms, avoiding spikes and killing enemies for a few rooms with very little that's done to make the areas stand out from eachother.
And yet despite all that, I forget all of this games shortcomings anytime I stepped on a vista marker and heard Kain commenting on the world and his own circumstances. Simon Templeman does an immaculate job here and I can't stress enough how much it adds to the game. Particularly to the items, functionally they all kill enemies without much to differentiate them but the descriptions that Kain gives them makes them seem so much more interesting. As for the story, it's pretty good but not what I expected. I thought the game would focus on Kain's corruption as he'd slowly succumbed to his vampiric powers but he seems pretty accustomed to them right from the get go. He's meant to be an Anti-hero but his cynicism and disdain for any creature he encounters makes him feel downright villainous though he's still extremely entertaining and the highlight of the game.
I loved the setting of the slowly dying Nosgoth too with it being a cool blend of fantasy and medieval europe. The world-building is pretty strong and I really enjoyed learning about how volatile the land is due to needing to be maintained by the 9 pillars or about the turbulent history between the Sarafan and the Vampires. The story gets quite convoluted near the end but is still overall really solid and it's all stitched together with an incredible soundtrack that fits the grandiose nature of the game to a T.
So that's Blood Omen, a game I was dreading to check out but ended up being pretty decent all things considered. It's got plenty of poor designs decisions that sully the experience but for the most part they're just minor annoyance and the overall package is held up by fantastic narration, world-building and music.
Despite the compelling main character and strong voice cast performances (the protagonist and the great Tony Jay above all), and despite the wealth of spells and items to use, nothing can change the fact that Blood Omen is a poorly designed game with bad combat, annoying inventory management, suffocatingly frequent load times in the PS1 version, poor performance, poorly told story, overpowered spells trivializing combat and pathetic boss fights that all boil down to activating the barrier power and holding down the attack button for three minutes.
Navigating the towns is an absolute pain, laid out as hedge mazes the way they are, nonsensically too, as you can't walk behind houses because you collide with their roofs on a 2D plane. if it weren't for the map, these would be a nightmare to traverse; instead, it's just tedious.
You can tell there were rooms in some of the dungeons that were designed to be challenging, with hordes of enemies attacking you... too bad you can just use of of your many screen clearing attacks that completely negate the need for combat of any sort. is there anything worse than game design that renders the gameplay optional and redundant? It doesn't help that melee combat is bad, boiling down to trading hits with unflinching enemies with too many HP. A parry button would have done wonders for this game, but such wasn't the case.
And yet... Blood Omen has charm, enough to warrant a playthrough to hear what Kain will say next in his tragic, cynical, unhinged tone, commenting on the horrid events of the world that surrounds him. That is the strongest aspect of the game and it can make you bear its dreadfully slow and clunky gameplay.
Redeeming qualities are rare in bad games, and you must take what you can.
Navigating the towns is an absolute pain, laid out as hedge mazes the way they are, nonsensically too, as you can't walk behind houses because you collide with their roofs on a 2D plane. if it weren't for the map, these would be a nightmare to traverse; instead, it's just tedious.
You can tell there were rooms in some of the dungeons that were designed to be challenging, with hordes of enemies attacking you... too bad you can just use of of your many screen clearing attacks that completely negate the need for combat of any sort. is there anything worse than game design that renders the gameplay optional and redundant? It doesn't help that melee combat is bad, boiling down to trading hits with unflinching enemies with too many HP. A parry button would have done wonders for this game, but such wasn't the case.
And yet... Blood Omen has charm, enough to warrant a playthrough to hear what Kain will say next in his tragic, cynical, unhinged tone, commenting on the horrid events of the world that surrounds him. That is the strongest aspect of the game and it can make you bear its dreadfully slow and clunky gameplay.
Redeeming qualities are rare in bad games, and you must take what you can.
Just a cool as fuck game. Quite well written with some pretty dark and bleak atmosphere, specially when accompanied by the excellent soundtrack. Gotta love how much of a compelling anti-hero Kain is, too.
Loses a star just for outstaying its welcome, however. The last couple of dungeons do drag a lot with some annoying enemies, teleporters and overall length. The ending could've been a little more satisfying, too.
Loses a star just for outstaying its welcome, however. The last couple of dungeons do drag a lot with some annoying enemies, teleporters and overall length. The ending could've been a little more satisfying, too.
Its pretty good even if combat is flawed. At first it can be challenging though eventually you'll have spells that make enemies meaningless. The real shine comes from the story, exploration and atmosphere. Voice acting is some of the best that will ever grace your ears.
I've been waiting for fan remake for so long, and they cancelled it. I beat the original game, and it was fcking good
Kain becomes more and more overpowered as the game progresses, eliminating the difficulty entirely. Which is great, it lives up to the story.
NOTE: I played the PC version of this game with a patch to make it run on modern devices. It's the superior version of the game thanks to a lack of load times, which I hear are quite the issue with the PS1 version. You can also turn off the camera scroll which I found a bit nauseating.
I enjoyed this game. There's a lot of flaws: The swordplay is unrewarding, thanks to the sluggish animations and poor hitboxes, it's quite ugly (less because of the visual style, which was just the trend at the times, and more because of the specific execution) and maybe drags on just a bit, but there's a lot to love in Legacy of Kain. Starting off with the gameplay, while melee combat is, as detailed above, not much fun, there's an incredible amount of spells and items you can get to dish out death to your foes in a great variety of ways. Exploration isn't too bad either, though I wouldn't say anything in this game is as interesting as, say, most 2D Zeldas.
The real reason to play Blood Omen, in reality, is everything else but the gameplay. The atmosphere is quite good, mainly carried by a pretty outstanding soundtrack, and the writing is overall pretty stellar. It's a relatively simple story, but it's carried very gracefully by Kain's character. He's this petty, vengeful asshole who in undeath extends his hate to basically everything under the sun, but he is also very eloquent and charismatic, making him one of those "love to hate" villains... except he's the "good guy". He talks a lot, and it's a pleasure every time. The voice acting is very good across the board and I'd say that a lot of the secondary characters are pretty good at bouncing off Kain and vice-versa. I'm looking forward to playing the other games in the series.
EDIT: Having played through the entire series, I can confirm that it's overall worth going through if you have enough tolerance for jank. Play BO1, try playing the Soul Reaver games but don't feel bad if you end up just watching them on youtube, skip BO2 completely, and play Defiance, and if you're like me you'll have a good time. As an aside, it's really impressive how BO1 manages to be tied into the future games despite being made by different devs compared to the rest of the series.
I enjoyed this game. There's a lot of flaws: The swordplay is unrewarding, thanks to the sluggish animations and poor hitboxes, it's quite ugly (less because of the visual style, which was just the trend at the times, and more because of the specific execution) and maybe drags on just a bit, but there's a lot to love in Legacy of Kain. Starting off with the gameplay, while melee combat is, as detailed above, not much fun, there's an incredible amount of spells and items you can get to dish out death to your foes in a great variety of ways. Exploration isn't too bad either, though I wouldn't say anything in this game is as interesting as, say, most 2D Zeldas.
The real reason to play Blood Omen, in reality, is everything else but the gameplay. The atmosphere is quite good, mainly carried by a pretty outstanding soundtrack, and the writing is overall pretty stellar. It's a relatively simple story, but it's carried very gracefully by Kain's character. He's this petty, vengeful asshole who in undeath extends his hate to basically everything under the sun, but he is also very eloquent and charismatic, making him one of those "love to hate" villains... except he's the "good guy". He talks a lot, and it's a pleasure every time. The voice acting is very good across the board and I'd say that a lot of the secondary characters are pretty good at bouncing off Kain and vice-versa. I'm looking forward to playing the other games in the series.
EDIT: Having played through the entire series, I can confirm that it's overall worth going through if you have enough tolerance for jank. Play BO1, try playing the Soul Reaver games but don't feel bad if you end up just watching them on youtube, skip BO2 completely, and play Defiance, and if you're like me you'll have a good time. As an aside, it's really impressive how BO1 manages to be tied into the future games despite being made by different devs compared to the rest of the series.
Somewhat of a bittersweet replay: the story and presentation are as phenomenal as they were the first time around, but the gameplay definitely has some issues like simple combat with sometimes odd collision detection, plus some occasionally frustrating level design. I still think it's an excellent game all things considered; I likely wouldn't have written a goddamn song about it if it hadn't impacted me in some way.
Kain es el Eren Jeager que si completo el retumbar.
I really loved this game and everything it had to offer. It was really challenging, the story was great, and the voice acting was amazing. The one thing I wish was better was the load times in general (even pausing the game to go to your inventory took forever)
A short and old game, but does many things right and with an unprecendent setting. By the end of the game you are a powerhouse so for some the game might lack difficulty.
The story is kinda simple in this one, but the twists are good and set up for a grand plot that will unfold in the next games (that was not planned since the beginning). It's already a niche series and this one is even more, but certainly one of the strongest and a great vampire simulator.
The story is kinda simple in this one, but the twists are good and set up for a grand plot that will unfold in the next games (that was not planned since the beginning). It's already a niche series and this one is even more, but certainly one of the strongest and a great vampire simulator.
VAE VICTUS!!!
I always heard of these games my whole life, always seeing the ads for Soul Reaver in gaming magazines when I was a wee lad. Finally getting to start this series with this game and I fucking loved it. Definitely looking forward to playing the others in the Legacy of Kain series. Kain is a dastardly anti-hero and a badass, especially when it comes to monologuing and writing his own audiobook throughout the game.
I always heard of these games my whole life, always seeing the ads for Soul Reaver in gaming magazines when I was a wee lad. Finally getting to start this series with this game and I fucking loved it. Definitely looking forward to playing the others in the Legacy of Kain series. Kain is a dastardly anti-hero and a badass, especially when it comes to monologuing and writing his own audiobook throughout the game.