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| eKibitz » Reviews » Xbox - Blood Omen 2 |  |
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Written By: Joseph A. Gillespie "Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain" was originally released on the Playstation, and quickly became a popular title with it's unique gameplay, and gothic characters. Jump ahead a few years and "Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver" was released on the Dreamcast, once again the game was acclaimed as a masterpiece. Another year goes by, and "Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2" is released on the Playstation 2, and yet again it is highly acclaimed. But now the series has come full circle, and landed on the Xbox with "Blood Omen 2" - but does it compete with it's previous versions? Blood Omen 2 has a unique twist on a classic story... You play as Kain, a vampire who is bent on ruling all of Nasgoth. Kain started a war with the humans, and begin taking over the planet with his army of vampires, but when he tryed to overthrow "Meridian", he was defeated, thought to be killed. Now, many years later, Kain awakens, more then ready to reclaim his thrown. As you can see, it's a rather classic tale, but with a evil/gothic twist to it, which is good. But I must give it merely an eight due to the fact that it is at times difficult to figure out what is going on. There is a LOT of backsotry in the Kain games, and you in some must have played through every game (on all the various consoles) in order to be able to keep up. This is fine for hardcore fans who have the money to buy a new console for one game, but for the rest of us it can be more than a tad annoying. Gameplay - 10/10 Gameplay with this game is amazing, it's fun, it's challenging, it's everything you could want! Blood Omen 2 has a very good battle system, along with a few magical goodies to help you destroy the weak, and punish the powerful. And what vampire game would be complete without the need to feed? Blood Omen 2 takes care of this by allowing you to suck the blood out of your victims after defeating them. This isn't you classic blood sucking however, Kain uses some sort of vampiric power to draw the blood out of the body and into his mouth from 5 feet away! There are also a wide array of enemies to battle with, everything from harmless villagers, to giant spiders, to 10 feet tall demons! There aren't many "boss battles" in Blood Omen 2, but the ones that are there are wonderfully done. Blood Omen 2 also contains a wide range of enviroments for which to hunt your foes. Everything from small villages, sewers, castles, and even futuristic complexes. One of the things to continues to put ever Kain game on the top of it's genre, is the voice acting. From the very Blood Omen, to Blood Omen 2, and everything in between, the voice actors are simply superb. Kain's voice is everything you would expect it to be, evil, confident, and even a bit of anger thrown in for good measure. Other vampires sound equally good, and even the villagers sound realistic, pathetic though they may be, "Please, don't hurt me!" - as if that request is to be granted. *evil grin* The music is good, lots of gothic classical type music, and a few upbeat ones for big battles. Nothing worth writing home about though in the music department. The sound effects are pretty much at par, with Kain doing an array of different grunts, and some realistic punching and blood sucking sounds. Overall the voice acting is awesome, everything else is acceptable. Graphics - 7/10 As with the sound, graphics are for the most part pretty normal. The textures remind me of older Playstation 2 games, and their are a couple of clipping issues here and there. Character models and the magic animations are superb though. Kain himself changes his costume a few times in the game, wihich is a good break now and then, and his fighting animations are right on target. The enemies, especially the demon ones, look very realistic. Overall - 8/10 Overall this is a good game, it allows you to act out all of the evil things you couldn't do in other games, yet has a decent plot and reason for doing them. The game never becomes to challenging, and yet never becomes to easy either. Fans of the series will be happy to see all of the old locations and characters as well. However, this game has little to no replay value, which is shame as it would have been nice to be able to unlock some things, such as playing through the whole game with the "Soul Reaver". It's one of the older title on the Xbox, and as such it's priced at a bargain, so go out and get it, you won't be dissapointed. Last Modified: August 9th, 2006
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