The ugly duckling of the Legacy of Kain series. Blood Omen 2 is a pretty good game
Legacy of Kain holds a special place in the hearts of many gamers. Blood Omen 2, on the other hand, often comes out as that least-loved installment. Perhaps well deserved, but it's still a pretty interesting action-adventure game.
The release of Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered has restored hope among Legacy of Kain fans that they might still experience something new from the series - and that it won't be an experiment like the unreleased Dead Sun or a cash-in like the online Nosgoth. In this deserved and legendary series, one installment from its heyday is treated by some fans as a black sheep - Blood Omen 2. Well, it's not a perfect game, but if you give it a chance, it will show quite an engaging side.
Greetings from Blade and Matrix
It's obvious that Blood Omen 2 was created shortly after the craze for cyberpunk, 90's gothic, Matrix, and Blade. The action takes place in a vast, dark city, a blend of medieval and steampunk, infused with enough stylistic chaos to accommodate a fantasy about sleek and alluring vampires, whose tight, leather, spiked attire reveals more than it conceals (just check out this tattoo ad linked to Blood Omen).
The story we witness here takes place in a timeline created as a result of the confusion at the end of Soul Reaver 2. After the fall of the Pillars of Nosgoth, the young vampire Kain is actively conquering the land, when the Sarafan knights, led by a mysterious leader, stand in his way. The bloodsucker almost dies and wakes up from regenerative slumber after two hundred years. The mysterious vampire Umah introduces our prince to new realities. The Sarafan have seized control of Nosgoth, yet within the shadows of the capital, Meridian, a resistance movement is active, and Kain becomes involved. It turns out that an old friend is behind the rebellion.
Blood Omen 2 tells a more grounded story about Kain's ascent to full power and how he becomes completely embittered, losing his last illusions. The plot suffers from several issues, and the main one is the writing, which is significantly lacking compared to what we could read, see, and hear in both the first Blood Omen, Soul Reavers, and Defiance. This means we will experience big plot twists and dramatic moments that are impressive, but they are delivered in a much poorer form. Sometimes the game overwhelms us with a lot of dull exposition to help us understand what's going on, and as a result, the events come across as trivial. Shakespearean English was replaced by barely stylized speech.
It all has its own down-to-earth charm, and Blood Omen 2 reveals more of the world of small, mortal creatures that we don't see when Kain and Raziel are brooding in the other installments. It must also be admitted that the dialogues have lost much of their charm, but our protagonist - not at all. First, he treats the player and interlocutors with several epic one-liners stemming from self-worth. Second, despite all the twists, the story very skillfully builds Kain as a ruthless, but - sincere character. He is a guy who, taught by experience, can't stand only a few things - lies and betrayal. That's why he stands behind what he promises.
Beautiful vampires, ugly vampires
The graphic design of Blood Omen 2 is a bit like all the other aspects of the game - good ideas are mixed with outdated ones. The main characters and their animations are quite decent for PS2. The lighting and design of the gothic-steampunk city do the job, and the opponents look quite good. While the models of several key dramatis personae for the series are a step backward, it's not in terms of polygon count; rather, they have been somewhat trivialized artistically.
On the other hand - the young Kain looks much better than the one from the first Blood Omen. This is one of those cases when the specter of an edgelord's turn of the century worked wonders. Parading around bare-chested, Kain stands out quite a bit as a protagonist. From what I remember of the reactions of teenage girls around 2002, he was quite pleasing to the eye, which also gave him marketing value. At the same time, he slowly acquires traits that we will later recognize in his much older, altered version from Soul Reaver.
The music doesn't penetrate your ear as much as the sounds from Soul Reavers, but it creates the atmosphere of a gothic quest for the city's secrets and the blood of enemies, while also highlighting the intensity of events. The actors also excellently fulfill their duties, even if they didn't get as good lines to read as in other installments of Legacy of Kain.
Vampire games
The gameplay turns out to be surprisingly enjoyable, despite all its imperfections. Although we usually move from point A to point B and fly further, puzzles and map exploration provide a lot of fun. The levels are complex enough that the lack of linearity doesn't bother us, and at the same time, we don't feel overwhelmed.
The controls are a bit crude and old-school (e.g., there are no strafes, only body rotation), but after a while, you should get used to them. The problem is that even if we play with a controller, we still have to call up the main menu from the keyboard, so if we launch Blood Omen 2 on the computer, we still won't sit too far from the monitor.
The combat proves to be far more enjoyable than in the simultaneously developed Soul Reaver 2. This is still a rather unnatural model of combat, but straightforward, dynamic, and non-invasive enough that it doesn't interfere with the fun. Moreover, the block system has been intriguingly addressed - we can activate a semi-automatic mode, where we press the button more or less, and Kain handles the rest, or we can opt for a manual gearbox and strive to perfect our timing and rhythm. Sure, it's still a schematic hack and slash, but it doesn't frustrate, even if it starts to be challenging over time.
Furthermore, both fighting every enemy encountered and preying on defenseless passers-by are quite logical - as Kain's power, or at least his health bar, typically increases when our sweet dark prince drinks enough blood. And the lack of reward for fighting was one of the sources of frustration in Soul Reavers. Juggling dark gifts is a lot of fun—even the basic one, which is the transformation into fog (in designated areas). This introduces stealth elements to Blood Omen 2, which we use to eliminate enemies and solve environmental puzzles. In general, these special abilities (acquired after defeating bosses) make us feel like a true vampire.
How to play Blood Omen 2 today?
Unfortunately, launching Blood Omen 2 today requires a bit of perseverance. I own the version from GOG (currently for $7.84; you can also find the game on Steam for $6.99) and I encountered an annoying error. The game starts to lag when switching between menus - it only unfreezes when we briefly switch to Windows using Alt+Tab, but adjusting anything this way can be extremely frustrating. The program will crash during the game anyway. A fan-made patch comes to the rescue, which you can download from here.
You can also invest in the physical version. The original on PC can cost at auctions from 30 to even 95 bucks, while the console edition is around $30 (that's how much I saw the Xbox version for). However, in November 2024, the game was added to the PS Plus Premium subscription offer.
Once you deal with any potential problems, it turns out that Blood Omen 2 is actually quite a good game. Lacking narrative strength and trivializing key saga characters, but if you're after a vampire retro-adventure action game with an intriguing atmosphere and a mysterious protagonist, this installment of Legacy of Kain might still catch your interest today.
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