He must regain the Dark Gifts, and he must defeat his former allies to achieve that goal. His list of needs is many: He must restore his pride, face, and dignity. So, when one absorbs the monumental tasks set before Kain, it's easy to see that his plate overfloweth, if you will. Each Gift is a special Vampire ability only sophisticated, superior vampires are capable of handling, and each once belonged to Kain. Several of Kain's closest lieutenants, in fact, betrayed the vampire race by suiting up with the Sarafan, and each one has what are known as Dark Gifts. While he was recovering, many of the vampires in his legion died fighting, they hid, or they joined forces with the Sarafan themselves. Kain lost the last battle, and he wants revenge. The driving principle here is wonderfully pure folly. Since none of the humans or dignitaries in the capitol city of Meridian even recognize Kain, he is the one who will save them, he is the one who will walk unabashedly around town regaining power for the vampires once again, draining, maiming, pillaging, and feeding like the blood-thirsty wretch that he is. They must defeat the Sarafan Knights who rapidly grow while the vampire population subsequently dwindles. Kain awakes! And he's pissed! The scantily clad female vampire, Umah, and the vampire resistance (known as the Cabal), have saved and nursed Kain over the last two centuries, and they need his help. You're the evil bastard, and the experience, I must admit, is a paradoxically lovely one. YOU get to suck the blood and watch humans squirm, twitch and shake as the blood flows from their veins into your mouth. But in the game, since you ARE Kain, a blood-sucking vampire, the tables are turned. Seems fair enough in real life anyways, since vampires not only suck your blood, but they kill you (you being a human) - and never in a fair, even-handed way. In Blood Omen 2, which takes place 200 years after Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, and thousands of years before Soul Reaver 1, Kain has awakened from a nearly fatal encounter with the leader of the Sarafan Knights, a military faction of mystic zealots whose only mission in life is to rid the planet of vampires. Although by now you should know the basics of the Blood Omen 2 story, I'll refresh your memory. Story I admit it, I'm a huge Legacy of Kain fan, and I'd probably play through the worst Legacy of Kain game on the planet to learn what happens next to Kain and Raziel. So even with its many flaws, Blood Omen 2 succeeds in enough ways to take notice. It has a certain compelling nature that slowly grows on those who play it. It comes through with a resilient charm that's hard to poinpoint exactly. And despite the problems, Blood Omen 2 is an odd winner, a never-say-die vampire of a game. So, there's all the bad stuff in a body bag. ![]() ![]() Besides the many technically insufficiencies, from unreasonably bad slowdown to collision detection issues to production problems in sound and memory management, the gameplay bogs down with redundancy, specifically blas? combat, stagnant door-and-switch progression, and strangely enough, box puzzles, which I thought we'd gotten rid of after the first Soul Reaver. What's unfortunate about Crystal Dynamics' latest Legacy of Kain offering is that it's a letdown. And progressively, it offers a great set of special vampire moves, from charms to stealth moves to super jumps that yield endlessly good fun. Occasionally, it sucks you into its deep steampunk world torn between vampires and fanatic knights. At rare times Blood Omen 2 is good looking. ![]() He's so much fun to play, it feels good to be bad. Also, without a doubt, the young Kain rocks. The other big "charm" of Blood Omen 2 is its strong focus on character, story, and the ongoing power-battles between humans and vampires. In a very true sense, he's a great videogame character because he lives his life the way most of us real humans only fantasize of doing. That's really the beauty of Kain - he's incredibly likeable because he never compromises, always goes for what suits his personal needs best, damn the consequences. He's younger than in the Soul Reaver days, he's recovering from defeat at the hands of the Sarafan Knights, and he's naturally pissed off about everything. The true sequel to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the PlayStation game that launched the series back in 1996, Blood Omen 2 focuses on the early days of Kain's travails, and how he manages to "come back" from near death to restore order to the vampires of Nosgoth.
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