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On the previous pages we have the games 'over-story' so let's cut to the chase.
If you strip Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain down, take away it's superb voice acting, marvelous musical score, interesting array of weaponry, spells, item spells, and transformations, then hell, Legacy of Kain is a bad game. Thankfully, however, Legacy of Kain is a game that doesn't over-look the inclusion of such indepth gaming, all in one disc.
To speak plainly, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is a great game. Kain is easy enough to control, he is controlled from a 'bird's eye' position similiar to Final Fantasy games VI and before it. Legacy of Kain's major draw card is obviously it's story. The first time through, you wouldn't be playing the game to get Kain's life bar up-graded to maximum, you'll be playing the game to get to Termagant forest, thinking: "hey, I get to meet that Vorador guy who bet up Malek."
Being a vampire can have it's ups and downs. You are of course, Kain, vampire super-star, and unfortune for you, you are unable to walk through water without there being consequences. (If you walk on water, Kain's life vial drains until your destruction). You begin the game armed with the very sword that killed you, when attacking enemies, you can slice them to a bloody pulp, until they are wavering around on the spot, this is the part where you press a button and Kain drinks his victims blood for his own life bar to increase. There are of course item-magics which heal you (i.e. Heart of Darkness), which if you have any in your inventory, and your health is deplenished, it will revive you.
As I mentioned before, there are a lot of secrets to get in the game, and a barrel load of spells and weapons you'd need to acquire along your journey. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was classed as an RPG when it came out, and it's interesting to note how the game's developers, Silicon Knights, decided that Kain's weapons could directly influence landscape obstacles, enemies, and whether Kain could cast a spell or not. For example, you can gain a mace which pummels rocks barring your path, the mace cannot kill your victims however, it can only leave them in the state where you can drink their blood. Useful. The flame sword obliterates any possibility of replenishing your blood off your victims. The flame sword burns it's enemies to crisp, leaving nothing but charred smoke. The double-handed axes, allows Kain to dispatch of trees in his way, but makes Kain unable to cast equipped spells. The possibilties and weaponry mixtures are endless.
The up sides of this game is it has execellent replay value, just like all good RPGs should, it was one of the first games to include experienced voice actors to play the voice of it's characters, (Simon Templeman as Kain, and Paul Lukather as Vorador really steal the show). The music, some have argued is dull and bland, but according to a majority of both fans and people who have just sat by and watched the game being played, they agreed that the music is both eerie, quiet, epic, remorseful, sad, action, mysterious and fitting in almost all aspects of the game. It even suits it's enviroments. The game's '100secrets' system is always a challenge, there are still people who haven't found all of them, and I'm one of them. The game gives you a rank, whether it be whelp, to Lord, to Master, and it let's you know, on the way, how many secrets you've uncovered. There's more fun to be had in this game other than enjoying the story.
Unfortunately, there are some bad points to this game.
Blood Omen's fan-base wasn't an amazing 'stampeding wilderbeast' when released in 1996. Legacy of Kain came out during the 3D revolution, and some people were thrown back by Blood Omen's overall look. Some couldn't get past the graphics, even though the gameplay in Blood Omen was solid and easy enough to get hooked and play. Reasons for Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain's popularity today is majorly due to the spin-off, Soul Reaver.
Blood Omen, looking at it now, has terrible graphics, when compared to it's other Playstation brothers, but it wasn't all that bad. The graphics were bad, people could admit, but they were constant. They did the job, there wasn't a bit in the game where someone said: "that is built a bit shoddy" because the game maintained a consistancy to it. Another factor was the cinematic video clips. The graphics in these are hideous, the characers move static, and the people are constructed poorly. One more factor which people on the Playstation media couldn't overlook was the loading times. Blood Omen requires you to switch and change your weaponry continuosly throughout the game, and to do so, you have to go into your inventory. Howver, the 5 second stall between going into your inventory and out again was too big a stop in action for people to handle.
These points, however, are invalid, if you are merely purchasing the game to find the basis of the story of Legacy of Kain. I bought the game because Kain is my favourite character. It is true, however, that the PC version is easier to use, so if you have a PC, the loading times are nearly non-existant in Blood Omen PC version. The graphics and videos are nothing to worry about, for people who buy games and are impressed by graphics, then maybe a change of course is needed when thinking about buying Blood Omen. However, for people who enjoy gameplay over graphics, a game with murderous intent and brutal gore, but an epic story to back it up, memorable characters, fitting music and a few hours to waste each night, then hell, Blood Omen is your game.
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