Vampires are hip. Vampires are with it. And sucking the life out of innocents as they plead for their lives while chained to dungeon walls (and then laughing maniacally about it to no one in particular) is cool enough to distract you from your job as a manual labor specialist. At least, that’s the theory behind Blood Omen 2. Blood Omen 2 is the fourth chapter in the Legacy of Kain series, and the first one since the original to put you in control of undead demi-god Kain, recently awakened to a twisted (at least by vampire logic) world where vampires are hunted by men. It takes place hundreds of years before Soul Reaver 2 in the Legacy “chronology,” but involves a good chunk of the undead cast from Raziel’s previous excursion and all the exquisitely ridiculous voice-acting, oh so vastly entertaining in its Anne Rice pomp and pretense, that remains the series’ trademark. In terms of gameplay complexity, Blood Omen 2 is a rather baffling step back from the original PS action/RPG, or even from Soul Reaver’s more action-oriented adventuring. This is a straight-up linear 3D action game, comprised of single levels and none of the backtracking or serious world exploration from the series’ other incarnations. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, except that Kain, evil lord of undead damnation, spends a good deal of time pulling switches to open doors or—even worse—pushing crates to solve puzzles. Yes…pushing crates. Soul Reaver 2 was wise enough to abandon that most heinous gameplay mechanic; and so one is left to wonder what sort of dark hex could have possibly clouded the minds of BO2’s development team. At least the curse wasn’t powerful enough to give rise to a mine cart level. Luckily for Blood Omen 2, it’s good to be a badass, no matter what you’re doing with your badassitude. Bleeding a city full of good people dry is insanely fun; there is great dark satisfaction to be had in walking up to a friendly neighborhood fishmonger and listening to him say, “G’day guv’ner, I hear there be vampires about!” right before you slash his chest, pick him up by the neck, hurl him against a wall, and suck the life out of his twitching almost-dead body. Once the novelty of being so utterly evil begins to wear off, the game is wise enough to offer up a good number of cool Dark Gifts (powers like super Leaps or the ability to take control of feeble human minds) that make all the crate-pushing and switch-flipping a lot more bearable. Suddenly, instead of pulling a lever to open a door, you’re leaping across a series of rooftops, taking control of a stuffy butler’s mind, and then having him pull the switch for you. A superficial difference, granted, but an important one nonetheless. Blood Omen 2 gets markedly better as it goes along. BO2’s graphical high points include some gorgeous urban architecture, sharp, super-clean textures, and really cool character animation, as well as some dramatic camera angles for when you’re blood-sucking and rooftop leaping. Low points include oversimplified character models (“Hello, space monkey! Oh, sorry, m’lady…”), a dearth of special effects, and some unfortunate frame rate jitters (especially during a select few boss battles) that distract you from the good stuff. The sound is pretty solid, too, with plenty of ultra-effective screaming and eerie (if not particularly memorable) music, though occasionally some weird sound glitches pop into earshot. Kain’s controls aren’t immediately friendly, forcing you into the ol’ “spot rotation” scheme popularized by Resident Evil and giving you limited control over your camera view, but once you get used to it, it works just fine. Battling is simple—a single button chains your attacks into simple combos—though once you realize how the patterns work, you’ll find that nearly every skirmish works the same, and every weapon you find performs basically the same function. For some reason, the same problem was slightly more annoying in Soul Reaver 2. And so this chapter in the Kain Legacy rises above all the crate-pushing thanks to a solid story, cool array of Dark Gifts, and high frequency of wholly immoral acts of horrifically violent fun. You’ll probably wish there was more behind Blood Omen 2’s bloody façade than just another 3D action/adventure…but then you’ll realize there’s not, and suck it up and un-live with it just fine.
