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Dom Robinson reviews
The Legacy of Kain Seriesfor Xbox
Eidos 
- Price: £44.99
- Players: 1
In Blood Omen 2,the action takes place inbetween Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen andLegacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, so it serves as both a prequel and a sequel,so in a way it could be seen as the ‘Scorpion King’ of computer games, but ithas a plot akin to another cinema film out at the same time, Blade II.
Kain awakens to find his body having been revived and restored by a vampirecalled Umah, after being left for dead from a battle Kain can’t remember.You, as Kain, have been brought to Meridian, the capital of Nosgoth, in orderto help these vampires, going under the name of the resistance force ofCabal, deal with the evil Sarafan. Your ultimate goal is to kill theSarafan Lord, since, like a pack of dominoes, take out the key one and therest will collapse.
For those new to the franchise, like myself, what this means is a third-personaction/adventure in which you must work through the levels kicking bottomand taking out the trash. Kick your opponents from here into next week, sucktheir blood to boost your strength, or throttle them and chuck them across theroom. Take your pick.
Graphically and sonically, it’s on a par with one of my all-time favouritePC games, Thief II: The Metal Age.The creepy dungeons, the low lighting effects, gorgeous rippling water effects,the dripping sound FX from leaky pipes, the clank as you walk along metal grates,the smell of fresh cut grass, the smack of leather on willow…
Erm.. forget the last two things as they were quotes from a sample of TheOrb‘s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld album, but then also isthe soundtrack early on in the game as an endlessly repeating few beats isincredibly reminiscent of what I heard on another track from that album. Ifyou’re a fan, you’ll know which one I’m talking about when you hear it.
On the downside, while it looks and sounds superb, the gameplay is what’slacking. It’s so samey all the way through: creep up on people, sometimescollecting and administering special effects such as mist (a form ofsemi-invisibility) beat up an opponent with all the grace and poise of acomputerised wrestling game. The predictability leads to early tedium andit’s clear this is one for dedicated fans only.
If I could have made changes, I’d have gone for a first-person view andmore emphasis on stealth and, in turn, atmosphere.
On the plus side, though, it’s quite a violent excursion with a 15-certificate,although the BBFC cert only applies because some video footage has beenscanned in along the way for FMV sequences and the like. The actual gamecharacters, which partake in all the violence, are all polygons. That said, it’squite fun to pick someone up off the street, throttle them in the air withone hand, and beat their knackers with a gruesome-looking spiky club heldin your other. But then, if I wanted to inflict massive amounts of pain I’dputGrand Theft Auto 3on and drive along the pavement for a few minutes.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.