Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

I'll be perfectly honest. I played this game for the first time in 2009, I think, and even then it felt really old and I didn't like it. At first, it was a chore and I only played it for the story and to see firsthand the "birth" of Kain. After an hour or so you get used to it and it somehow grows on you. Now after a while I wanted to replay the whole series again, after that survey by Crystal Dynamics came up 2 months ago. This time I was prepared and the game felt really different. I didn't have that same feeling of dated graphics and gameplay mechanics. This game is a masterpiece in storytelling and the narrative and dialogues are one of the best I've ever seen (or read) in any medium with the excellent performance by Simon Templeman and Tony Jay (RIP). So mature and with lots of plot twists it can easily fit into a class-A novel. The character progression is excellently done and you can experience what motivated Kain to evolve into Kain we know from later games in the series. As for the gameplay mechanics, even though dated by today's standards, they were nearly groundbreaking in the early PS1 era. So many spells are at your disposal and different armor/weapon combos to face off against different types of enemies. I'm glad I've replayed this game and hope it will get a remaster (no need for a remake or reboot). Be sure to download Verok's patch as it fixes a lot of stuff like long loading screens, better cinematics, HQ sounds and music, added subtitles, to name a few. Off to continue my journey through Nosgoth in Soul Reaver. Cheers!

Finally getting around to playing the LoK games. Surprisingly good writing in all regards: world building is tantalizing and mysterious, characters are interesting and theatrically dramatic, and each item comes with delicious flavour text delivered by Kain . Line delivery by the main voice actors, especially for this era of games, is excellent. The magic is wonderfully varied and brutal with their effects. Atmosphere is usually great with the lighting and weather being a big plus. Traversal was mostly enjoyable with traditional vampire abilities coming into play. Unfortunately it's not all blood fountains and misery. The audio quality for the voice acting often sounds like it was recorded on an answering machine from a camcorder. Audio cues will replay every time you go to certain places or do certain things and in a game that encourages backtracking I found that it was an odd choice. Combat can be very rudimentary early on or if you're out of magic or just hoarding them for later, the hitboxes are often ludicrous, and enemies can get stuck on you/each other. UI can be a pain to navigate, especially in certain areas that require frequent changing.

This is the game that started it all for the Legacy of Kain series and was the second one I played, after Soul Reaver. You play as Kain on what initially seems to be a tale of revenge that quickly twists and turns in knots that unfold over multiple games. Parts of the gameplay and combat feel very dated today, however, the voice acting, character development, story, musical score, and the world all mesh together to create an exquisite experience. If you're a fan of the series or just a fan of good ol' games this is a great game to add to your collection.

I only finished this game once in my life and that was on the old Playstation 1 in 1997. While the graphics in this version look the part, the game itself plays much smoother than I remember. It used to slow down so much when multiple enemies were on the screen on the Playstation 1 version. I also own this on the Playstation 3 and it does the same thing there as well. But thankfully, this PC version is fully optimized to run clean as a whistle on modern computers while keeping its original rough-around-the-edges look. Imagine one of your favorite classic VHS movies given the blu ray disc treatment, and you'll get an idea of how this classic game used to run versus how it runs now. The pixely graphics and cheesy voice acting are all here in all of their classic mid-90s glory, and should give some of you a glimpse at how your mom and dad used to play games just a few generations ago! Sit back and enjoy one of the greatest gems ever released on the Playstation 1, now in fully optimized modern PC splendor.

The original Blood Omen Legacy of Kain can best be described as a Zelda clone with horror elements and some jank. That said, it is an easy recommendation and a lot of fun. I've made a video showing off the game for those curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL3iPZcP4mI