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Blood
Omen 2
Score: 4/10 In
a classic case of the original following in the footsteps of it’s own
descendant, Blood Omen comes to the scene after it’s spawn, Soul
Reaver, has enjoyed two successful outings. Capitalizing off of this,
Blood Omen drops the top down perspective of it’s PS1 days and appears
in full 3D. But unfortunately sometimes when an older game duplicates
its own spin-offs the final product is a blatant but poor copy of the
worst and the best of the offspring.
Such is the case with Blood Omen 2. |
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The first Soul Reaver was badmouthed by many a gamer for repetitive and floaty game play concepts which were greatly improved for the second release. Unfortunately, Blood Omen’s development team didn’t learn much from the Soul Reaver fan-boy complaints as they have implemented almost exactly the game play style of Soul Reaver 1 leaving out the beautifully crafted environments, interesting enemies and intuitive combat system. The result is a trail of switches in need of pushin’ or pullin’ and levels filled with enemies in need of slaughterin’ and not much else. |
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There are a few interesting game qualities to be had though. Kain collects abilities called dark gifts throughout the game and uses them creatively to pass certain parts of the game. There’s mist, charm, fury and berserk – the last of that will make Kain glow before releasing a high-speed attack on any unlucky foes. Unfortunately, these dark gifts aren’t put to use imaginatively enough to reduce the monotony of hitting switches. The
sound and music are adequate but lose points given their uninspired
environment – like putting perfectly good pastrami on moldy bread, no
matter how good the pastrami is it’s tainted by association.
The slashing and combat sequences are reflect well audio wise and
the eerie vampire music throughout is nice along with the voice acting
during cut-scenes which is actually one of the game’s stronger points.
At other points, like during boss battles, the lack of music or sound
effects lends the game an anti-climatic effect that deducts from the
completeness of the experience. In the end Blood Omen 2 obviously rode the wave of Soul Reaver success all the way into retail and into many gamer’s homes. A blatantly inferior title it parodies all that went wrong with Azriel’s adventure banking on the simple notion that gamer’s won’t know the difference or will be too fascinated by the constant bloodletting to notice the drop in quality. Blood Omen is a perfect example of what the brainwashing qualities of advertisement can do. While it’s not the worst game ever it makes no effort to be anything but mediocre and lacks the overall environment and appeal that keeps gamers happy. A definite renter if you don’t believe me. Otherwise grab a copy of Soul Reaver 2 to slake your thirst for blood. - Doug Flowe (May 11, 2002) |
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