Still Worth Playing? | Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain Review
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- Опубліковано 9 чер 2024
- #bloodomen #legacyofkain #retrogaming
Blood Omen is the first game in the Legacy of Kain series. Silicon Knights set out to make "a Zelda game for adults." Did they succeed?
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Twitter: / dungeonchill
GOG Store: www.gog.com/en/game/blood_ome...
LoK Wiki: legacyofkain.fandom.com/wiki/...
NeoGAF thread on Silicon Knights: www.neogaf.com/threads/a-post...
0:00 Intro
2:26 Story setup
7:29 Development history
13:08 Presentation
22:06 Gameplay
35:05 Story spoilers
45:26 Spoilers end
46:10 Conclusion
47:21 Outro
#gamereview #horrorgaming
#soulreaver #ps1 #vampiregaming - Ігри
Love the bit where he defeats Mobius and says "but I am dead as are you"
"I've seen the future and you're not in it"... " And neither are you"
Wow, so the GOG has 100 secrets? I remember the PS1 version having a bug that only lets you get 98 or something like that. I have very fond memories of watching my mom play the PS1 version. It's kind of bittersweet too. She just passed away in may and i have her copy in my collection
It's not bugged, it's just so obscure to do after map changes you'd never find the last secrets. You have to flip switches that used to be in the four corners of the map, but they rearranged the map and now you're expected to find secret hidden switches at random parts of the world to get to a secret boat. We only discovered it in 2010 by going into the data of the game.
@@wareforcoin5780 That isn't included in the 100 secrets and you can get the full 100 without doing that, even on the PS1 version. The two that most people miss are during the time travel sequences. You get one secret for going through a moon door before travelling, then another for doing it in the past (which means waiting two literal hours), and then another for doing it once you return to the altered present (ANOTHER two hour wait). Most will only get one of these and then think they're done with that particular gate. It's ridiculous, but I still love the game.
I know Crystal Dynamics didn’t have the initial vision, but I like how the sequels built on aspects of this game that were innocuous at first but had huge ramifications in sequels.
Like how in Defiance a major mystery was the location of the Heart of Darkness; if you played the first game, you’d know Kain had it because it was a pickup!
it's funny, in any other game series, the twists and turns would seem ridiculous and unfitting, but in the Legacy of Kain series it just seems to work out
@@Selnathornit dosen't just work out, its the story writers who worked around and somehow madenthe stories of each game make sense and keep each other in check mostly.
Loving your channel. Nice dry humor. Thorough review of a game I'm not likely to ever get around to playing but I'd love to learn about anyway
Try it on the Vita or even PSP. It's a good portable game + you can then play PS1 Soul Reaver on the same portable device 👍😎👍
To save yourself some time (it wasn't worth looking up), Ken was arrested for possessing and creating CP.
Who Ken?
@@ericstaples7220ken mccolloch, lead artist, lead designer and story writer for this game
@@ericstaples7220 at about the 8:00 mark the video references Ken McCulloch as the art director and story writer.
That is a most unfortunate thing to hear, for all parties involved.
@@Draliseth nah we got his ass one less weirdo out there
43:20 lol the way he pops out from behind that pillar is great 😂
What raises a bit of confusion in the story is that the game doesn't tell you there's a 470 year time gap in the intro cutscene, and another 30 year time gap when the game begins.
Explain please lol
@@rolandotorres9741 Blood Omen opens during the attack on the circle (SR2 ending) i.e. the day Ariel was born. Then on the following scene we see Ariel being murdered (SR2 opening). The player has no idea that 470 years passed between these two cutscenes.
@@papapapa16 Thanks!
@@papapapa16 Source: Trust me bro
@@xThunderxWolfx or just play SR2
What, no mug of ale for a weary traveler from distant Coorhagen!? I can reward you well, for I am of noble blood!
I don't know why that first line is always what comes to mind when I think of Blood Omen. Great game, and great video! I enjoyed the longer format (the short videos in between are great too though) and I liked that you went a bit into the muddy development history. Now I want to replay the game, and Soul Reaver too...
Thanks! Even though the longer videos take awhile (I’d been working on this since the end of last month) I really like making them. I think I’m gonna do Soul Reaver for the next long review. I want to do the whole Kain series eventually.
I stay open for no man in these dark times. dangers come in the night, no sane man would welcome.
The one that's stuck in my head is: "Alas poor Nupraptor. I knew him well. Well...not really." Lol. Or "out of my way, peasant! The stench of the field hangs over you like a pall!" Kain is such an a-hole.
@@AuspexAO I love kain as a character, arrogant and ahole-ish in a great way. small price for his investigation into the corrupt of nosgoth and its pillars
@@AuspexAO The moment that lives rent free in my head is Kain refering to Vorador telling of his fight with Malek (AKA the thing that kicksarts the whole game) as a "borish account". It's really captivating how Kain doesn't give two shits about anything happening in Nosgoth and just goes witht he flow to be rid of his curse.
Very good review! You did get the nemesis thing a little wrong though. When Kain goes back in time and kills William the Just, that's just nemesis as a young man. William became nemesis through moebius corrupting him. No possession just became an asshole when he got older lol! Looking forward to you reviewing the sequels and other strange games!
Thanks for the correction. The backstory and lore in this series is so dense. I figured I didn’t get everything right.
I plan on covering the entire LoK series eventually!
@@dungeonchillHaving tricked Kain into killing William, Moebius uses this event, the assassination of William the Just by a vampire, to rally the populace to destroy all vampires. Returning to the present of this different timeline, Kain now finds himself to be the last of his kind. Moebius' goal and motivation for pursuing it are revealed much later, in LoK: Defiance.
I enjoyed the video, and I particularly liked the approach of not viewing Blood Omen through the lens of later titles. The series would have played out much differently had Silicon Knights developed it, and while I do love Crystal Dynamics' work, I think we would have received a more compelling story if Denis Dyack had retained creative control.
@@dungeonchill Just wait til you get to Defiance. It's absolutely incredible just how well tied up this series' lore is.
@@D--FENS That is a great pity!
Gosh I get so happy every time I see someone talk about this series.
Same
I have precious memories growing up as a kid in the 90's playing this with my late uncle Pat. This and castlevania sotn are really close to my heart, glad you're getting into the series great video
It's kinda funny listening to someone explain the story who hasn't experienced the story of the other LoK games yet.
He quickly brushes through very significant events like the fight with William the Just.
Obviously there's no way for him to know this yet, so no fault of his. Just interesting.
I only ever played Blood Omen out of the series, but I have been mishearing and saying "Yay Victus!" for over 25 years. Yikes. Also, between this, Icewind Dale, and King's Quest VI, Tony Jay's voice evokes such a visceral late 90's nostalgia for me.
Ha, I wish he said Yay Victus! And Tony Jay is a legend. Video games definitely wouldn’t be the same without him.
You're not alone. 😂 My mom still refers to the whole series as "Hey Victor!" because of this game.
@@vanyadolly Yeah, back in the PS1 era, I always wondered where's Kain buddy Victor was lurking since he's always giving him a shout out everywhere he goes. 🤣🤣🤣
I was watching a friend stream her playthrough of Starfield last Friday. When they mentioned, "Vay Victus," in the game, I damn near spit out my drink! I know it's probably a old phrase, but having ever heard it come from Blood Omen, I couldn't help but wonder if it was a reference.
Wait he doesn't say that? Lol then what does he say?
This was the first game I played when I got my PS1 back then. Had so much fun.
Looked up Ken McCulloch as I've never heard of him.
I see....more or less what I expected.
This game was so ahead of its time when it came to video game voice acting. Simon Templeman is so damned good as Kain. I just can't imagine anyone else nailing the role. He is Kain. And of course just Tony Jay in general, man that guy's voice is amazing. Then Michael Bell in the Soul Reaver games. Those performances coming out around the same time as the first Resident Evil, lol.
I'm not sure why everyone is so squeamish about saying it: he had pictures of kiddie porn on his computer.
We don't have to like it but we certainly don't have to cover for the creep by pretending it didn't happen, either.
@@CopiousDoinksLLC I think it's more that UA-cam tends to block and demonetize channels that say things like that, no matter the context.
That's why people have danced around topics like that on UA-cam the last couple years. They can't even say the words murder or suicide without the chance UA-cam will demonetize the video or even the whole channel.
@@EarthboundX Or rape, and for a while if you said "underage girls" so youtubers started calling girls "underage women" for a while.
More or less what i expected. It's the "land of freedom" these days, however, this kind of thing might very well get legal soon due to the wokie nutters. On the other hand, in USia you can get incarcerated for just about anything imaginable, prisoners are profitable after all. Pictures on your PC ? In the jail you go, work you slave.
@@wareforcoin5780 lmao that is so much worse wtf youtube
I will never forget playing this with my Playstation upside down. About a third of the way through this game the laser lens crapped out on me. Only way to get it to work was turning the system upside down.
I think your channel is my next binge watch. This is my 3rd vid after Kuon and Ecko Night and you're killing it
I remember reading about this game when it came out, it looked interesting but there was always this "no horror" rule in my house, so I couldn't give it a shot. But I did play once a demo of Soul Reaver. That was fun.
And funny thing about that pirate ship, they were talking about it even back when it came out, but I guess it was way too complicated to figure it out and no one found it until recently apparently. Aside from the reviewers who talked about it and showed screen shots.
Apparently there are invisible switches in the game world that are in areas the player can’t reach, so you have to use projectile magic to hit them. I think there are some videos out there of people showing how to do it. It’s neat that secret stayed hidden for so long.
@@dungeonchill It's funny how well hidden it is, with no way of knowing if you've triggered it correctly or not. I read somewhere the developers assumed people would find it in a couple of months or so. And yet, the hidden fatalities in Mortal Kombat were discovered in minutes.
this is such an excellent halloween game
... so is Blood Omen 2 👍
Have to utter a minor but major (story) point at 42:12 you say the Nemesis took over the body of William the Just. Mobius went back in time and presented William with the Soul Reaver which then turned him into The Nemesis of the present. Two Reavers now exist in the past. When Kain defeats William, the timeline is then altered. Vorador has his mansion overrun in the new timeline. As Kain returns to the present (and the new timeline) he witnesses the death of Vorador. The army of The Nemesis never existed and William the Just has been killed by a vampire.
The way time works in Blood Omen is linear. You can never change the past, because you never did. With 2 Reavers existing in the same place at the same time it causes a paradox. Only then can time be altered.
Great review otherwise.
"...NOT Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, How dare you?" subscribed.
I know this is a strange place to put this; but I just need to describe my frustration with how Naughty Dog treated Amy Hennig.
In Uncharted 3; there is a scene where Nathan meets Elena again. In this scene, Nathan points to her wedding ring and says "You're still wearing it" and in that moment; that one tiny piece of dialogue, you as the player are told everything you need to know about their past and current relationship and their dynamic. You are understand that they were married but now separated and you understand that there's still feelings between them; but things are complicated but there's still hope.
In that one tiny exchange of dialogue, Amy showed you quietly and quickly an entire backstory between Uncharted 2 and 3 and it's incredible.
So of course Neil Druckmann forced her out of the company and wrote Uncharted 4.
For anyone not aware, Uncharted 4 has a scene between Nathan and Elena where they are trapped in a lift together, airing out their relationship problems in the most verbose and melodramatic way possible. The writing is fucking terrible and you are forced to witness it through contrived means.
The nuance and subtly of Amy's writing was completely stripped from the Uncharted series after she was forced out and this terrible poorly written scene is prime example of it.
Now... I have no evidence for my next conspiracy but the timeline makes sense...
The Last of Us 1 is so wonderfully paced and the idea to do it over seasons of the year is brilliant. The dynamic between Joel and Ellie is nuanced and well developed.
TLOU was being developed at the same time as Uncharted 3...
Is there a chance that Amy Hennig worked on TLOU? Possibly the one who developed the themes and was the scenario writer?
Because if you believe TLOU 1 and 2 were written by the same person (Neil Druckman) then you haven't played TLOU2 yet.
I think Amy got her name stripped from TLOU1
If you think Druckman isn't an egomaniac who would remove someone's name from the credits... Bruce Straley wasnt credited as one of the creators of The Last of Us in the HBO series.
I love Blood Omen, but I cannot take Dyack’s comments about the sequels seriously. The man is bitter and loves to blame everyone but himself for his problems (see the Too Human debacle) and his criticism that LoK was slapped onto to the game Shifter at the last minute to make Soul Reaver is blatantly untrue. Amy Hennig might not have liked being forced to make Shifter into a Kain game, but the mandate came down only a few months into Shifter’s development and she put in a lot of work to make sure Soul Reaver got with the lore established in Blood Omen.
Finally, there’s the comment a Crystal Dynamics rep had about Silicon Knights back in 2007, how SK had only put out two games since Blood Omen and they’re own Kain sequel likely never would’ve happened given how long Too Human was in development hell. I’m inclined to agree. And given the state of Too Human, I’m not sure we’d even want an SK-developed Kain sequel.
Great review 😊 I thoroughly enjoyed this trip down memory lane, and the full history/game review was excellent 👌 You've got a new subscriber. Thanks man
THRILLED the algorithm led me to your channel. I’m a huge Grimbeard fan and your channel hits similarly. Ez sub.
I actually purchased this game when it came out. I spent hours upon hours digging through all of its gameplay, and story to find out that you could actually beat it at only 20% or less. We missed out on a good chunk of the game, both my friend and I did beat it, and Then moved along. Over 25 years later, it might be worth pulling out again because I do still have it… But for PlayStation one.
Don't do the PS version. He wasn't exaggerating about the load times. You're better off spending the $5 or whatever it is on GOG and playing it there. If you have any ounce of self love, you will avoid the playstation version.
This game was/is dope af. I filled out that questionaire for the new one. I want more Kain!
I love this game and i love that you covered this content. Thank gog for their rerelease of this classic
Blood Omen is a fantastic example of developers using pixel art to make the most of the technology. Like Symphony of the Night.
It feels like a lot of modern games use pixel art as an excuse to make games look simple.
“You have to open menus for everything... also I never remembered the hotkeys” 😂
At the time it was one of the only games in which you played as a "villain". It was glorious.
This video was released 7/14/23. At 40:40 we here this quote "So we're about to have time travel introduced into this place and, Oh man, I'm just getting a little light headed here."
The video "Weirdest Time travel Video on PS2 | Shadows of Memories" was released 11/11/23. At 26:20 we get this quote: "Me, other timelines? I've got a headache, I need to go lie down."
Love the circular references!
I love the dialogue in this game. Adds so much atmosphere.
Subscribed. I'm gonna stop short because, I got the very end but never finished it yet. Looking forward to your other videos. 👍
would love to see a remake of this one - loved to play it back in the 90s on my psx
They would definitely need to use the original audio somehow. These voices could never be recast.
I originally played the PS1 version when it first came out as a kid and I loved this game so much. The loading and sluggishness doesn't stand out in my memory at all, even though we hated the loading screens of the era even back then, but I think that just speaks to how good a game it is.
Love this series, but only played Blood Omen once. I should remedy that some day.
I really enjoyed the "you died" intro to the game lol. I like when games do stuff like that.
Also i had zero clue what the cinematic was depicting, so thank you for explaining some of the backstory
Oh man, not sure if I'll ever play this but definitely gonna be listening to the OST. Thanks for pointing it out!
I never got to play much more than a demo of this on my Dad's work laptop but I remember absolutely loving the ambience. Even with such a simple game world, it had so much texture.
Honestly, this is still one of my favourite games. As an RPG with an open world, it gets a lot right where most modern games fall on their face. (But I would love a remake, please and thank you!)
Good work mate. 👍
I did enjoy this game, but I really prefer what we ended up with rather than what I have heard of the original plan. Especially since they essentially made Blood Omen and Soul Reaver into two stories that dovetailed together quite excellently and that more or less used time travel in a reasonably sensible manner, as well as pre-empting the modern, clumsy 'I have meta knowledge' storyline infecting so many rehashes now by making that a literal point of the plot. Sure a lot of people got screwed over and their ideas pushed into the series to much grumbling, but the end result is something quite impressive, and I feel it was worth it to the players. Not to mention this series of events also lead to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, another excellent game on it's own.
I really need to play this series one day
I’ve only ever played this and Soul Reaver. They’re both really good. I plan on doing videos for the whole series eventually though.
@@dungeonchill Absolutely do this. The gameplay has aged all the games, but I think you'll find the story is good enough to carry the games.
I still put on that like 2 hour story video someone uploaded here a while ago fron time to time. Such good voice acting
Now this deserves a remake!!!
I love this game. The side bar left my old flat screen with some lingering burn in that eventually went away.
I never get tired of hearing Tony Jay's voice in video games. He was awesome as the Lieutenant in Fallout 1.
Thanks for reminding me I need to replay this game, and reinstall the patch with subtitles lol, Kain's voice is amazing but my english still needs a bit of help
I love the LoK series above all others So I'm happy it continued as long as it did and really enjoy the story they tell. I'd like to have seen Dennis' vision for sequels too though. Man I want a LoK collection on current consoles.
Love this game, great video!
Bought this when first came out in 96', one of my favorites, oh and you should have mentioned the spell flay and let Kain describe it for us, love that one lol
Interesting the developer described it as such. I always thought of it more as a "Vampire approach to a Zelda game."
You could honestly say that the “Modern AAA Open World Game” began in earnest with Blood Omen and still be mostly on the mark.
Not specifically because of the formatting of the game but because of the high levels of polish and storytelling that was involved for something this early in the 3D era! It’s mostly 2D, but really punches above its weight with the cutscenes & presentation…something that pretty much carried into THE FIRST “real AAA Modern Open World game”: GTA III. The fact that it ultimately went back into primarily segmented levels for Soul Reaver 1 & 2/Blood Omen 2 + Defiance in order to keep up with the story (as great/consistent as it was) really days a lot about how little they understood what Silicon Knights was going for…but they still stuck the landing and created the premiere series of AAA Dark Fantasy titles that haven’t been matched since and probably never will be again unless you count the Batman Arkham series (even if they skew more towards Dark Sci-Fi/Crime Thriller) or, like every game journo…The Last of Us (the original PS3 version + PS4 “remaster” is still one of the best games ever made)
Shame on Square Enix for never allowing Climax Studios and Sam Barlow to finish Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun (NOT Dead Sun: Legacy of Kain unfortunately) but allow the creators of Rocket League to release Nosgoth!
one of the greatest PS1 OSTs ever
The title made me "HUH?" But the intro made me "Ooooh!"
I did enjoy listening to this guy talk about the game.
Hey DC are you still planning on doing a Soul Reaver video? This was really well done and would love to hear your thoughts on SR. Thanks!
Eventually! I want to do the whole Legacy of Kain series.
I love listening to this guy talk about games. Especially ones that are interesting and I'll likely never play
26:11 this game could do with a remake, but it's part of Crystal Dynamics? Or was that just Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver?
Crystal Dynamics regained control of the whole series last year. It had been owned by Square Enix for the last decade. Now, that it’s back to CD, we might see some remasters and stuff. Hopefully!
It's my favorite game!!! I and my best friend love this game so much.
That was great. I can't wait to see Soul Reaver get this treatment.
Thanks for the excellent review. I own the first and second games and enjoyed them both, playing on the PS1. Back in the 90s I never heard about the drama between the devs and outright I.P. theft from the publisher. Ouch, it explains a lot. Pardon the pun on titles but I had the unpopular opinion the first game had far more "soul" than the second. Soul Reaver was good, but it felt like an empty world vampire version of Tomb Raider.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain just has so much atmosphere, lore and the voice acting was remarkably good for the time when compared to so many titles like Resident Evil. I might have to buy the G.O.G. copy just to take a nostalgic trip through Nosgoth without the horrible load times. Cheers!
I used to play the PS1 mini game all the time: how long can I avoid opening the inventory as the load screen took so long
William the just become the nemesis cause of kain, his body wasn't taken over. Its apart of the themes of fate and inevitably that become important in the last two games
A classic for me, one of my all time ps1 games
Great video
I wish we got the silicon knights version of the series.
With the recent announcement of the original Tomb Raider trilogy being collected, maybe their is hope we’ll get the LOK series collected.
Yes, it is still worth playing. The whole story, including the Soul Reaver series, is fantastic, in my opinion.
Played this accidentally back in the day, meant to get legacy of kain soul reaver. But got this, wasn’t disappointed
Excellent game. I didn't really enjoy the Soul Reavers, but Legacy of Kain: Defiance? Masterpiece.
I liked the first Soul Reaver. I haven’t played the others, but I have them all from GOG, so I plan on getting to them soon.
@@dungeonchillI played the first Soul Reaver as well. The shifting between the planes thing was a pretty cool mechanic.
One of the things about Blood Omen is that the PS1 version has a faster frame rate than the PC version, but has terrible amounts of loading on everything that negates the speed boost.
I had this on the PS1 back in the day, and the load times were excruciating. I literally couldn't make myself finish it. When I got the PS2 that had backwards compatibility that helped a bit, but yeah unfortunately I never finished this one--though I did finish all the other games in the franchise.
Will you be covering all the games in the series?
I just completed it for the first time a month ago.
God but unbelievably frustrating the CONSTANT need to change weapons and equipment and the loading EVERY SINGLE TIME you open inventory ......it's amazing i stuck with it.
So do you think it’s just happen stance that Morutanis is voiced by Tony Jay the same man who would later voice the Elder God
4:55 Fun Fact: Ariel is voiced by Anna Gunn, who would later play Skyler White on Breaking Bad.
EDIT: 16:45 Spoke too soon. You just mentioned it yourself.
I love Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. First I rented it. After renting it, I bought it. I Still have my original PS1 version. But, that being said, the GOG is the superior version to play through. Those load times are just killer. + the Ps1 version has that nasty little camera jerk every time you face a new direction that gets super annoying. If only they could add the PS1 original load-up screen, that nostalgic crescendo is a masterpiece.
I always enjoyed the voice acting in this game
The 1 st. one was the best
Love the whole vibe
Kain may be quite vocal but i love him for that
Best thumbnail ever
On nupraptos eyes the way i saw it is one is how nosgoth is just a plain european landscape the other is his hellish grief after ariel died
15:42 Blood Omen: Legacy of Crane
Honestly, I simultaneously love and hate that I watched this. Even though I didn't play Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the voice actors and the music both hit so many nostalgia points that it was almost painful. xD
One of my favorite games
Short answer is yes. I'm gonna watch the video anyway lol. I love this game!
kain should be in mortal kombat one
Shame there's so few games like Blood Omen where you play as an unapologetically evil monster, reminds me of the Undead campaign in WC3.
Silicon knight suing and getting less than favorable results is kinda a theme with them.
This needs a remaster like Diablo 2
40:15 I was around the forums for Legacy of Kain for a good while and let me tell you Hash'ak'gik was a font of conspiracy theories, same with the Lost City secret area. The former eventually got a somewhat satisfying payoff in the last game, the latter remains an object of speculation.
Such a great, if madly confusing timelined, franchise.
Thanks!
Thank you. I appreciate the support!
Honestly, I played the OG PS1 version of Blood Omen back in like 2004 AFTER playing Soul Reaver 1&2 and despite some rough edges (game literally has to “LOAD” to bring up your weapon wheel which is off-putting when the games seems to just lowkey FREEZE for 2-3 seconds), I actually think it holds up fantastically well but it would GREATLY BENEFIT from a modern remake.
Pirate ship? dang. Now I'm curious.
I thought I knew everything about Blood Omen/Soul Reaver but I never knew that Anna Gunn did the voice for Ariel. You learn something new everyday.
Not related but....how do YOU know what dinosaurs sounded like?🤔
I love the first one, never liked the others, they seemed like a whole different game and now I know why.
I recently replayed this and I was surprised how well it held up tbh Great game. I adore the voice acting and dialogue in this as well as Soul Reaver. I can't help but feel that a modern game wouldn't possess the same charm, it'd be filled with self-referential nonsense.