With all the hate the 5th generation gets in the internet age, it can be easy to overlook just how important that era in gaming was.
For those that weren't there, or those that don't remember, the jump from the 4th generation to the 5th was an absolutely huge deal. Minds were absolutely blown by then-revolutionary 3D graphics and increasingly arcade accurate ports. In North America, this was the first time where CD based consoles were considered the norm, a major change from the cartridge dominated 3rd and 4th generations. But one of the more overlooked aspects of this era, at least for console players, was the massive increase in more adult oriented games.
It's not that there weren't 4th, 3rd, or even 2nd generation titles featuring this kind of content, because there were. It's just that they were surprisingly uncommon. Of course, this phenomena was fairly console exclusive, violent games or games with other "adult" themes were pretty dime a dozen on PC. I guess it's also largely a Western thing too, as they were also much more common in Japan. But for me, and a lot of gamers like me, it marked a huge tonal shift in the kinds of games we were playing. In doing research for this review, I was genuinely shocked by how few M rated games hit the two mainstream consoles in the 4th gen. It was hard to find a definitive list for the Genesis, but I could only confirm about 10 (if I included Sega's pre ESRB MA-17 rating). And for the SNES? A grand total of three recevieved an official M rating (Doom, Mortal Kombat 3 and Ultimate MK3 for the record). I'm sure there were games that would have received that rating before the ESRB was established in 1994, but still, that's not a lot.
But by the time the 5th generation rolled around, video games were a much more mainstream media format, and the success of Doom and Mortal Kombat was so massive, that the appetite for less kid friendly games on console was at an all-time high. In a lot of cases, developers started applying these kinds of themes to games in already proven genres. This week's title, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain sort of fit into this category. Do you love Zelda, but think it should be harder and have tons more blood and gore? Then this game is for you. However, that doesn't tell the whole story here. While it did feel a lot like the myriad adventure titles of the previous generation in terms of gameplay, Legacy of Kain is absolutely its own beast that is definitely worth checking out today.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain puts you in the shoes of, well, Kain, an arrogant nobelman on a journey across the land of Nosgoth. After a night of drinking, Kain is ambushed and killed by a trio of assassins. Fortunately for his very vengeful spirit, Kain is given an opportunity to be resurrected and seek revenge by the Dark Lord Mortanius. Kain eagerly accepts this deal, unfortunately forgetting to read the offer's fine print. Mortanius makes good on his promise to resurrect the fallen nobleman. However, he restores Kain as a vampire, cursed to eternally walk the realm starving for blood. He does exact revenge on his killers...only to find out that they were merely pawns in a much larger scheme. Looking to both find who is targeting him and break his curse, he travels to the Pillars of Nosgoth to consult with the ghost of Ariel, the fallen guardian of balance. She tasks Kain with restoring the corrupted pillars. This sets in motion a dark, bloodsoaked tale that will see an empires fall, corrupt entities be exposed and the fate of Nosgoth thrust into disorder.
The bleak and oppressive atmosphere is one of the biggest factors differentiating BO:LOK from other adventure games of the era. It's not like the Zelda titles or Beyond Oasis or Landstalker took place in bright and peppy unicorn and rainbow worlds, but Legacy of Kain took things to a new level. Nosgoth is, to put it lightly, not a happy place. The state of the kingdom is largely determined by the powerful pillars of Nosgoth, nine great columns representing various elements and guarded by a coven of sorcerrers. Upon Ariel's death, her lover and fellow circle member Nupraptor goes mad, turning on his fellow sorcerrers and corrupting the pillars. In addition to, or perhaps because of, this, the kingdom is falling further into disarray. Two human factions, the Kingdom of Willendorf and the Legions of the Nemesis, battle over control of Nosgoth while vampires once again roam the land. The backdrop against which the game is set is further darkened by its nhilistic and downright despicable denizens. Calling Kain a hero is a stretch, he may be trying to restore the pillars but he's really the lesser of two evils rather than good. Everything about this world is grimy, dirty and decrepit, from the crumbling villlages to the blood-soaked dungeons to the monster filled overworld. I think they did a really great job of world building and perfectly nailed the bleak, oppressive tone without making it feel too overwhelming in terms of gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, anyone who has ever played a top down adventure game will be right at home with BO:LOK. You traverse a large overworld battling enemies, searching for items and upgrades while completing dungeons along the way. Acquiring new armor or abilities will open up new areas and allow for further exploration. By 1995 it was a time tested formula and it definitely worked here. Nosgoth is a large, sprawling world and it feels truly rewarding anytime you access somewhere new. Kain can swing his weapon or use one of the variety of items or abilites he finds to defeat or evade enemies. You will start by battling mostly humans, but will eventually battle vampires, spirits, mosters and other such creatures. The positives, there are plenty of different skills to attain and most of them are useful throughout the playthrough. I don't know I've ever played an adventure or MetroidVania style title where I've used as many of my upgrades so consistently throughout the game. This kept combat fresh. On the contrary, the controls feel kind of stiff and it was really hard to judge the distance where I needed to be to hit people. Kain has a lot of frames of animation which is cool visually, but it also makes the game feel a little slow and can make fighting faster enemies a major problem.
That being said, the sheer amount of different skills you can acquire keeps things incredibly interesting. Kain will acquire both spells and items that can be used in combat. These can be offensive, like implosion or lighting, defensive like sanctuary and repel or somewhere in between like mind control. There are so many different ways to attack enemies, many of which are also required to traverse dungeons or open new areas. Kain can also shapeshift, transforming into a bat for transportation, a wolf for extra speed and jumping or a human to blend in with the denizens of Nosgoth. Almost all of these skills are useful in some way and they are satisfying to use. Watching enemies explode into a bloody mess or a volley of shots bounce off of your shield is an awesome feeling and it really makes you want to diversify your item use. And that's to say nothing of the weapons and armor, which all greatly alter the way you play the game. The Bone Armor will make you largely invisible to undead enemies, while the Chaos Armor will deal damage to enemies that hit you. Most of the weapons are well suited to very specific applications, while also having drawbacks that make them weak in others. Overall, its a a great group of abilities and equipment that provides tons of gameplay variety.
BO:LOK leans hard into its core premise and might do a better job of incorporating that into gameplay than anything I've played from the era. As discussed, Kain is a vampire, something that most games would simply use as a plot point. But here, our anti-hero actually has to contend with the weaknesses that such a state entails. You will take damage every second you touch water and while you can walk about during the day, you are far stronger when fighting at night. But the biggest thing is managing your blood, which serves as your health throughout the adventure. Like any vampire, Kain needs to feed, which means he needs to drink blood from wherever he can get it. This can include human enemies, not-so human enemies, townspeople and the various captives that are restrained throughout Nosgoth. Defeating an enmey yields more precious life, which is good. However, Kain also loses life gradually as you play, which is bad. The longer you go without feeding, the faster it will drain. Honestly, this sounds like it would be absolutely miserable, but it actually works here. It incentivizes you to fight and forces you to effectively conserve your various blood sources as you play. LOK does keep you guessing with this, as you will start to encounter enemies with poison blood, or undead spirits that have no blood at all. Overall, I just think it was really cool that they actually incorporated the weaknesses of being a vampire into the game as much as the strengths, though at no point do any enemies throw garlic at you.
I think the dungeon design is fairly strong, though it does feel a little too straightforward at points. There are occasional puzzles, but most of them just require slight changes to pathing or avoiding obstacles. Just about every dungeon has an item or ability contained within, which Kain typically finds pretty early on. Like most adventure games, using that ability will be essential to completing the dungeon. Unlike other games in the genre though, LOK frequently forces you to utilize things you have acquired in other dungeons as well. Sometimes they are necessary to find the exit, while others they are more useful for finding secrets. There are tons of secrets throughout these places, all of which feel very rewarding to find. I also have to say there is good aesthetic variety, with a good mix of caves, castles, mausoleums and even a dungeon built around a town. I like it and I definitely think there is more good than bad.
That said, I did have quite a few issues with BO:LOK. For one, the graphics are a little bit underwhelming for a 5th generation game. Honestly, I don't know if these even looks as good as late gen SNES or Genesis games. The art style is cool, but the art itself is muddy and messy, and the enemies especially look very low res. The HUD is extremely intrusive, and the random image of Kain was entirely unnecessary. I'm sure there is some level of technical reason, but it seems like it was unncessary. The sound is okay, but the sound effects are a little bit annoying, particularly the captives who will scream and shout while they are on screen.
But the bigger issues here are the result of gameplay issues. I already talked a little bit about how the amount of animation frames make Kains attack feel slow and hard to hit with. That is an issue in and of itself, but it's further compounded by the fact that enemies can drain your health extremely quickly. Missing a swing can get you hit two or three times and force you to readjust to set up your attack again. With so many enemies rushing you at once, this can put you in some impossible situations where you are just going to get stunlocked to death. It's really hard to determine when you are going to get hit in general, so this also applies to stationary hazards. I took a lot of hits where it looked like I was going to be able to successfully squeeze by an obstruction with relative ease. With the powerful enemies and constantly draining health, every hit counts, so having such questionable hit detection here is a major problem. The game would be hard enough without it, but this makes the game much more challenging. My last issue here is load times. I can't say I am surprised, it's a relatively early PS1 game after all. But the problem is compounded here because of how freqeuently you need to open menus. You need to open menus every time you want to map a new spell to the shoulder buttons, which happens very frequently. There is no way to quick switch weapons or items either, so you need to dig three menus deep to do this. This really adds up and bogs down the game, particularly when you have a full inventory before the end.
Still though, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was an outstanding playthrough and a nice change of pace from some of the more family friendly examples of the adventure genre. It's dark, brooding atmosphere, combined with varied gameplay made it difficult to put the controller down. It's a shame that the series has essentially died out, the last non-remaster release came in 2003 with LOK: Defiance for the PS2. I play games from a lot of series' where this happens and the more I review this stuff, the more I understande why this happens. But honestly, I think LOK would fit just about perfectly in the modern era. I guess maybe it's aesthetic and atmosphere wouldn't stand out as much when it seems like every game is also set in a depressing world starring an anti-hero. But an open world game set in Nosgoth, or an MMO style game where you start as a fledgling vampire seem like they would work really well. Either way, I think I have to check out the rest of the series, I have breifly played the sequel Soul Reaver but I haven't really given the others a look. Either way BO:LOK was excellent and still worth playing today.
9.25/10
For those that weren't there, or those that don't remember, the jump from the 4th generation to the 5th was an absolutely huge deal. Minds were absolutely blown by then-revolutionary 3D graphics and increasingly arcade accurate ports. In North America, this was the first time where CD based consoles were considered the norm, a major change from the cartridge dominated 3rd and 4th generations. But one of the more overlooked aspects of this era, at least for console players, was the massive increase in more adult oriented games.
It's not that there weren't 4th, 3rd, or even 2nd generation titles featuring this kind of content, because there were. It's just that they were surprisingly uncommon. Of course, this phenomena was fairly console exclusive, violent games or games with other "adult" themes were pretty dime a dozen on PC. I guess it's also largely a Western thing too, as they were also much more common in Japan. But for me, and a lot of gamers like me, it marked a huge tonal shift in the kinds of games we were playing. In doing research for this review, I was genuinely shocked by how few M rated games hit the two mainstream consoles in the 4th gen. It was hard to find a definitive list for the Genesis, but I could only confirm about 10 (if I included Sega's pre ESRB MA-17 rating). And for the SNES? A grand total of three recevieved an official M rating (Doom, Mortal Kombat 3 and Ultimate MK3 for the record). I'm sure there were games that would have received that rating before the ESRB was established in 1994, but still, that's not a lot.
But by the time the 5th generation rolled around, video games were a much more mainstream media format, and the success of Doom and Mortal Kombat was so massive, that the appetite for less kid friendly games on console was at an all-time high. In a lot of cases, developers started applying these kinds of themes to games in already proven genres. This week's title, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain sort of fit into this category. Do you love Zelda, but think it should be harder and have tons more blood and gore? Then this game is for you. However, that doesn't tell the whole story here. While it did feel a lot like the myriad adventure titles of the previous generation in terms of gameplay, Legacy of Kain is absolutely its own beast that is definitely worth checking out today.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain puts you in the shoes of, well, Kain, an arrogant nobelman on a journey across the land of Nosgoth. After a night of drinking, Kain is ambushed and killed by a trio of assassins. Fortunately for his very vengeful spirit, Kain is given an opportunity to be resurrected and seek revenge by the Dark Lord Mortanius. Kain eagerly accepts this deal, unfortunately forgetting to read the offer's fine print. Mortanius makes good on his promise to resurrect the fallen nobleman. However, he restores Kain as a vampire, cursed to eternally walk the realm starving for blood. He does exact revenge on his killers...only to find out that they were merely pawns in a much larger scheme. Looking to both find who is targeting him and break his curse, he travels to the Pillars of Nosgoth to consult with the ghost of Ariel, the fallen guardian of balance. She tasks Kain with restoring the corrupted pillars. This sets in motion a dark, bloodsoaked tale that will see an empires fall, corrupt entities be exposed and the fate of Nosgoth thrust into disorder.
The bleak and oppressive atmosphere is one of the biggest factors differentiating BO:LOK from other adventure games of the era. It's not like the Zelda titles or Beyond Oasis or Landstalker took place in bright and peppy unicorn and rainbow worlds, but Legacy of Kain took things to a new level. Nosgoth is, to put it lightly, not a happy place. The state of the kingdom is largely determined by the powerful pillars of Nosgoth, nine great columns representing various elements and guarded by a coven of sorcerrers. Upon Ariel's death, her lover and fellow circle member Nupraptor goes mad, turning on his fellow sorcerrers and corrupting the pillars. In addition to, or perhaps because of, this, the kingdom is falling further into disarray. Two human factions, the Kingdom of Willendorf and the Legions of the Nemesis, battle over control of Nosgoth while vampires once again roam the land. The backdrop against which the game is set is further darkened by its nhilistic and downright despicable denizens. Calling Kain a hero is a stretch, he may be trying to restore the pillars but he's really the lesser of two evils rather than good. Everything about this world is grimy, dirty and decrepit, from the crumbling villlages to the blood-soaked dungeons to the monster filled overworld. I think they did a really great job of world building and perfectly nailed the bleak, oppressive tone without making it feel too overwhelming in terms of gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, anyone who has ever played a top down adventure game will be right at home with BO:LOK. You traverse a large overworld battling enemies, searching for items and upgrades while completing dungeons along the way. Acquiring new armor or abilities will open up new areas and allow for further exploration. By 1995 it was a time tested formula and it definitely worked here. Nosgoth is a large, sprawling world and it feels truly rewarding anytime you access somewhere new. Kain can swing his weapon or use one of the variety of items or abilites he finds to defeat or evade enemies. You will start by battling mostly humans, but will eventually battle vampires, spirits, mosters and other such creatures. The positives, there are plenty of different skills to attain and most of them are useful throughout the playthrough. I don't know I've ever played an adventure or MetroidVania style title where I've used as many of my upgrades so consistently throughout the game. This kept combat fresh. On the contrary, the controls feel kind of stiff and it was really hard to judge the distance where I needed to be to hit people. Kain has a lot of frames of animation which is cool visually, but it also makes the game feel a little slow and can make fighting faster enemies a major problem.
That being said, the sheer amount of different skills you can acquire keeps things incredibly interesting. Kain will acquire both spells and items that can be used in combat. These can be offensive, like implosion or lighting, defensive like sanctuary and repel or somewhere in between like mind control. There are so many different ways to attack enemies, many of which are also required to traverse dungeons or open new areas. Kain can also shapeshift, transforming into a bat for transportation, a wolf for extra speed and jumping or a human to blend in with the denizens of Nosgoth. Almost all of these skills are useful in some way and they are satisfying to use. Watching enemies explode into a bloody mess or a volley of shots bounce off of your shield is an awesome feeling and it really makes you want to diversify your item use. And that's to say nothing of the weapons and armor, which all greatly alter the way you play the game. The Bone Armor will make you largely invisible to undead enemies, while the Chaos Armor will deal damage to enemies that hit you. Most of the weapons are well suited to very specific applications, while also having drawbacks that make them weak in others. Overall, its a a great group of abilities and equipment that provides tons of gameplay variety.
BO:LOK leans hard into its core premise and might do a better job of incorporating that into gameplay than anything I've played from the era. As discussed, Kain is a vampire, something that most games would simply use as a plot point. But here, our anti-hero actually has to contend with the weaknesses that such a state entails. You will take damage every second you touch water and while you can walk about during the day, you are far stronger when fighting at night. But the biggest thing is managing your blood, which serves as your health throughout the adventure. Like any vampire, Kain needs to feed, which means he needs to drink blood from wherever he can get it. This can include human enemies, not-so human enemies, townspeople and the various captives that are restrained throughout Nosgoth. Defeating an enmey yields more precious life, which is good. However, Kain also loses life gradually as you play, which is bad. The longer you go without feeding, the faster it will drain. Honestly, this sounds like it would be absolutely miserable, but it actually works here. It incentivizes you to fight and forces you to effectively conserve your various blood sources as you play. LOK does keep you guessing with this, as you will start to encounter enemies with poison blood, or undead spirits that have no blood at all. Overall, I just think it was really cool that they actually incorporated the weaknesses of being a vampire into the game as much as the strengths, though at no point do any enemies throw garlic at you.
I think the dungeon design is fairly strong, though it does feel a little too straightforward at points. There are occasional puzzles, but most of them just require slight changes to pathing or avoiding obstacles. Just about every dungeon has an item or ability contained within, which Kain typically finds pretty early on. Like most adventure games, using that ability will be essential to completing the dungeon. Unlike other games in the genre though, LOK frequently forces you to utilize things you have acquired in other dungeons as well. Sometimes they are necessary to find the exit, while others they are more useful for finding secrets. There are tons of secrets throughout these places, all of which feel very rewarding to find. I also have to say there is good aesthetic variety, with a good mix of caves, castles, mausoleums and even a dungeon built around a town. I like it and I definitely think there is more good than bad.
That said, I did have quite a few issues with BO:LOK. For one, the graphics are a little bit underwhelming for a 5th generation game. Honestly, I don't know if these even looks as good as late gen SNES or Genesis games. The art style is cool, but the art itself is muddy and messy, and the enemies especially look very low res. The HUD is extremely intrusive, and the random image of Kain was entirely unnecessary. I'm sure there is some level of technical reason, but it seems like it was unncessary. The sound is okay, but the sound effects are a little bit annoying, particularly the captives who will scream and shout while they are on screen.
But the bigger issues here are the result of gameplay issues. I already talked a little bit about how the amount of animation frames make Kains attack feel slow and hard to hit with. That is an issue in and of itself, but it's further compounded by the fact that enemies can drain your health extremely quickly. Missing a swing can get you hit two or three times and force you to readjust to set up your attack again. With so many enemies rushing you at once, this can put you in some impossible situations where you are just going to get stunlocked to death. It's really hard to determine when you are going to get hit in general, so this also applies to stationary hazards. I took a lot of hits where it looked like I was going to be able to successfully squeeze by an obstruction with relative ease. With the powerful enemies and constantly draining health, every hit counts, so having such questionable hit detection here is a major problem. The game would be hard enough without it, but this makes the game much more challenging. My last issue here is load times. I can't say I am surprised, it's a relatively early PS1 game after all. But the problem is compounded here because of how freqeuently you need to open menus. You need to open menus every time you want to map a new spell to the shoulder buttons, which happens very frequently. There is no way to quick switch weapons or items either, so you need to dig three menus deep to do this. This really adds up and bogs down the game, particularly when you have a full inventory before the end.
Still though, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was an outstanding playthrough and a nice change of pace from some of the more family friendly examples of the adventure genre. It's dark, brooding atmosphere, combined with varied gameplay made it difficult to put the controller down. It's a shame that the series has essentially died out, the last non-remaster release came in 2003 with LOK: Defiance for the PS2. I play games from a lot of series' where this happens and the more I review this stuff, the more I understande why this happens. But honestly, I think LOK would fit just about perfectly in the modern era. I guess maybe it's aesthetic and atmosphere wouldn't stand out as much when it seems like every game is also set in a depressing world starring an anti-hero. But an open world game set in Nosgoth, or an MMO style game where you start as a fledgling vampire seem like they would work really well. Either way, I think I have to check out the rest of the series, I have breifly played the sequel Soul Reaver but I haven't really given the others a look. Either way BO:LOK was excellent and still worth playing today.
9.25/10
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