Revisiting LOK Defiance & Blood Omen 2

 After blasting through LOK Soul Reaver 1 & 2 and finding it to be an.... interesting experience (for my feelings), I decided that I would go and play LOK Defiance and Blood Omen 2, just to reconcile my feelings for them.

Again, at the time, I very much enjoyed the experience.  Admittedly I did find Blood Omen 2's controls a little janky and slow, the chunky gameplay and combat all worked well enough, the story seemed engaging and overall it was a decent game.

Defiance, I loved.  I especially remember being impressed with the graphics.  I remember being slightly annoyed with the sound effects. I remember being engaged with the the gameplay.  

How do I find them now?

Blood Omen 2

I do remember having trouble getting my hands on BO2 and I suspect I had to import this from America form some reason. Maybe it wasn't released in Australia?  I can't remember. Doesn't really matter.  I played it on Ps2 and it seemed decent enough.  Chronologically it is set before the story of Soul Reaver, but occurs due to events that happen in Soul Reaver.  As a result, some things that happen in BO2 made me go "Hang on a sec there mate" and wonder WTF was going on, or what had I missed.

Generally the story is a lot less convoluted than Soul Reaver.  Kain is on his quest to conquer Nosgoth with his Vampire pals, he gets to a certain city and a glowy-headed-obviously-not-human Sarafan kicks the crap out of him and he loses all his good stuff.  A coma later and he awakens to a dystopian almost steam punk-ish city and a need for revenge.

Gameplay involves you wandering around an industrial age era looking town, beating people up, sucking their blood and jumping.  In a way, it feels very Tomb Raider on the PS2 and very much fits the view of "a PS2 era game."  There is some simple puzzle solving, but the biggest puzzle is navigating the play area.  Fighting has a simple lock on option and you can circle around your locked on enemy and either spank them with various weapons, or your hands, or if on the receiving end of a spank, block.  Weapons degrade after a certain amount of use, but there are plenty around and Kain's hands do a fine job as it is.

However, there is no real change to the combat as you go, so it does get a little tedious and unlike SR, you have less ability to just jump and run past enemies. 

The acting is once again great.  Kain sounds wonderful, as do most of the rest.  Raziel does not show in this game.  However the supporting actors do a decent enough job, but they do lack the level of scene-chewing, or gravitas that was prominent in the others.  A shame, as Kain is almost over the top compared to the others... Or as I prefer to think, the others are under the bottom of the level of cheese that I want.

Kain's fellow vampires, all dressing appropriately gimpy.

With and example of the costumes above, you can see why a little bit of cheese would improve this game.

These guys must have the best parties, in an Eyes Wide Shut kind of way.

As you go you are helped by characters (above) and Kain gains some cool vampire skills, such as drinking blood, which (surprise!) heals you.  He also gains a big jump move and a rather cool change to mist form for some.  Ahem.  

"Stealth" action.

I use the word stealth loosely here, as while the mist mode allows you to sneak around guys, they can still see you, it does however allow for an instant kill move, which varies on the weapon you're equipped with at the time.  The moves are MK inspired, with things like snapping necks, baseballing  heads off shoulders and punching out hearts.  I like them.

Bosses are involved and require a mix of combat and puzzle solving.  Often there is some trap thing that must be manipulated so you can open them up for some biffo and that's about it.  

So, how do I feel about this play through now?  To be honest, it's actually all right, it is the same game as it was before, but nothing seems to bother me too badly.  It's an easy wander through a dark land drinking blood and punching guys in the chest.  I'm still enjoying it and seems to hold up better than SR2 does.

Yes, it is buggy and I know at the end the voice sync is going to go whack on me, which sucks, but I think overall the game is perfectly fine.

 The Sarafan Lord; Quite obviously not a human.  I wonder if Kain was at all concerned about this turn of events at the time.

One thing this game made me think about is this;  Kain can turn into mist, but a body of water will kill him.  What's up with that, turning to a mist form is literally giving him a body of water...

Legacy of Kain: Defiance

Defiance continues on from the end of Soul Reaver 2. As far as I can tell, a short amount of time has passed since the end and Raziel disappeared.  Kain has spent some time looking for him.  The game then has a plot as you jump between characters.  Time zones too, as Kain and Raziel are separated by a number of centuries.  However, they both traverse the same areas.

Back in the day, I had a great time with this, the gravitas was back, Kain and Raziel both making the best of their over acting.  It was glorious.  I think I was so happy that it managed to blind me to the gameplay somewhat.

Once again you have the option to upgrade abilities for both characters, however the type of game it is has changed considerably.

While before, I would class Soul Reaver as a 3d Platforming Puzzle game (think along the lines of Tomb Raider), Defiance here is an entirely different beast.  There are puzzles, and there is platforming, but the majority of your time will be fighting.

I think they must've been heavily inspired by Devil May Cry as it has a poor man's feel to it.  Kain and Raziel are both armed with Soul Reavers.  Kain has the metal sword and Raziel has the spirit version.  As you navigate the map, you'll be accosted by enemies who need a good slapping.

And by slapping I mean just that, despite both being armed with swords, possibly the most powerful weapon in the entire land of Nosgoth, when you whack someone with it, you are presented with the mighty sound of

splats

I remember thinking that back then too, and that hasn't changed. 

The graphics looked great then and still do now. Kain's model looks great and Raziel has a new look and animation style that I really like.  His glide pose is also pretty good, being a lot less stiffer than it used to be.    I did notice that at certain times, perhaps to keep the speed up, the resolution seems to drop a lot.  But it's pretty rare when this happens.  I was impressed that the mist in certain areas would flow out of the way when either of your guys walked through it.  Also, new shadows that are influenced by light source!

What has changed though is my opinion on the gameplay.  While before it didn't seem to bother me so much, the two characters traversing the same areas was kind of annoying.  Perhaps it's just because I've come straight of the back of SR2.  Once again, they are separated by time, but then that opens up to annoying stuff.

In one area, Kain knocks down a  pillar so he can get higher up.  Later in the game, Raziel goes to the sae area and the pillar is somehow intact.  However Kain knocked it over 400 odd years beforehand.  Someone came along and restored the pillar, but left the rest of the ruins as is?  For a game so invested in the atmosphere, something like that is a shame.

Raziel naturally retains his ability to shift between the Spectral realm and physical realm.  The spectral realm is once again very green and has this new warping look effect, along with tormented voices in the background.  It's really awesome!

However I feel that it's not fully utilised again.  Many puzzles are done in the physical realm and most annoyingly, they have covered that transition.  When you shift, the camera moves right in on Raziel, essentially obscuring the awesome real time warp you used to see.  Such a waste.

Outside Vorador's mansion.  The column on the left warps quite a bit in the Spectral realm, but you never see it move due to the camera zooming in.

Despite this scene being nice and wide, if you shift realms, the camera will zoom right on in.

The other thing is that Kain and Raziel play practically the same and face basically the same enemies.  Or different enemies all have the same types.  Kain has more telekinetic power than Raziel, but that is it.  So, while you play as different characters, the actual tactics you use will be exactly the same.  

It can get a tad repetitive.

Plot wise its god enough, but on this playthrough (and again, this could be because I just finished SR2), I very much miss the banter between Kain and Raziel.  Sure they are pretty good by themselves, but they are SO MUCH BETTER when they are together.

Th plot makes a bit more sense this time as well, and while I haven't finished it, I think I have experienced enough of the game to reach a conclusion:

While the plot, acting, graphics and atmosphere are pretty damn fine, the game mechanics are very much lacking and the weakest part of the game.

So out of 5 games, we have two that are seriously a let down in the gameplay department.  

To summarise this all up.

LOK Blood Omen 2 has managed to hold up rather well to my expectations, possibly because while I enjoyed it at the time, my expectations were a little low.

LOK Defiance, while still managing to stand up nicely in the graphics and atmosphere department, is another serious let down in the gameplay dept.  Traversing the same maps, but in different timelines and a shallow copy of another game's combat system give Defiance, much like Soul Reaver 2, a tedious feeling to the core action gameplay.

I'll probably have a final post on this one when I've finished the LOK Defiance and my feelings on whether the game and story manages to make a bit of sense.