Sneaking around the levels is great fun. Before you can say, “Oi! That’s my Haemoglobin!”, you’ll be away. Also, unlike Solid Snake, Kain has powers at his disposal, and it is these powers that shall lead to your success. You can turn to mist (which is useful for creeping up on an unsuspecting enemy), jump huge distances (useful for crossing rooftops and leaping onto your prey) and ‘charm’ (which allows you to take control of an innocent to do your bidding). There are many other dark gifts for you to discover and all of them will help you in some way. They make the game a lot more interesting and open up huge areas that would otherwise seem unobtainable. The combat works well too, you start armed only with your claws, but you find many different weapons lying around the levels. Once in combat it is merely a question of stabbing the buttons to swing the weapon in a combo, blocking when needed and finally sucking the blood from your prey when they have fallen. All of this can be avoided however, if you can creep up on the enemy, then you can ‘stealth kill’ (indicated by a skull over your enemy’s head). Stealth Kills result in the enemy being despatched in various gruesome ways. Great stuff.

The stages in Blood Omen II are set in ‘straight’ levels, there are no hubs or free access here. This game will tell you where to go and when to go, removing the element of the first Blood Omen. However, this game is better suited to the faster paced levels that we have on show here. The effect of the losing the hubs and ‘true’ free-roaming is minimal, the game now flows along nicely.

The controls are simple, yet very effective. Kain runs, jumps and fights without a hitch. The pad works very well here, but I would expect no less from the creators of Soul Reaver. There is only one problem here, and that is the frustrating side-stepping manoeuvre. By pressing R1 you enter battle mode and auto face the enemy, then by pressing X, you should effortlessly side step their futile attack but for some unknown reason, the enemy moves as fast as you do, meaning that you will often step right into a flurry of sword blows. This one little error means that you can end-up dying when in battle against a minor enemy, which is not only frustrating, but silly.

All in all, Blood Omen II is a very good title. It is well worth a look if you are tired of MGS2 and such, and is one that vampire ‘fans’ should search out straight away. It gives you a rare chance to control a true vampire. It may be a little rough around the edges in places, but it is a worthy addition to any PS2 owner’s library.

Damn. I was hoping to slip in one about this game ‘sucking’. Shame it doesn’t then, eh?

86%

By Ben Jackson