Love this game on the PS1. So when it was dirt cheap on Steam Sale, so I had to get this. Soul Reaver 1 is Good Old Game and so is this? Why? So many constant freezing. Even lowering the resolution, it still constant freezing at random. Avoid this POS and get the retro instead. Avoid this at all cost.

It is not exactly, as you would say, canon in the LoK universe when you look into it. There are so many missteps when it comes to the story, that this really should have been a separate IP.

First and foremost, the pillars are already well corrupt, yet the land is still functional and fertile hundreds of years after BO1. Then there is the strong Hilden's presence and the ability by them, Kain, and humans to traverse between the 2 realms, an ability never seen again in the series. Not to mention the Elder God and Mobius seem to have absolutely no idea any of it happened.

Amy Hennig ende dup having to put a lot of retcons into SR2 and Defiance just to try and get BO2 to make some sense, sadly even her skills in lore making could not fix nearly enough through lore to have this game make sense.

Sufficed to say, I do not have much good to say about the story in terms of its place in the overall LoK universe, but it is a fun play.

The main story is somewhat still entertaining if you remove it from the LoK timeline. An ancient vampire (Kain), previously defeated in the battle between vampire and human, is resurrected only to discover his vampire kin are not only suffering at the hands of an alliance between a transdimensional overlord and humans, but are also fighting amongst themselves and aligning themselves with said overlord.

It is up to this elder to cull those who betray the clan, and bring the rest back into line, and in doing so, overthrow the transdimensional overlord and sever the ties between the 2 worlds.

While back in 2002 we already had some overwhenling beautiful games floating around the current generation of console and PC hardware, such as Silent Hill 2, LoK Soul Reaver 2, Splinter Cell, and Metal Gear Solid 2, Blood Omen 2 looked somewhat unusual and cartoonish, but still managed to graphically outdo other new, and very popular, titles such as GTAVC and Max Payne.

While it was not setting the world on fire, it had a fresh new aesthetic that went for more a cartoony style, later popularised by games such as Vampyre Mascerade Bloodlines and Thief, than the gritty attempts at realism seen in its counterparts.

How does it look now, graphically, it is obvious this is an early 2000s game but one using a style well before its time. Gameplay can be somewhat janky, and combat is a bit floatybut once again early 2000s, but overall it can be a very satisfying play.

The Dark Powers mechanics used in BO2, while conceptually inherited from BO1, are well implimented and presented in a style popularised by many games since, such as the above mentioned Vampyr and Thief, even as part as Dihonoured and the Bioshock games. Using these powers was polished and improved the feel and enjoyment of combat greatly.

I actually own a disk version of this, and played it at release, the steam version was aquired as part of a bundle. But I do not regret playing it again.

Would I recommend this game, as an excellent example of early 2000s innovative gaming, I would say yes. As a way of exploring the LoK universe, no, but play it anyway.

There are also a couple of entertaining quirks and secrets in there too.

"Press jump to jump"

The developers should fix the freezing problem; otherwise, it’s not a bad game.