...even though Blood Omen 2 doesn't measure up to its predecessors, it's a game worth playing.
Well, let's get into the knitty gritty of this game, and disect it :)
Gameplay 8/10
As far as gameplay, there isn't much really. You have a couple of elements. Killing people and enemies to drain their blood, to increase your Health bar. Fighting enemies that fight you back, which is repetitive and boring as every enemy has a certain attack string. And you can block everything except certain unblockables which will only happen in a certain predictable string. So basically the fighting is mega boring after the first couple of times you encounter the same enemy. Then you have the puzzle element of the game. And that's not bad. The puzzles are fun, but not very challenging. So far I would have had to give the gameplay a 6/10. However, we have one more element of gameplay, and that is the boss battles. They are innovative, and super fun. So this boosts my grade up for gameplay to 8/10. As far as the controls, they are pretty responsive, and well put. As for difficulty, the game overall is not that difficult, although, you have to be pretty familiar with video games to be able to handle some of the bosses, and puzzles. So I would say difficulty wise its a 7/10 for a new videogame player.
Story 7/10
The story is not bad. However it has a lot of loopholes, and you will face a couple contradictory elements. However, you will get to know Kain very well, and I have to say I have a new found respect for the character.
Audio 9/10
Music: Not much music.. So I can't comment on that.
Voice Acting: The voice acting is superb as always. And for that it would deserve a 10/10. BUT, there are glitches at certain parts in the game where the video and sound are out of synch. And going through messageboards, I have seen that many people have gone through this. My PS2 by the way works fine, I tested it with other games. It just seems to be a design flaw. For that I give the Audio 9/10.
Video 9/10
The background graphics are amazing. The character designs are not bad. There are very few FMVs, maybe 2-3 in the whole game. The game mostly uses regular sequences (with the game characers lips moving, to simulate a scene), rather than FMVs.
Replayability
As far as replayability, I would have to say this game has no replayability. When you finish the game, there is basically no point playing it again. Specially since the gameplay mechanics are fairly boring.
Now for the Big Question, which is should you buy this game or rent it? Well since this game is not very long, and has no replayability I do not recommend buying it. However since it is worth the play, I do recommend renting it. :)
I hope this review helps someone :)