this video is sponsored by War Thunder ah so that's where that went onto the video blood Omen Legacy of Cain now there's a title A Dark Fantasy epic about a vampiric Lord with a Dying World at his Mercy this kickass name of a Zelda Style game replaced the working title of pillars of nosgoth and was very nearly a 3dio title due to the Publishers close ties with the 3dio company the O is how many copies it would have sold on that thing but the developers of silicon Knights convinced publisher Crys
tal Dynamics to give the Sony PlayStation a try and that probably saved the whole project by The Game's release in late 1996 the PlayStation was trailblazing the next age of console gaming with its only real Contender coming out that same year and I have no doubt the choice of platform ensured Kane sold well enough to leave a legacy for sequels to follow pre 2000's game development was a very different Beast than what we know today one where a games directors may also be its programmers and writ
ers and when games with a ton as Mor roa's blood Omens were few and far between but let's see if a game that's more than 25 years old can leave the same impression it did all that time ago most of the footage in this video will be of the good old games PC version but I want to draw some comparison with the original release namely how Crystal Dynamics logo has been shoved into the corner it looks like they've sealed gex into this Dark Void to render him incapable of any witty [Music] observations
this is like one of Thunder cyers title transitions things kick off right as we select start game with an ominous forward from an unknown voice that's a suitably bloody Omen to match the title I wonder which of the writers wrote that what the now most games will make their intro cinematic a vertical slice of what its gameplay is going to be like or perhaps the prologue of the story it's about to tell blood Omen however shows various flashes of deep La backstory and says trust me guys you'll kno
w what's going on in like 2 hours some vlads are getting impaled while these candle kindling Wizards are butchered by what looks like a goblin Giga Chad at first glance as he sucks up the Wizards gaspacho the one guy who always runs late to the D and D session finds everyone dead gets a Pummel to the head and is cursed with the rubric of araman by his manager during his next performance review we then see yet another brutal murder and some Stone pillars begin to crack before abruptly putting us
into gameplay as some guy in a Tavern this is Kane he's had nothing to do with any of this at this point but I like to head cannon that what we've just seen is a weird history lesson he's drunkenly rambled at the bartender tavern's closing all right well I'm just going to take a walk to sober up and oh that's a lot of Bandits and I'm dead at which point we go to the afterlife which yes does does resemble 9s full motion video in real life as well I check with Grandma where our perish protagonist
laments how he only cares about enacting revenge on the ones that killed him to which the same skeletal sorcerer we saw before obliges by turning Kan into a vampire and setting him back upon the world you will have the blood you hunger for okay so between this the pillar thing and that guy becoming Alon El what the is going on the state of the world in blood Omen is largely dependent on the pillars of nosgoth a structure that reaches infinitely into the sky and the earth and comprises the nine e
lements that Define The World At Large each pillar has a guardian with an affinity based on the pillar chosen for them some of which we can see being decimated by this guy in the beginning Malik the Swarm protector of these protectors is punished by the surviving column custodian mtanous to serve them for all eternity it turns out he's pretty bad at this job even without his flesh as another Guardian Ariel is also killed many years later and her boyfriend who I kid you not is called nut pra to T
he Mentalist gets so upset that he turns the other basal babysit his mad corrupting the pillars in the process that's when we cut to Cain a nobleman who is murdered by hired Thugs and resurrected by multaneous his necromancy as a vampire letting him get revenge pretty quickly thanks to his new found vampiric strength letting him swing a sword more than once every Century but as is expected from the curse of vampirism Kan is in pain whether he's in sun or in the rain and travels to the pillars to
ascertain if a cure can be obtained or if the strain is gained in vain he meets the spirit of Ariel who commands him to kill every surviving pillar man including n Raptor or multaneous to reset the pillars and Grant him peace it's a journey across nosgoth assaulting the lands carved out by the Guardians finding allies in unlikely places and even assisting the last Noble human Kingdom against a horde of heavy metal album lapers from the Frozen North now where have I seen this before you can tell
this was a passion project of its creators packed with some really fun Dark Fantasy flare which could only come from writers who love to make world so wonderfully Bleak and boy is it Bleak life in nozar sucks with every village hiding a dark secret or caught under the long Shadow Of A guardian's demented Ambitions with a me suffering cast upon humans of the land which Cain isn't even out to remedy Cain himself is an arrogant callous and spiteful man who would only do a good deed if it served to
free him of the curse of vampirism and it's hard to say how much of this was always a part of him when he seems to Revel in the pain of others I couldn't help but smile someone else in this world was suffering more than I the world around him is so Twisted that even as a monster that praise upon the living his quest to murder the rest of the Guardians wipe the Slate clean is probably the nicest thing anyone could do for Noz goof at this point there's a whole lot of well building done for this o
ne game so much so that the story gets a little convoluted for the simple set of events it's there to contextualize and some characters seem a little duffed because of it it's not quite clear if mortanius was in on this master plan to restore the balance given he's on the chopping block if it goes ahead or if he simply revived the guy who would later tried to kill him just for the hell of it that's my thing I love doing this Malik is pretty awful at his one job hell I think I did his boss fight
in one try which was very disappointing given he's more prevalent on the back of the box than Kane himself an eternity of midnights yeah that's a pretty midnight right there oh oh God cut the commercials this video is sponsored by War Thunder the free vehicle combat game of land air and sea on home consoles and PC find yourself at the helm of some of the most authentically recreated tanks ships helicopters and planes from the 1920s all the way to the present day with in-depth customization Dynam
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premium vehicles and 7 Days of premium account access when you sign up through my link in the video's description or pinned comment grab the steel well at last because that eagle takes flight soon the most immediate thing you'll notice upon picking up blood Omen is how it feels to control and it's a pretty steep hurdle to overcome at first the best comparison I can make to this game would be one of those top- down Zelda games but something like Link to the Past generally feels better to control
you at least get the illusion of speed from Link's little skittering feet as opposed to Kane's power walk movement is very sluggish with any control method and making a weapon attack or action is committing to wherever you're standing at that point which combined of hit St Mak some awkward situations where you're thrown around by certain obstacles but these rarely slow you down when every redbled thing around you is an opportunity to recover your strength Kane can replenish his health by bringin
g his enemies down to their last hit and slurping up their innards at surprisingly long distances which is a great way to reward you for successfully taking down an enemy that isn't just dropping money at your feet sucking on everything like a horny mosquito isn't the best idea though feeding on other Undead will outright damage you while certain monsters are just as rotten on the inside as they seem outside so you may be if you chug the Monster Energy Drink you'll often find that life is a fini
te thing in the towns and dungeons of the game world as even the Unfortunate Souls chained up as glorified hamster feeders will only return as ghosts of who they once were there's an unspoken importance in managing your surroundings carefully for a greedy vampire that feeds just for the hell of it is one that shall find a dying world has little life to spare unless it's Bandits I seem to grow on trees out in the Woods making Kan a vampire and having feeding be an integral mechanic was a really i
nspired choice to let you recover from fights in a way that isn't just making enemies drop a floating heart or something there's subtler parts of his vampirism that come into play too like his health slowly trickling down or rain hurting him but I think my favorite comes from the way towns are handled usually in these kinds of games these are places to trade and get little side missions for helping people while pillaging them of all their worth if you can get away with it but in this game you're
a vampire take what you want plunder everything and butcher anyone who gets between you and your mission I am a god amongst men tremble before Kane's wrath CNC video [Music] when as a fledgling vampire you don't start with everything at your disposal from the moment you get out your coffin so the game reflects Kane realizing his potential with item pickups being thorough while wandering the countryside skullking caves or delving into dungeons makes you more likely to find blood files to store a
ll the blood you've been drinking or runic prisms for your Magics Kane has access to a multitude of Spain spaines Kane has access to a multitude of spells to take on distant enemies or protect himself such as mind control lightning bolts a deflecting shield and instant Spirit death oh my God my personal favorites were Inspire hate which makes all enemies on the map fight each other instead of you and blood shower instantly draining the blood of all enemies on screen and uh Yep this was broken du
ring the last few levels the main drawback is that magic takes a long time to come back naturally though in many dungeons you can actually drink the blood of your already dead enemies to restore mag the magic meter is also used to maintain different forms cane can take on during the game such as M to travel running water unharmed a commoner to split past the simple folk unscathed or about to fast travel there's also the wolf form whose main purpose is curiously to jump across gaps and up mountai
ns though I mainly used it to rush past places I didn't want to stick around in it attack does decent damage too but it's far more effective to use one of the weapons Kane unlocks over the story The Flame sword for a quick barbecue the maze to turn just about any human enemy into a smoothie in two hits or the double axis if you want to make like a blade and let him Rip but the real cudar gr gets served by the immensely powerful Soul Reaver which uses your magic bar at a crazy rate but they named
the sequel after this thing for good reason using energy Banks to hop cane up on magical caffeine while using this thing is a legitimate strategy by the end game but much earlier on when you don't have the Dr Manhattan sword there's plenty of other items to use should you run out of magic these pickups May simply restore your health bar or cure you of poison but in most cases they'll help you end your enemies in utterly brutal fashion such as as implosion instantly Rotting Flesh throwing a craw
blade or summoning Exodia there's also a neat feature where so long as you have one of your healing items equipped you'll come back with a little bit of health so you don't lose any progress while whittling down a boss's health bar the Heart of Darkness swapping through all these options to get to the one you need at the time can bulldo the game's pacing though especially in the PlayStation version but getting these items means exploring the world of nosgov is encouraged and often necessary wit
h some sections requiring a specific spell or weapon in order to progress should you have a keen enough memory taking your new tools back to previous areas Cann you some bonus loot to help you in the long run and you're often rewarded for going off the beaten path with your vampiric forms and taking care to observe the day and night cycle these Moon Gates block off some pretty Powerful Secrets under the light of the full moon such as the spirit forges which drain you with nearly all your health
in exchange for a glut of powerful items and thanks to your ability to feed off opponents a careful cane can sip from the vein of the vein to maintain insane gains I got to stop writing lines like these these takes are killing me although they're not numbered blood Omen areas are all reached by the player at a specific order to be built around the tool set the player has access to at that time it's a linear game that gives the impression of scope but with features like the bat beacons to revisit
older areas and the unusual order of locations you visit it kept me guessing on where I was going even by the time my world map was fully explored I thought the finale would take place in dark Eden but it's more like the midpoint of the game I love its flavor as this Twisted Paradise made by the corrupted custodians where all the the animals which were meant to inhabit it are melded into horrid flesh beasts there's a fun pulpy side of fantasy at work in the landmarks you visit across NOS goof w
hether that be nut Raptor's lavishly carved skull layer or the labyrinthine Cathedral of avenus which takes you to both Eerie skeletal catacombs beneath and this otherworldly plane of teleport and Madness the classic Staples of fantasy dungeons litter the levels like swinging axes Spike pits ominous weird floating spike balls and skeletons while dungeons which introduce you to a new item or spell teach you how they work by locking you inside until you figure it out one time I casted Sanctuary to
go back to a safe point and couldn't finish the dungeon because the front door got bolted shut speaking of Kane can teleport back to his coffin for a little nap which isn't really much of a sanctuary since it's just a starting dungeon as a dude with a shovel in here and he's very violent it would have been cool if this place had vampiric thrs under his command kidnapping peasants for you to feed on so you can get there and heal up before going into another dungeon blood oman's level design is v
ery much passable with a few fun gimmicks built around your powers and backtracking preven Loops but I wasn't a fan of the puzzles or how you bounce around when taking damage or getting bombarded by these Long Island ice litches but nosar isn't solely dingy dungeon depths or wicked wildlands as the humans of the setting may be settled into towns camps or the great city of Willendorf when I wasn't using a human disguise to pass by peacefully I felt like a monster in these places but not get it tw
isted Snoop around town long enough and you'll find they hide their own Grizzly Secrets ah so with this kind of brothel huh traveling the roads to get from A to B is incredibly dangerous for just you presumably you'll be swarmed by enemies often which is often a sign that in the next 10 minutes you're going to get a new weapon to make the game far easier but before you get these you really feel like a harmless welp rather than a fledgling vampire seeing these big swarms and going yeah hey look a
t the time I going to go it's almost jarring that I felt more threatened by waiting through the swamp water or going from town to town than I did during a demon invasion in the latter half of the game this game's difficulty isn't a gradual incline but rather a bell curve and nothing shows that better than the boss battles they usually just involve dodging projectiles or avoiding the boss's minions with the first and final ones being the easiest in my opinion I think the most fun to fight was Mal
ik because keeping the pressure on against someone built up to be such a capable Warrior please don't check his track record was genuinely exciting while the hardest and most awkward fight was against Bane and the jeul the jeul bombards you with spells from a lake of water that hurts you while Bane breaks your platforms and constantly teleports away putting this whole thing on a timer and stay still you tree hugging with such an emphasis on its story and background blood Omen can pull no punches
in its welld design to make its levels feel like a journey across a Madden dying world ruled by debaucherous Masters you stop beneath the Gloom of C's sanctuary and the corrupted pillars passing through the free towns with the last specs of Vibrance remain in the world before venturing across the lands of cold-hearted brutes saw the decadent layers of depraved Masters silicon Knights must have had fun with these designs and I spent a little too too much time admiring every crunchy pixel on this
old map the same can be said about character designs there's great variety here with the wicked Undead or Nemesis being contrasted by the wackier choices like scarecrows exploding teddy bears or Jesters K Jester there's enough visual Clarity to communicate what you need to see with some exceptions with lighting and neat weather effects to reflect the environment although I did at one point miss a dungeon for an ability I needed to progress since its doorway was obscured by the darker Graphics I
want to take a quick note of the user interface here because I love stuff like this the Magic Bar could be easy to read but you can see Kane's armor a weapon choice in his portrait it always grows every time you reload a save to reflect just how powerful you've become and before he turns his interface is completely different that's such a small detail that wasn't needed but I love that kind of wish I could play the game with this on but if we're just talking about graphical Fidelity and how it'
s aged this isn't too shabby for the time it's made or the hardware it's on but 28 years later man Kane you look like a melting far quad before your murder death Was a glow up for you I kind of love this though as someone nostalgic for the PlayStation 1 era of games it's endearing for me to see this visual style combined with some unintentionally funny animations and sound effects speaking of blood Omen is positively dripping with classic fantasy styling in its visual Department helped by a heal
thy base of pre-rendered early 3D Sprites and cinematics but it equally sounds the part two of some very prominent sound design which can probably be found in all sorts of games from the same time there's something oddly homely about the sound effects of spells and something even more disconcerting about the horrifying screams of your victims suitably gruesome for what you inflict upon them on top of this as well as the music largely instrumental but creating impeccable atmosphere The Limited nu
mber of them are reused a bit too often and the vocals and sound effects over nut Raptor's theme are frankly distracting but I'm often disappointed how short they are when I listen to them out of game I'm oddly fond of the style of music that from this era of games I listen to Windows 96 while working don't judge but it can have its own surprises too with tracks like Els The Dollmaker theme it's kooky unpleasant and sets the right tone for his house of [Music] horrors these are all pretty Baseli
ne for the time but what certainly stands out for a game like this is voice acting that isn't to say it's perfect across the board mind you I think this villager is Hamming it up a bit too much what has become of the lon of Willendorf who will protect us from the Nemesis I mean that more towards the main characters many of who steal the show call your dogs they can Feast on your P these guys are pretty damn good especially Simon templeman in the lead role of Kane narrating his inner thoughts as
you encounter landmarks and key figures during the game his cackle as he strikes his opponents down is delightful though I can't say the same for his battlecry which gets very distracting very quickly B vict [Music] vict Victor picking the right person for the role was apparently really important for silicon Knight and I admire that level of consideration at a time where professional performances and video games were rare and hell it won blood Omen a game of the year award at the time so congrat
ulations Kane your verbosity won you critical Acclaim which is more than we can say about Bubsy that year all right and the award for best leading role of 199 six goes to uh Kane now the academy rigs the awards every [Applause] year as someone who jumped into the series for the first time this year with this game I feel a little bad saying this game surprised me when there's a lot here to love being a very different genre from its sequels I expected it to be a black sheep that got the ball rolli
ng for better games to follow but this was a fun little romp into a game which stands out next to its other major contemporaries there's a lot of events in the game I've avoided speaking about and that's because I think it's worth experiencing this for yourself if you can adjust to the stiff controls and the inconveniences in places like weapon switching blood Omen is a surprisingly easy game to pick up and play with a neat Twist on it genre and a story that kept me guessing now if you're going
to buy this which version should you pick up the PC version buy a country mile load times are non-existent on Modern Hardware and you can get it for just over a pound sometimes on good old games while my PS1 copy cost me £440 for a version with significantly worse game Flow so if you ever want to visit a dark compelling world with an engaging protagonist or have an itch that can only be scratched by a sword and sorcery story you can do far worse than blood openen the beginning of the legacy of C
thanks again to War Thunder for sponsoring today's video support the channel by visiting the link and the pinned comment or video description to try War Thunder for free and collect your bonus vehicles and other goodies whether you're brand new to the game or a returning player from 6 months ago or [Music] more if you were reborn into the old world what species and Nation would you want to be a part of uh I don't know I'm going to say dwarf I could sit in a mountain running pen and paper games
all day if we're talking about Kane what's the worst circle of nine boss to fight for you Bane he drives me insane you ever heard of Crimson Skies no but given I sunk my teeth into Ace Combat a little while ago maybe more flight games will be good for me what is your favorite Spartan armor set from Halo I've been mark five for life since day one I've always love this stupid helmet what is your favorite faction in Warhammer 40K and if it's Space Marines or Imperial Guard what is your favorite cha
pter or regiment Imperial Guard and uh would you judge me if I was boring and cadians I mean I like them all to be honest did you ever play the old Dungeon Keeper games and would you ever consider making a video on them somehow I've never gotten around to them despite having played bullfrogs other stuff I reckon it'd be fun to make something on them though and I'm sure it' be a lot better than theme park world that's for sure will there be more of the inreview TTS type of editing like the elar M
ontage yes in the future I wanted to do them especially for Retribution since it speaks to my roots a little but if I can think of something funny in future videos I'd want to animate scenes more like that who is the best character in Legacy of Kane and why is it razol I'll be the judge of that thank you to all the patrons and channel members who have been supporting me with an extra special thanks to my ban blade tier subscribers Alexis Athena Brandon hickey carbon green demon zomorph 1987 Di's
nuts Epsilon gorgeous Freeman just a guy old man Jenkins potato Lord Prime B1 Raziel Martellus 96 Rogan tainted cookie to chud and warlock scra Kane lives and death
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