And as a vampire, Kain is hurt by precipitation and is weakened by sun, requiring players to seek shelter, or later on, use magic to mitigate the effects. All of these are integral to exploring the world, particularly as a human where you’ll need to gain information from NPCs. This alone makes you want to grab and examine everything you pick up, and later on, interact with the NPCs you meet.Īnyway, as you might expect as a vampire, Kain is imbued with power to turn into mist, a wolf, a bat, and as a result of magic, disguised as a human. And in a case of one component enhancing others, the writing and performances come into play with Kain offering detailed descriptions of his powers, weapons and items. The game is played from a top-down Legend of Zelda style, with Kane navigating the world and having access to a variety of weapons, vampiric powers and spells. Thankfully, Blood Omen delivers on that front. Coupled with the score by Steve Henifin and Scott Shelly, it all contributes to a bleak atmosphere that drives the immersion.īut all of the excellent writing and performances don’t make a game by themselves. Likewise, the other actors, including Tony Jay (who voiced Mortanius), Paul Lukather (the vampire Vorador who becomes a “father figure” for Kain) and Anna Gunn (who voiced Ariel, the guardian of balance), deliver great performances. Not even revenge.” Of course, you need someone to deliver this dialogue effectively, and English actor Simon Templeman got what McCulloch was asking for, and delivered with perfection.
Obviously, Kain has some of the best, with moments such as his recalling of taking Mortanius’ Faustian bargain, not caring if he was “in Heaven or Hell”, and only wanting vengeance, but later noting that “Nothing is free.
It seems as if every character has their share of elaborate dialogue, thanks to McCulloch. The writing for Blood Omen is simply a thing of beauty. Even in that division, humanity has its own problems with internal strife, with those wanting to save civilization, and those wanting to end it. The game sets up Nosgoth as a land divided by humans and vampires. In fact, Silicon Knights even created a document to outline the various themes and interpretations of Blood Omen‘s cinematics. Including Kane, everyone dances that line, being equally capable of doing what’s considered good or evil, and even that is up to interpretation. No one in the game is a pure “good” or “evil” character. It’s this attention to the game’s lore and character development that made Blood Omen such a blast to play. Dyack wanted to create a character that was morally ambiguous, which up until that point, video games really had no protagonist that was made up of these shades of grey. Lastly, and particularly for Kain, Dyack drew upon Clint Eastwood’s character of William Munny from Unforgiven.
LEGACY OF KAIN BLOOD OMEN WORLD RECORD SERIES
Other novels included Brian Lumley’s Necroscope series and Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth. Dyack states the first influence was Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time novel series, which featured a “complex and compelling” storyline which Dyack wanted to emulate. Originally conceived by Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack and art director/writer Ken McCulloch as “The Pillars of Nosgoth” in 1993, Blood Omen drew upon several influences to shape what would become its grey morality and its multilayered protagonist.
Kane is then tasked with restoring balance to Nosgoth by killing the sorcerers, thereby allowing new guardians to take their place.
The Pillars are the health of the world, which have become corrupted due to the Circle of Nine having been driven insane. He soon learns about the Circle of Nine, a group of sorcerers who protect and represent the Pillars of Nosgoth. After killing his assassins, Kain seeks to reverse his condition. After being assassinated by a group of bandits, Kain accepts a deal with the necromancer Mortanius, who resurrects Kain as a vampire to exact his revenge. Which, if you’ve played the game, you know is a damn shame.įor those who walked in late, Blood Omen takes place in the land of Nosgoth, and centres on a nobleman named Kain. Released 25 years ago today in 1996, Blood Omen not only gave us a memorable anti-hero in Kain and unveiled the world and rich lore of Nosgoth to players for the first time, but it also ended up in legal purgatory that has left it to be largely forgotten by the mainstream. As popular as Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver was during the PlayStation’s heyday, its predecessor in Blood Omen almost never gets mentioned.
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