Blood Omen starts itself off as seemingly yet another story set in yet another land of fantasy that so heavily populated the action RPG genre of the latter half of the 1990's. In fact, one could say that its first few moments is hardly befitting the dark and foreboding box-art of the game.
Soon, however, some monologue and musings from the brooding protagonist, Kain, even while he was yet to attain his un-living status as foreshadowed by the menu screen (which was plenty disturbing for an RPG of the 1990's), sheds the "ho-hum" feel away quickly. A cutscene of a brutal fight later, and the game strips away its regular veneer to reveal a lip-smacking tale of vengeance and despise.
Such a tale would not be complete with interesting characters, and what characters they are! From the sordidly twisted and driven mad with anger to those smitten with vainglory and bitterly ennui, Blood Omen wastes no time introducing them in awesome moments within the game, with the more significant ones made more impressive with the game's well-done cutscenes (for the time of this game, that is).
Every character, Kain himself included, is splendidly voiced. Even though multiple characters do appear to have obviously been voiced by the same voice actor/actress, he/she is talented enough to get into the character being voiced, so that a sad spirit barely clinging to hope stills sound different to a twisted vain-pot of a hag that was voiced by the same person.
Very gripping saga aside, Blood Omen is still a game, and this reviewer is sad to say that its other aspects are not up to the standards at which its story is designed.
Blood Omen is a console port, and it shows this aspect of itself in a glaring, painful manner in its controls, which by default is terribly set out across the keyboard. Fortunately, the controls can be modified outside of the game, so this is just a minor, very temporary gripe.
Hit detection is a more permanent issue however. It is often difficult to position Kain in such a way that every strike he does efficiently hits what the player wants him to harm. The same problem occurs for his enemies, resulting in absurd moments where they stay on the spot striking at nothing while Kain is just standing inches away from where they are swishing away. (A clever player is able to exploit this too, causing some battles to be awkwardly easy.)
As befitting a vampire, Kain is able to morph into other forms, which in turns play key roles in solutions to some of the game's puzzles, which mainly involve either environmental obstructions or intelligence-gathering. Unfortunately, this is where their utility ends, as humanoid Kain is perfectly capable of maneuvering through much of the world around him and is the only form capable of efficient, effective combat. It would have been more pleasant if the other forms have more purpose outside of solving puzzles.
Speaking of combat, Kain has many painful weapons, including some which flay thoroughly the flesh from their victims, leaving nothing but crumpling bones behind. However, these weapons tend to obliterate Kain's enemies; considering that Kain primarily regains health from enemies that he had wounded to near-death and thus ripe for draining of life-giving blood, these weapons are often a hindrance to the player instead. Fortunately, many of them have secondary properties which make them useful in certain situations, especially those where he can't reach his enemies and/or otherwise harm them with a sword.
There is also serious backtracking to be done, especially for puzzles where Kain has to activate a certain device in another part of the land that he lives in, Nosgoth, just so that he can progress in another place. Backtracking, in a manner typical of RPGs of the time, forces the respawn of enemies.
However, Blood Omen puts a twist on this typical occurrence; enemies defeated in an earlier romp through the same map often return as ghosts, who can similarly be harmed again for spirit-mana instead of life-blood. It does put some interesting context into slaying enemies that hound Kain long after they are dead, but the game simply cycles the respawn routine again after this (which can also be exploited), reducing the novelty of this game design.
As mentioned earlier, there are puzzles in this game, most of which are optional and provide rewards that are, at best, of temporary nature. There are shrines to dark deities that refill weapon uses in exchange for blood, secret crevices that reveal life-enhancing potions and some others that are worth seeking out if conveniently near enough, but again, there is no long-term worth to earning them. Even the life- and mana-enhancing potions are so too, as there are quite a lot of them around such that a determined player would have long maxed out Kain's ultimately still limited stats. Still, the context of these puzzles add to the game's rich backstory, especially the creepy aforementioned shrines.
Blood Omen's graphics are for the most part decent for a 1996/1997 game (the Playstation version was released before the PC version). The game has enough contrast in most areas for the player to avoid environmental hazards, and the lighting and shadowing - which changes as the game progresses from day to night - is competent enough to help the player navigate Kain around.
The sound design is unfortunately not as good as the voice-overs. Sound effects, such as the swing of a sword and the breaking of arrows on stone walls, are weak and unimpressive - even grating at times. Music is a hit-or-miss affair; at times, it is great to listen to, but is otherwise composed of awkward 8-bit noises that try to sound ominous in a disastrous manner.
To conclude this review, it can be said that, despite its flaws in gameplay and some other aspects, Blood Omen is still a good game, one that is worthy of being the pioneer of the Legacy of Kain saga.