Crystal Dynamics

Game Description: You are the vampire Kain, the most evil figure ever to appear in a video game. Cloaked in stealth, you will move through crowds unseen, travel stories above the peasant herds on which you feed—leaping from rooftop to rooftop—and use mind control to overcome vampire-proof inventions. The combat choreography in Blood Omen 2 unfolds with dancelike precision as Kain engages armies of demons and humans alike.

While being a reviewer isnt always easy, sometimes its even tougher when youre also a fan. Its our job to look at games objectively, but were still human. We all have our preferences and tastes, and theres nothing more miserable than seeing a series you love go down the drain with a rotten sequel. As if that wasnt painful enough, reviewing such a game forces you to thoroughly examine every single aspect of it, instead of having the luxury of deluding yourself into thinking it really isnt all that bad.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood and Gore, Violence

I think Matt did a great job pointing out the good versus the bad in Soul Reaver 2, so there's no need for me to elaborate on any of that. But I would like to expound one of his points—the balance between story and game, which is Soul Reaver 2's most glaring flaw.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood, Violence

Sometimes great games have bad stories, and sometimes great stories accompany bad games. However, I have never seen this distinction become more acute than with Soul Reaver 2 for PlayStation 2, Crystal Dynamic's long awaited sequel (actually third in the Legacy Of Kain series) to their 1999 vampire epic.

Is there life after death? Well, according to fiction and pop-culture, there most certainly is. For as long as we've known, tales of the undead have permeated through our society in the forms of Nosferatu, Dracula, and Tom Cruise.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood, Animated Violence 

Game Description: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver tells the story of Raziel, one of the undead lieutenants of the vampire lord Kain. Jealous of Raziel's newly evolved wings, Kain tears them apart and casts his former champion into the netherworld. But a powerful entity that dwells in the netherworld has restored Raziel to a semblance of life and has set him on a path of vengeance. After this tantalizing movie introduction, you take control of Raziel in the spectral realm, where your new existence is explained to you. From there you enter the physical plane, ready to begin your quest for power and revenge. Raziel's combat moves are extremely brutal, as you'd expect from a vampire who has returned from the dead. When he finds a spear, Raziel gleefully stabs and slashes before he impales his foe, lifts it off the ground, and feasts on its soul.

Soul Reaver brushes with perfection but falls short. It's got the visual and aural punch that sets it apart from other games right off the top and Soul Reaver is just an outstanding realization of its creators' imaginations.