Features

FS · #1

I want to like this game. I've liked all the games of this series so far, except for Blood Omen 2, mostly because its plot and dialogue sucked some serious undead balls.

But this game has the worst camera system since 9/11. How insane is it to implement a pre-set, unchangeable camera viewpoint to a game with camera-oriented movement controls, when one wrong jump can instantly kill you? How in the hell can a programmer look at this as their work and say "yeah. The players will love it. They'll love it so much, they won't want any alternatives. I'm not gonna bother programming a camera setting here. Even though you're walking towards the camera half the time with no clue as to what's in front of you."

Seriously. Is there no way to change the camera's position? Not even a cheat or some function not mentioned in the manual?

Captain Goodtimes · #2

Not to my knowledge, I tried looking it up but I found squat. I went back and got Simpsons : Road rage instead :/

Supafly345 · #3

How ironic! I just lent this game away on promise that it was super-awesome.
The camera is no worse than any fixed camera game. It is meant to hinder your vision at places to balence out the fact that you can see everything miles behind you. Well, it probably wasn't meant that way, but it ends up being that way anyway. What it was meant to do was make the gameplay more exciting with movie-like camera angels while you played. And it ended up looking fantastic, despite the annoying blind spots. I got used to it quickly, and ended up loving it. But I am a graphics fag and that is all I need to be sustained.

DamnthatDavid · #4

I am finding it only slightly annoying, but that is overshadowed by the fun of dribbling someone in the air.

I am truely enjoying the game. Yet, with a massive headache today, I'm having troubles in the spear collecting of Varldors Mansion with Raziel. I can't find the way to get the second spear.

tenno · #5

ive played all the games, and i admit i hate the new camera, its takes a lot of practice to get used too, especially when the first in the series (with the soul eater) had a dynamic camera....

ah well, gravity lifting people off cliffs is too much fun

HickMan · #6

It's an alright game. The camera really got annoying in the spirit realm where everything is so distorted and you can't see 'S'

Perndog · #7

On a related topic, FS, does this mean I don't have to force myself to struggle through the rest of Blood Omen 2 because the story doesn't make the game worth finishing?

I didn't think the gameplay in Soul Reaver 2 was great shakes, either, but at least the plot was interesting enough to keep me going for the entire 8 hours or so that the game lasted.

Crying Baby Jesus · #8

I'm curious as to why things are still around. At the end of Legacy of Kane he whishes the world destroyed didn't he?

FS · #9

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perndog

On a related topic, FS, does this mean I don't have to force myself to struggle through the rest of Blood Omen 2 because the story doesn't make the game worth finishing?

Personally, I got so sick of how that game was out of tune with the rest of the series, I quit by the time I reached the first boss and just read a plot script on Gamefaqs.com. The story doesn't tell you that much new stuff, just a little more background info on the Hylden, the race that fought the vampires. I'm pretty sure whoever made Blood Omen 2 was just given a rought plot outline they had to follow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perndog

I didn't think the gameplay in Soul Reaver 2 was great shakes, either, but at least the plot was interesting enough to keep me going for the entire 8 hours or so that the game lasted.

I've always had some issues with the gameplay of Soul Reaver 1 and 2, but pushing the story along is motivation enough, yeah.

Quote:

I'm curious as to why things are still around. At the end of Legacy of Kane he whishes the world destroyed didn't he?

The word they used at the end of the first game was "damned." The whole world turned into a wasteland, but wasn't destroyed. In Soul Reaver 1 the world supposedly is on its way to destruction, but that has more to do with the overpopulation of vampires. Also, since Soul Reaver 2 they've been travelling back in time.

When the camera isn't bothering me I do enjoy Defiance, but occasionally during battles it drives me insane. Especially in tight corners I can't see what I'm doing. At one point as Kain I was facing a living statue, but the statue was behind the camera, which was looking at my front, so I couldn't see the enemy at all and had to wait for him to walk further into the room.

I'm in Vorador's mansion too, now, looking for spears. And I can't get over how stupid it is that Kain can't stand a little water. Rahab could, and unless he somehow also managed to surpass Kain in powers, Kain should have that power too.

Supafly345 · #10

Christ, just play the damn game. If you are busy finding all the reasons why you hate it then you would have much more fun playing something like Dreamcast's Blue Stinger or something. You could be entertained for days with all the reasons you would find to hate that game.

FS · #11

Two. Two reasons. I just bitched about the camera system and a story aspect. Don't make such a drama about it. And if I didn't like this series so much, I wouldn't be making a big deal out of it either.

FS · #12

And speaking of problems, is there any way to make your life easier in the part of Vorador's Mansion where you have to jump across the pillars in the front yard? It's not that the jumps are too difficult, but every time I get there I feel this pressure because of the fact that if you fall, you have to go all the way back to the Air Reaver door (or restore a game) and from there spend 2-3 minutes getting back to the window that leads outside.

Is there maybe some quicker way of getting back on the roof?

Supafly345 · #13

I only made a drama over your issues with the game because you made a drama over only those two problems... and I wanted to declair my hate for Blue Stinger while sounding mildly funny at the same time.

In a friendship bracelet shaped like advice, I will give you the method to shorten your seconed trip to the front courtyard: once you TK blast that window to get out into the yard on the catwalk you knock down a statue which will fall in the corner of the mansion and the side wall. Just hop on up in the physical realm to avoid making this part of the game any more lagging.

DamnthatDavid · #14

I still can't find the second Spear.

I know it is somewhere, and I'm proberly missing something small and annoying. But I can't find my way anywhere. I went through the flame door, on the right side (if looking at the 3 Hylden water sprouts), went spiritual, passed through the iron bars, entered the greenhouse, and had to run down the god damn long path just to find a point I could return to the physical world. I was stopped at a door that could be only opened if I had all the elemental swords, and I be missing water. Seeing how I don't have the spears.

FS · #15

Supa, I will meet you here again by dawn with a pistol. We will then take ten steps and I will shoot myself. Thank you.

FS · #16

Incidentally, after a while I did get used to the camera, and I just beat the game. Past chapter 10 or so it's just OMG all the way. I was worried the plot was going to be stretched to another uneventful cliffhanger to accomodate for another immediate sequel, but that didn't happen. Though I have heard that another LoK title is already being worked on.

the[Hitman] · #17

Raziel gets killed and sent to another plain. Which means he's a soul stealer not a vampire. Vampires can't stand water. So...

And the camera angles are terrible but if you can get through the Raziel start you can deal with it.