This was one hell of an awesome year of gaming for me. Not only did I manage to nab a PS5 and get myself my own place with an ostentatious TV, the gaming industry decided to wake the fuck up and tempt me into buying enough games to aaa...

Upon loading a save, the game boots you back to the chamber of the Elder God, so the game incentivizes play sessions capped off with boss fights or the discovery of new warp rooms. It does save all progress save for Raziel's location, ...

Escaping the Spectral realm not only opens the way forward, but also seals the way back into the Elder God's chamber, making it the one location we cannot visit in the Material Realm. Even warping there immediately robs Raziel of his f...

For those of you who forgot what was going on last time, the last little plot blurb in the manual is happy to catch you up to speed: To us the touch of water is agony; it burns our flesh like acid. My punishment was to be cast into The...

Against all odds, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver managed to get released in 1999 on Playstation and PC, giving us one of the most iconic covers of 5th gen. It is a very simple idea for a cover, but leaning into the excellent design of th...

Making video games is messy business. This much is known. But the 90s was its own beast. Creators struggled far and wide, inventing trailblazing technologies to realize their vision in a quickly changing landscape with much too limited...

With the entirety of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain behind us, I think it is worthwhile to summarize all the game's elements to really understand what makes this franchise tick. Especially since once we move past Blood Omen, a lot of what ...

Kain returns to Willendorf victorious, carrying the head of Elzevir and the doll containing the soul in the other. With his daughter's soul returned to her body, King Ottmar concedes to Kain's request and rallies the Army of Hope for a...

Willendorf's army beckons as the legions of the Nemesis draw ever closer. Kain is right to be hesitant, but he must forge on nonetheless. It is not like he can trust anyone else to give a shit about the land's impending demise anyway. ...

I have a minor confession to make before we get to Avernus, as I missed a spell on the way there. But given the circumstances, I think you will understand. It has to do with this sign: "He will come when the moon is full and learn to ...

It is entertaining to see that even Kain has the good conscience to recognize Vorador for what he is. Upon leaving the mansion, he is none to pleased with what transpired within. But an ally is an ally. Examining Vorador's ring lets t...

Malek, the Guardian of Conflict, eludes us still, so the only way to lay claim to his relic and restore the Pillar of Conflict is to seek the guidance of an ever popular fantasy trope, the Oracle of Nosgoth. And against all odds, his c...

With the Mentalist dead, his head claimed and a Hamlet reference dropped ("Alas, poor Nupraptor - I knew him well. Well, not really."), Kain has only to make a swift exit. And as fate would have it, there is a convenient teleporter at ...

Before we begin in earnest and track down Nupraptor, I want to apologize a bit for the slight change in formatting for the screenshots. I messed up my recording a little bit, so I had to crop the screen in order to exclude my desktop f...

Being undead is never easy and a protagonist's work is not done until the credits roll, so following the enactment of his revenge against his slayers, Kain's quest continues, this time spurned by the words of Mortanius. He is told to f...

Kain succinctly describes the situation he finds himself in after Mortanius resurrects him as a fresh-faced vampire: Now that we are in proper gameplay, I can talk about the UI. I think it being a pre-rendered chunk of the screen betr...

In September of 1996, one would be presented with a diverse set of company logos when booting up Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Silicon Knights were the developers and Crystal Dynamics were the publisher, but there was a third finger in t...

I think 2021 can succinctly be summarized as the year I didn't manage to nab a PS5, so my candidates for Game of the Year reflect that, as my aging PC can't act as a good substitute. Though I actually have some candidates this year com...

20 or so years ago, I was a young boy enamoured with the bourgening world of video games that was opening itself up to me. Back then, it felt like there was always a fresh experience for me around the corner, be it behind a visit to a ...

5 years of of writing reviews on this site and I'm still around, huh? That has to count for something. I'm not sure what, but it's been quite the capstone year for me at the very least, so let's get into it. My debilitating wrist injur...

Rise of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure title with light metroidvania elements developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix in 2015 for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. A year later in 2016, it was also released on PS4 and P...

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is an action-RPG developed by Nihon Falcom and published by NIS America outside of Japan for the Vita in 2017. An enhanced port with new content was released at the same time for PS4, which found its way to P...

Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented (or Project Zero 3: The Tormented) is a survival-horror game developed and published by Tecmo in 2005, with Take-Two Interactive handling the EU release in 2006. Rei Kurosawa is a freelance photographer who...

Forbidden Siren 2 is a survival-horror game developed by Sony Japan Studio and published by Sony in 2006 on the PS2. The plot follows a new set of characters who have either been drawn to or decided to investigate the cursed island of ...

MediEvil 2 is an action-adventure game developed by SCE Cambridge and published by Sony in 2000 for the Playstation. 500 years after Sir Daniel Fortesque redeemed himself and saved Gallowmere, the warlock Lord Palethorn finds a portion...

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is an episodic survival horror game developed and published by Capcom for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC and Vita in 2015, with a Switch port being released in 2017. The story is an indirect follow-up to ...

Time waits for no game, and it just so happens to have run 10 laps around the perennial Dark Souls, From Software's amazing (but also somewhat terrible) 2011 release and everyone's new favourite genre descriptor. It's a game that means...

Blasphemous is a metroidvania game developed by The Game Kitchen and published by Team 17 for PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One in 2019, with ports for Linux and Mac being made in 2020. In the heavily religious land of Cvstodia, a mysteriou...

Salt & Sanctuary is an action RPG with metroidvania elements developed and published by Ska Studios on PS4 and PC in 2016. Further ports for Vita, Switch and Xbox One were released in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. The plot puts...

As has been thoroughly documented across the ages, video game genres are a horrible mess of senseless nomenclature, conflicting ideals, traditions kept well past their best-by date and just straight-up laziness. And to make matters wor...