I'm taking some time out of my coursework to pay homage to what is truly a great video game series. I am about 8 weeks too late for the anniversary, but what the hell.
On the 1st November 1996, Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics released a game on the then fairly new Sony Playstation called Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. This game didn't utilise the 3D capabilities to the extent that the console does have and played as a 2d, top-down hack-n-slash. You played as a Vampire named Kain, who (as a human) is murdered right at the start. He gets revived as a Vampire and kills his assassins, only to be drawn into a quest to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth, 9 pillars that protect the land and were corrupted by dark forces 30 years earlier.
As Kain, you had to kill the Circle of 9, the guardians of the pillars to restore them. On the way, you picked up awesome spells, and weapons, to aid you in your quest. There's a super plot twist involving a change in history, as well as at the end - where it emerges the Kain is the final guardian and you can choose self sacrifice or to rule Nosgoth in its Damnation.
This game had good (albeit rather cheesy cod-Shakespearean) voice acting, a deep story and long gameplay.
The sequels (Particularly the Soul Reavers) are gaming masterpieces. Its a story that's too long to give, so I'll direct you to the brilliant plot guide by LOKfanatic on Gamefaqs.
Why am I posting about this? Well, its 8 years since the series was left unresolved by Crystal Dynamics in Defiance. In that time, Amy Hennig (the lead writer) moved on to work at Naughty Dog and a further game was canned early into development. Since then, Eidos told Core where to stick it after the Clusterfuck of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (which led to their eventual demise) and teamed up with CD (as they had done since Soul Reaver) for future games.
Sadly, these games had none of the atmosphere and challenge of the old games and were, quite simply, too easy. And when Eidos was bought out by Final Fantasy company Square Enix, they announced a further reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise.
The key gripe is that (on the CD Facebook page and on many online places) fans constantly ask CD to create another LOK game to at least complete the series - or like me, they want a full-blown redux of the original Blood Omen (which would require a Skyrim like world, that could make the game a hit). However, its all Tomb Raider this, Lara Croft that. This is a game whose legacy died (RIP) in 2000 after Chronicles was done and dusted (with its better days back in 1997-98). Legacy of Kain put CD on the map, and is easily the most underrated series in gaming history ever since the Atari motherboard was laid down.
In this age where Twilight disgracefully pollutes the Vampire folklore (that they are badass killers with a penchant for spilling blood and killing things in nasty ways) thanks to Stephanie Meyer's horrible idea of how a cross-species/necrophiliac relationship works (and Stephen King says the books are shite too), CD could easily have cashed in and revived Kain and Raziel (protagonist of Soul Reaver) to counter the image they were getting. No, they don't even announce the 15th Anniversary of the greatest game series they made! Its a sad state of affairs.
However, I leave you with a picture - its of a cover designed by a good friend of mine (with a few modifications of my own) of the whole series if it ever came out on the PS2. We were proud of it - more than CD appears to be proud of the Legacy of Kain.
Mind you, as Kain would say "The coin is still turning..."
