Reviewed by: Belshy
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Eidos Interactive

The story of LOKD is a doozy. I haven't played any Soul Reaver of Kain games before LOKD, but can only marvel at the depth of the series' rich plot, which is continued in this latest vampiric outing.

From my newbie stance, what I can gather is that vampire overlord Kain is trying to undo the horrendous repercussions of his own previous meddling in vampire affairs, which were responsible for Raziel (second playable character) being cast down into the vampire version of Hell, as well as the ruin of his own kingdom, Nosgoth. Kain and Raziel are both inextricably linked in a fate (good or bad ) waiting to befall the vampire horde, and Raziel may very well turn out to be either Kain's eventual executor or the key to rescuing the whole sorry mess. The story really is worth the price of admission alone, and both the manual and excellent cut scenes offer a level of plot-line depth that is rare in today's gaming.

The strong narrative is graced with some incredible voice acting, really top notch thespian stuff, and all characters thus have a believability to them that gives the 3rd person point of view real immediacy. Voice acting has been the downfall, or at least the bringer of many cringe-moments to some otherwise great games, and I'd put my beloved Onimusha series among them. Thankfully LOKD has none of the cheesiness that can affect games with ambitious story lines.

Graphically this game is jaw dropping throughout. I'll admit to having been totally glued to my PS2 the last year and a bit (in the protracted carrot-dangling of Half Life 2 and DOOM 3), and so my appreciation of state-of-the-art PC technology has been nearly non-existent....preferring to rarely run favourite games circa 1998-2000 on my Alienware. So imagine my delight when I bumped up the resolution to 1280x1024, turned the anti aliasing and everything up to full, and entered the rich and detailed world of LOKD. Lighting, texturing, particle effects, animation, water and reflections really glow out of the screen. Special kudos have to be given for the detail and realism of the various gothic locations. The architecure has unprecedented levels of ornateness, sometimes verging on the photo-realistic when seen at a distance. You try taking a JPEG screenie of some of the rooms in LOKD then getting it uploaded to this site, even at low quality settings with the size limits we've set up. There's so much detail in each image that your eyes will be feasting on the screen, even when nothing much is happening.

Which leads me to what I feel is this game's biggest fault. It's so damn (ahem) polite. LOKD's other faults include a very dodgy wayward chase-cam, which seems to have been lifted from the Capcom way of doing things, but not prevented from allowing its subjects from fighting unseen behind a variety of obstacles (trees/ rocks/ pillars/ walls, etc etc), and also an almost inaudible sound track. But even an imperfect camera and quiet environmental/ incidental sounds can be tolerated in a game centering around 3rd person combat...IF the combat is good.

The combat SHOULD be excellent, because the game's designers have allowed a variety of very good control options, including fully functional dual analogue gamepad use, complete with force feedback. My PS2 control goes into the USB slot, and I'm away...playing LOKD like I would any 3rd person hack 'n' slasher on my console. Control is precise, responsive, and there is an admirable list of combos for both Raziel and Kain to use, if you take the time to read the menu's moves section and learn it. You can dodge pummel and juggle just like Dante. It's so smooth, fluid, and instinctive. Great!

The trouble is that both enemy design and enemy variety is strangely unimaginative and weak in LOKD. If you consider the weirdness and power of both the protagonists, and the strange dark worlds they traverse, the calibre of beasty that they battle is really rather low. The story is so well woven, the levels so beautifully fleshed out and decorative, and yet what we are given for both Raziel and Kain for them to trounce in their virtual omnipotenceis a repetitive bestiary of underlings and pseudo-bosses . Foot soldiers, archers, wraiths, the occasional pint-sized satanic demon for Kain, and vampire hunters (foot soldiers really) brutes, rubbery ghouls and semi-tough spectral 'bosses' for Raziel....oh and the occasional curiously stationary stone guardian or gargoyle.

With your characters' ability to feast on souls/ blood of the dead/ dying when safely airborne, and their immense agility, it is actually quite hard to 'die' in this game. In the absence of any remarkable enemy classes (think demons that fill a corridor and splat you with one swipe of a impossibly huge claw) or uber hard bosses that can vex you for days at a time (think any boss from a latter day Capcom/ Tecmo/ Konami game from this genre) and really all you're left with is some very pretty rooms to have polite battles in...with quiet sound effects barely punctuating the boredome.

Distraction comes from many platform and puzzle elements which unfortunately follow the 'find key, open door, get artefact, open door find key, get reaver (sword) open slipgate, find key open door, get artefact, open door find key, get reaver (sword) open slipgate, ad infinitum' pattern that we've all come to know and dread over the years. Raziel's sections are actually alot more entertaining in this respect, because he can see a level in two different ways...as a spirit or as a material entity. The levels become tranformed both in looks and accessibilty depending on whether you're solid vampire or vampire wraith. But once the novelty of this disappears, which for me was about 2 hours into LOKD, the whole puzzle side of the game begins to pall.

Other games in the genre have taken the same formula and at least tried to conceal it with time-trials, the defeat of some particularly terrifying guardian, or perhaps many levels with a refreshingly key-collecting free agenda, with quality combat filling the time instead. In the absence of good quality fighting sections the onus is on the level designers to pad non-story-related things out with ye olde key-collecting ploy, and in this area too I'd have to say that they've failed in creating anything particularly engaging.

This isn't to say that LOKD is an appallingly bad game. Apart from the errant camera, production values are amazingly high thoughout. It has a rich and detailed story. In the absence of anything more in-yer-face from this genre on PC this game could even be thought quite exciting by alot of gamers. But after 18 months of playing the more pyrotechnic and visceral version of this kind of thing on PS2 I came away from LOKD feeling curiously flat, and have to break the bad news that, like a vampire, it may look immaculate in death as in life...but sadly LOKD seriously lacks a pulse.

Presentation	8
Stunning graphics, fluid animation, immersive beautifully detailed locations. Some dodgy camera angles mar proceedings though.
Gameplay	6
Bully some very non descript enemies, solve some marginally clever puzzles, perform some platforming whilst plane shifting...and repeat
Value	7
About 15 hours gameplay. I personally wouldn't want to play it again just so long as I can remember the story.
Benchmark	7
On the PC this is probably quite a violent in-yer-face hack 'n' slasher, with nimble control and the occasional moment of peril. For a console gamer it's a bit of a damp squib.
Score	7
If 15 hours of quite gentle vampire action and an extremely deep story line is what you're after, look no further. Best turn up your speakers though.