Also: is there a good starting point for the series aside from the first one, or would that be the place to start if it's worth it? I know basically nothing at all about this series.

If you don't want to start at Blood Omen, start with Soul Reaver. Might as well start with Blood Omen if you have the option though. Although, I never did and still haven't played it but love the rest of the series.

Strengths are an interesting world, crazy convoluted plot, great characters, excellent voice acting and ridiculously verbose dialogue. Weaknesses are kinda mediocre gameplay and Soul Reaver doesn't hold up very well graphically.

@Neurotic said:

Weaknesses are kinda mediocre gameplay and Soul Reaver doesn't hold up very well graphically.

The graphics are never terribly good. Blood Omen looks average when it doesn't look like shit, and Soul Reaver, while technically amazing (fucking fog notwithstanding), is artistically lacking, what with everything being brown.

Really surprised & happy to see it on steam. Soul Reaver was fun from what I remember & good starting point, Blood Omen very early looking ps1 game but interesting though it takes quite a while to get into. Mostly recall that the voice work & music in these have been good, not sure on pc controls for thiese as the only one I've played on the PC is Blood Omen2 (another one that's not too bad from what little I played of it.

That Vae Victis soundclip certainly holds up. Just as annoying as the first time I played Blood Omen.

Alright, Blood Omen is the only one of the series I've played. Whether or not you like it depends on your tolerance for the graphics and fixed overhead perspective at low resolutions, I'm sure. I remember it being tough, but I was also a lot younger.

I just love the voice acting and narration.

Weakness: NOTHING.

Strength: EVERYTHING.

But seriously it's one of my favorite all time franchises. Still some of the best voice acting in a game, great characters, story, etc. Doesn't really get a lot of props and respect. Then again people think Kojima is some sort of writing god.

This is on steam now? Sweet, I might pick one of them up at some point.

I think Neurotic mostly nailed my feelings about the good parts of this series. Combat is frequently downright bad if functional, the puzzles are ok, what you are there for is the world, the characters and the story.

I've played a couple of hours of the Playstation (PSN) version of Blood Omen, it's awful. There are a couple of cool ideas there that hold up but it's hampered incredibly by the slow loading into bad, bad menus and a generally confusing interface. Other than that it is a pretty simple game, a bit Zelda inspired perhaps? If any game in the series deserves a remake it's that one.

I say start with Soul Reaver 1 and keep going from there. The story in the sequels pick up pretty much exactly where the previous entries end, so it's kinda important to play them in order (says the guy who ended up finishing them in the reverse order). Unfortunately, the very interesting Metroidesque mechanic of gaining new abilities to access new areas in a seamless open world is mostly abandoned in the later games for different coloured soul reavers and more linearily. On the plus side, it's justified somewhat by the fact that you don't arbitrarily lose the abilities aquired in the first game at any point.

@BisonHero: Start with the first one. Its actually a great game, and prob the best in the series imo. Also its gameplay will hold up a lot better. The others are a bit rough being that they were more on the forefront of the shift to 3d gaming being the mainstream.

*Edit, Yea fuck that, you definitely cant blow off the first one! Shit now I want to play it.

Strengths are the puzzles, the atmosphere, the story. Combat can get monotonous, I guess, but I always found it simple and fun.

I love the series and the fact that it's been gone for so long is a god damn shame (luckily I quite like the Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider games.) Curious where a LoK game would go post-Amy Hennig.