After having my entire weekend consumed with playing Legacy of Kain,
I am ready to commit to my call on the best game of the year--KAIN!

Okay, I will put forward that the loading times are pretty annoying
on this one (and I am rarely bothered by load times--SFA is the only
other one I've played that I'd say is pretty bad).  The main part
is the fact that you have to load going back and forth between the
subsreen, which you must do with great frequency in this game.

There is also noticable slowdown that appears quite often... Now these
to problems aside, let's get down to what the game is like.

This game is an EXPERIENCE.  You play a vampire, brought back to life
to wreak your vengence on your assassins.  But you soon learn that this
is an empty fulfillment, and there is much more that needs to be done
to rest your soul once and for all.  I won't ruin the plot for anyone,
but it is elaborate and quite interesting.

Every aspect of this game excels well beyond even my greatest expectations.
Graphics--superb.  The drawn graphics and unbelievably detailed scenery
is unparalleled, and I've played *a lot* of games.  The animation is 
extremely good--everything is amazingly fluid, moving/attacking/etc.
in 8 directions, with many many frames.  Kain's appearance reflects what
weapon(s) and armor he is equiped with, and boy is he one mean-looking
SOB.  But then again, quite a lot of his foes look far worse than he...
The game is BRUTAL, with a capital B.  Kain implements countless measures
for slaughter, and the visual spectacle of seeing the "Soul Reaver" in
action is reason enough to play LOK.

This brings up another point--the weapons and armor system in this game.
As you travel the land you will find a number of different weapons and
armor (along with many special items of death).  But it is a non-linear
progression.  Each weapon you continue to use for the entire game (with
the possible exception of the first sword)  And I don't just mean, you
use your mace to break things every once in a while.  You choose your
weapon based on the type of enemy and the way you wish to kill your
enemy, which varies tremendously.  And the weapons are so *cool*  Kain
can do combination slashes with the sword.  Bash and stun with the mace.
Do two different rapid hack (cuisinart) attacks with the axes (Havoc
and Malice), burn your enemies to a crisp with the flame sword (man
do I love this weapon)--which also generates light when swung.  And
Soul Reaver... the sound of souls being destroyed is *awesome*, and
well, I won't go into what it does to your enemies, let that be a
pleasant (terrible?) surprise...  Same thing goes for the armor--the
armor is so cool--iron (good general protection), bone (ignored by lesser
undead), chaos (wickedly inflicts damage back upon enmeies who hit you),
flesh (drains blood--I haven't really figured out how to use this one
corectly yet), and wraith (looks *so* cool--etherealizes Kain so he
divides damage between blood{life} and magic).  

Spells are *awesome* again.  Kain learns many useful spells (not just
tons and tons of spells that are useless or become obsolete when you
acquire the next "level" spell)  Mind Control has gotta be the neatest
idea for a spell... and it can be *really* useful, controlling other
people's minds--love it.  Learning the various effect*iveness of each
spell is a lot of fun.

Enemies are *awesome* (yet again).  Extremely well drawn and animated
as I said.  And there are MYRIAD enemies with a capital M.  Each new
area is inhabited with a number of bizarre and menacing creatures.
Towns and much of the land is covered with numerous types of people
who are none too kind to vampires.  One flaw though, I must admit is
that some enemies are programmed to move within a certain range to
fight, but that range is a little too far to actually hit you.  So
some enemies actually wiff at the air while you whack em to pieces.
It's a very small range so it isn't completely simple to make use of
it, but it is sort of a bug that can be taken advantage of.  Minor
point though.

FMV, voice acting and vistas are *awesome* (I know a broken record...).
For anti-FMV people, believe me, you won't dislike it in this game.
It is incredibly well done, and used as real plot development (rather
than just seeing text appear on the screen--save a small paragraph
when you begin, there is *NO* text--Kain verbally describes things which
he finds.  The voice-acting in this game is superb.  The guy who did
Kain is phenomenal--I mean where did they get this guy???  Not a hint
of "acting," not a *trace*--he IS Kain.  And the script for this game--
If Resident Evil is 3rd grade writing and acting level, LOK is 
Shakespeare.  The descriptiveness and grim eloquence just enhances
the game 10-fold.

Sound effects and music are, well you know by now... The samplings for
effects are perfectly selected, Soul Reaver, ahhh...  The dark music
(plenty of it) is eeeeeeerrriee.  The audio couldn't be better.

Ugh, think I've gone on enough, but there are so many elements that make
this a masterpiece.  Drinking your victims blood, morphing (from Vampire,
to wolf, to bat, to human disguises, to vapor), gaping at the unbelievable
darkness, death, and torture which are commonplace in the world of Nosgoth,
enjoying the thrill of the kill (boy, the right and wrong of killing in
certain circumstances is a real ethical dilemma prominent in the game--
Kain struggles with his existance as a being who must kill to survive),
and just the overall intriguing very mature nature of the game (If ever
there was an "MA-17+" game this is it--posterchild for censorship right
here.  I'm not an advocate of it, but this is one that I doubt even the 
most progressive parent would allow their children to play). 

So if you stuck with this post to its fruition, you've probably figured
out the verdict.  If you are not gore-adverse, RUN, do not walk, to your
local store and GET LEGACY OF KAIN *NOW*!