Well, I bought this on Saturday, have played it for about 10 hours
real time/15 days game time.  Having the major requirement to be a
critic (a mouth), I thought I'd give an opinion.

In Brief, Kain is a spectacular action/RPG.  It's something that the
Playstation desperately needed, it's an excellently crafted game with
some truly beautiful graphics and an extremely engaging plot.  It
also,. unfortunately, shows some of the major weak points in the PSX's
setup.

Okay, down the line:

Graphics:Impressive, to say the least.  Most of Kain is played in an
overhead view, ala Times Of Lore (for those of you who remember Times
Of Lore).  The backgrounds appear to be largely hand-drawn, while the
figures are apparently pre-rendered.  The animation is beautifully
fluid, and the game absolutely drips with lightsourcing effects.  I've
always been a proponent of 2-d games, largely because they still seem
to require actual art - this game is an excellent example why.  

In addition to the top-down graphics, Kain occasionally incorporates
FMV (sorry, FMA according to the manual) sequences, as well as
judiciously placed stills.  The FMV is only used for major sequences
and is very well placed (although my housemates like to chant "KPT
Bryce!" everytime mountains show up).  Kain's design is very unified
and very darkly gothic - high mountaintops, skull-shaped fortresses,
huge impenatrable forests, and so on.

One parental note - the graphics in Kain are extremely gory and dark.
Apart from the gruesome spell effects, there are sites like
plague-ridden Coorhagen, where the bodies are stacked like cordwood.
There are a large amount of really gruesome scenes in the game, so be
warned.


Sound:The music is evocative.  (Actually, everything in Kain is
evocative, the game has a truly spectacular sense of atmosphere).
I don't know what to say beyond that, since i'm not a music critic -
each of the enemy bosses seems to have their own theme, although my
personal favorite at the moment is the
wandering-through-the-forest-woodwind-heavy piece.

Kain uses a lot of voice acting, and Silicon Knights spent some money
on real actors.  The result is spectacular as each character
has a distinctive personality and mindset - Kain's cynicism,
Nupraptor's bitter psychosis, Malek's contempt and the sorrowful
sarcasm of Ariel are all actually identifiable.  It's a definite step
up from what I'm used to hearing on a CD game.  I don't think I'll
ever be able to play Resident Evil again, now - after hearing the
voice acting in Kain, I'm kind of spoiled (especially after hearing
him reminesce about Nupraptor).  [I have this vision of Barry from RE
saying "It's blood...I hope it's not CHRIS' Blood!" and then Kain just
gutting him on general principles...]

Background sound effects are nice, especially the grimly ironic calls
for help from prisoners.  It should also be noted that Kain has
practically no written text;with the exception of an intro paragraph
and town signs, everything is communicated visually.

Gameplay:Kain's gameplay isn't anything to go dancing through the
halls about - it's a fairly standard setup.  Top down, hit points &
magic points, one spell/item at a time, one weapon at a time.  Weapons
usually have a special attack triggered by multiple button-pushes.  

The major twists on gameplay are as follows:  Kain's hit points/blood
meter decrease from attacks and from passing time.  Kain gets blood
back by - you guessed it, gladly feasting on his enemies' entrails [I
assume somebody at Silicon Knights has read Neitzche, judging by
Kain's battle cry].  When you need blood, you bash an enemy insensible
(later on you can get handy tools to help you with this) and then suck
his blood with a keypress.  You can do this from a distance, ala the
Gary Oldman version of Dracula.  In the right kind of dungeon, Kain is
virtually unstoppable - he can wander through, bash and restore like
mad.  In other dungeons (like Malek's Stronghold), Kain finds himself
at a considerable loss, a fact pointed out in the plotline.  

During the game, Kain picks up an array of spells, some of which are
fairly gross.  An array of magical items, most of which are really
gross.  He also gains the ability to change forms - most of which are
just ugly.  All of this is accessed through a set of quick menus,
which are configured by the user - the quick menus basically let you
pick your favorite choices from the larger selection available from
the inventory screen.

Kain, as a vampire, suffers from some fairly specialized weaknesses.
The game has a day/night cycle, and Kain's power shifts depending on
the time.  Similarly, there are weather conditions - things like Rain
& Snow can _hurt_.  Finally, some of the standard background can do
serious damage - water really hurts a vampire, and Kain finds himself
in a rather wet countryside.

An interesting point though - Kain is very well balanced.  Every item
you pick up has a use throughout the game.  With the exception of the
Iron Sword, you have good reason to use everything else you pick up,
nothing ever becomes outdated.  That is a VERY nice touch, and a very
subtle one -Kudos for some real thought on gameplay there.

Bad Stuff:The big problem Kain has is that it severely taxes the
playstation's limits.  In particular, 2d graphics suck memory real
bad, and the game consequently spends a _LOT_ of time loading.  This
is especially painful when you need to access your inventory [load]
change items [load] and go on.  There are 'hidden' loads when you
change form, and loads whenever you enter/leave a building.  A lot of
waiting I could do quite happily without.  To some extent SK has fixed
the problem with the use of the quick menus for spells, but they could
have stood to have a menu for weaponry also...

The game also encounters slowdown, my guess is that this is again
part of the Playstation's weakness with 2d.  Can anyone at Silicon
Knights give us an idea on the Saturn version's performance in this
respect?  I'd really like to know because I'm half tempted to get the
Saturn version if it doesn't have as much slowdown.

One problem can't be cured by the Saturn however - Kain's lousy Latin.
I can understand that there are people out there who consider the
vulgate almost permissible in public.  That I can deal with.  I can't
deal with mispronunciation of the 'ae' in "Vae Victus".  God it's
aggravating; St. Jerome must be spinning in his grave.  Guys, next
time you're going to include some Latin, get a hold of Harrap, or
Wheelock, or even the Collins Gem Dictionary - PLEASE?
(Smiley for the humor impaired :)).

Good Stuff:The plot is absolutely engrossing.  As time progresses, I
find myself more and more curious about the characters and their
motivations.  I'm desperately itching to know why, in particular,
Mortanius gives a damn - since he should be as crazy as everyone else.
Kain is a very well-developed world, and after dealing with all those
pap Typewriters & Dragons fantasy worlds conducted in way too many
lousy CRPGs, it's unbelievably thrilling to see a game where the
characters are well developed, well presented and the world is
consistent. 

Simply put, I can't recommend this game enough.  While there are
technical flaws, the game's plot is wonderful.  Buy it, enjoy it.  

  Michael Collins, mc7f@andrew.cmu.edu
			"Quotes Are For The Weak" - Omar Beckins