Murdering Kain FMV - Blood Omen - Legacy of Kain: The Lost Worlds

Murdering Kain FMV

Blood Omen's introductory sequence was originally intended to be a single lengthy cinematic depicting the backstory for the game from the "there is a magical operation" monologue up until Kain's transformation into a vampire. The missing piece of that puzzle compared to the final retail version is the brief playable sequence with Kain as a human who is murdered outside a tavern.

The existence of an FMV version of this part of the introduction was publicly unknown until forum member Master L found an old ad for the game which included a screenshot of Kain with blond hair and white armour. When I visited Crystal Dynamics in 2002, Amy Hennig (series director from Soul Reaver to Defiance) was kind enough to explain its significance. The FMV version had not turned out as well as the Blood Omen team had hoped, and so rather than attempt to remake a new version from scratch, it was replaced by the playable sequence. At the time the FMV was made, it had not been decided that the human Kain would have black hair.

Later, Chris Bruno (also of Crystal Dynamics) and Tenaya (of Nosgothic Realm) were kind enough to provide additional screenshots of higher quality. Chris' was in the form of an ad for the game, and Tenaya sent three high-quality screenshots.

Further still imagery would go on to make an appearance in the unlockable bonus material for Defiance. However, the cinematic itself has never been released.

An early advertisement for Blood Omen

A blown-up screenshot from the ad

A much higher-quality version of the ad screenshot

Another image of the FMV

The final publicly-released screenshot of the FMV

One of the screenshots appears in the Defiance bonus material