Legacy of Kain: Defiance

aka: LoK: Defiance
Moby ID: 11488
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Following the events of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2, Raziel and Kain were trapped in the Serafan fortress. Separated by sudden events, Raziel was forced to retreat into the spectral realm, leaving Kain to escape from the Serafan on his own. Both must escape the predicament they find themselves in and fight back against those who would seek to use them as manipulations in a grander plot. From both heroes cry out shouts of defiance, and a thirst to find the revelations that have been buried in the world of Nosgoth.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance is a third-person action game with light puzzle-solving elements, combining concepts seen in both Blood Omen 2 and Soul Reaver 2. The story unfolds through chapters, focusing alternately on Kain and Raziel as they pursue their separate, though intertwined quests. Control of each character alternates between levels, however both are controlled from a behind-the-shoulder perspective. While both heroes are different, they are similar in movement, ability to attack, defend, jump and access special abilities.

Kain and Raziel no longer pick up weapons, instead both using a form of the Soul Reaver weapon (Kain uses the physical sword form, Raziel uses an energy blade). Each Soul Reaver can now be "charged" to unleash a special ability, determined by the current alignment of Soul Reaver at the time. Both Kain and Raziel lose energy at a constant rate and must feed to replenish life energy (Kain feeds on the blood of living creatures, Raziel feeds on the souls of living and non-living creatures). And both Kain and Raziel feature telekinetic abilities to manipulate objects at a distance.

The two are, however, different characters that play differently, each requiring use of his talents, to bypass obstacles (sometimes the same obstacle). Kain focuses on strong combat and destructive abilities. He is able to power up the Soul Reaver weapon using properties of the Pillars of Nosgoth. Raziel is more subtle, able to use stealth and the phasing between material and spectral worlds in order to discover new paths. As in Soul Reaver, Raziel can phase into the spectral world at any time but must find a special location in order to phase back. Raziel powers up the Soul Reaver using elemental powers.

Spellings

  • Наследие Каина. Defiance - Russian spelling
  • 凯恩的遗产:挑战 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

190 People (155 developers, 35 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 76% (based on 52 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 58 ratings with 5 reviews)

If not for the pesky camera and repetition, this could have been one of the best games ever.

The Good
The Legacy of Kain series is somewhat alien to me. I've only briefly played the original Blood Omen and only played Soul Reaver about halfway through before the computer that I was using had crashed or some other mishap that prevented me from finishing it. But after finishing Defiance, I have a strong urge to find and play through every game in the series.

First of all, the graphics are top-notch. They don't go overboard in pushing the envelope, but utilize all the tricks that are becoming a standard now. Facial expressions, accurate and believable lip-syncing, blur effects, fluid animation, and so on and so forth. The result is a near flawless game, graphically. From the very beginning to the very end you will be immersed in the textures, colors and architecture of the world around you, even if it does get very repetetive as you go on (more on that in a minute). Characters couldn't look more believable, and the cutscenes are a real treat to watch. The lip syncing and facial expressions really make you wonder if you're watching a CG cinematic or an in-game cutscene.

The storyline is...well, confusing, really. At least for me, one who barely knows anything about the series. It is obvious that fans of the Legacy of Kain series will get the most from this game, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially towards the end. This game has a very unique element to it, in that throughout the game you play as two different characters, Kain and Razael, both searching in their own when and where for the same goal, and as the story progresses, you really feel the epic climax building up when the two characters' timelines intersect, and when it does, oh boy was that ever a moment in gaming I'll remember for some time.

Fighting is also a lot of fun, though I much more enjoyed fighting in the material plane rather than Razael's spirit-world. Something is just more satisfying about impaling a human archer on a torch and watching him burst into flames than smacking some weird booger-monster into oblivion. Though that certain has its own appeal. I found that I never got bored of the fighting, despite its repetition. Battles could always be fought in a different manner, using the different styles of fighting available. You could just go in, sword-slingin' and cut'em up, or you could use telekenesis to fling'em off a cliff, or impale them on a torch (heh heh), or use one of your six-or-seven special elemental attacks to do all kinds of extra damage. Not to mention the other abilities you get as you gain combat experience, which, while tricky to perform at times, are great to do. Fighting was a blast, throughout the entire game.

The puzzles are also great. Those of you who have played the Soul Reaver games will be pleased to know the same original materal plane/spirit world unique puzzles are there for Razael to explot, though I was disappointed to find they weren't used quite as much as in previous games. As for Kain, his puzzles are standard "knock over this thing so you can climb up here to get the key" type puzzles, which can be good, I suppose, if you don't like difficult puzzles. Normally, I really don't like puzzles that leave me stumped, but I felt these were just a little too easy.

Voice overs are absolutely wonderful, combined with the graphics, facial expressions, lip-syncing and amazing storyline, again, it makes you question the idea that you're playing a game or playing a movie. A real fricken good movie. The way the storyline developes as you play through the game as two characters is...just amazing. I wouldn't think that sort of tactic would really work -- playing as two characters, one at a time, I mean. I would think it would get annoying, but it's not at all, as for the story to unfold properly it needs this system, and it's just a real treat. I found I didn't favor one character over the other, and fell in love with both throughout the game.

The Bad
When I see some of the ratings for this game, I just want to scream "UNDER RATED MASTERPIECE!" but then I control myself and take a look at perhaps why this game is not rated as high as it should be. It all becomes quite obvious.

First, the camera. Now we're really yet to see a camera that is completely friendly to the player, but they really could have done better with this game. The camera never really "follows" the player, but appears to ride on an invisible rail, switching from time to time to fixed locations. You cannot control the camera (except enter first-person mode just to look around) and it never follows you over the shoulder. Instead, it always points at you, but from fixed locations. Sometimes it remains static, other times it moves around. I really appreciate the cinematic element this creates for the player, but it just doesn't work in some places. I recall at least two locations that the player MUST be able to reach, that is completely oblivious to the camera. You would have to enter first-person view to see it, or happen upon them by chance. There may have been other such locations, but I can only remember two. Because of this, you may find yourself wandering around the same four rooms for a half hour before you discover where you're supposed to go. Also, throughout the game, the camera will switch to another camera view as you're moving, say, into another room. Because of this change in view, you might find that where just a moment ago you were pressing the "right" key to move to the right, you character is now facing left. The game compensates for this by keeping your character moving as long as you hold down the button, but this can be very disorienting and more than once I found myself caught in a enter-the-room-leave-the-room loop because of the camera switching.

The other thing that hurts the game is the repetition of the levels, especially when playing as Razael. As the game progresses, Razael must acquire new elemental Reaver abilities, and to get these, he must travel into ancient Vampire guardian tomb places. I think there are six and all, and they all look exactly the same. And not only that, they're a real pain in the ass to get around in. This, unfortunately, is where you'll probably spend most of your time as Razael, because the puzzles, while not difficult, can take some time to get through, and when you have to do these damned things one after the other after the other after the other...it's aggrivating. VERY aggrivating.

Also: Vorridor's Mansion is a pain in the ass level :P

The Bottom Line
If not for the camera annoyances and those Vampire elemental Reaver places, this game, I think, would be rated as one of the best games ever. But despite those two faults (there are others to be sure, but I consider them minor) the game is an amazing experience with a fantastic storyline and graphics that immerse you in the Legacy of Kain universe. If you're a fan of the series, this addition will make you cream your pants. If you've never played any of the others, I'd suggest you play them before this as it can prove to be somewhat confusing, but I for one enjoyed this game more than I've enjoyed most games I played in 2003.

Windows · by kbmb (415) · 2004

How to ruin a game in two steps…

The Good
Note: This review is based in only a three-hour game experience (since overall I dislike the game I am not willing to continue playing).

1) The game appear to have a good story, at least at the start and everyone slightly or deeply liking vampires themes will find enough good points and will be not disappointed.

2) The cinematic, music, speech, graphics and so-on are all well worked and stand on today gaming industry standards.

The Bad
Here we go with those two-steps...

1) The worst gameplay experience that I have seen for a couple of years in a 3D game. As many players already wrote in other reviews... Introducing a static-point camera playing system for games like Alone in the Dark that are slow-paced games is ok but not for this one. Even in this case the cameras are so bad implemented that many times you have absolutely no idea about where you are going through or from where you are taking hits. That is annoying.

2) No quicksaves and no custom save points, therefore you will pay your mistakes by replaying the game from the last autosave that in my short experience it means a couple of times replaying about 5 mins each. Too much for modern games, annoying again.

The Bottom Line
Twice annoying means unplayable if I do my math but maybe you want to try it. Good luck.

Windows · by Cabeza2000 (689) · 2004

I wonder if you can SUE a developer for creating a game that gave you migraines?

The Good
Here's another GREAT case of creating a well-known love-able series into a pile of decomposing garbage. I think each game in the series had no doubt got worse. Legacy of Kain: Defiance has to my personal opinion, struck the final killing blow.

This this game didn't kill the series, if you've played the game and the series from the first Legacy of Kain, you might probably agree, it should of.

FYI, I couldn't finish the game because of major migraine problems.

The Bad
Well, the first thing you notice about the game is that they didn't bother to give you a walkthrough on the controls the first time you start playing. Next thing you know, you've got some guards attacking you and you've just figured out how to move but not how to attack.

I really don't think this game was meant for Windows. The playstation version might have been better suited for this game as this is a standard no-brain-er action game where most of the time all you do is run, jump, run, jump.

Have you every watched the movie Bourne Supremacy? That spy film starring Matt Damon. If you do, you'll probably remember how devastating the movie was to your eyes because the stupid director had this urge to tell the cameraman to move the camera in every direction possible instead of the actual part you want to see. The same problem exists in Defiance. When you move, the camera view point gets totally in the way. You can't see what's in front of you most of the time and in crucial areas which require you to act fast with jumping (or die), the camera also moves in the worst time possible...so often when you "thought" you were moving forward, the camera moves and your forward becomes side-ways. This is extremely frustrating when your about to jump from a ledge. Instead of jumping away from that oversided canyon, the camera view tends to make you jump INTO that dang canyon.

First the developers, should be shot. Then the game testers should be shot. Hell, everyone in the dang game should be shot. Except the voice-overs.

I don't know about you, but all that moving around with the camera going in every direction except where you want it to go, eventually developed to some some serious forms of migraines and vomiting tendencies. Each time the camera twirled, my head started spinning with it. I eventually gave up because my health couldn't keep up with my gaming stubbornness.

The Bottom Line
Even if your a fan of Kain series, I must warn you beforehand not try this game. It seriously isn't worth it...but if you insist, don't say I didn't warn you. My migraines haven't gone away...

Windows · by Indra was here (20756) · 2006

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
A new title?!?!?!?!?! Donatello (466) Aug 23, 2012

Trivia

References

  • There is a cheat code that replaces Kain's weapon with a cardboard tube, with Kain uttering "Fear the Tube". This is a reference to the popular web comic Penny Arcade and its "Cardboard Tube Samurai" character.
  • In one of the larger rooms in Vorador's Mansion, you can see a large painting. It is a portrait of a woman's face. However, the interesting thing is that she may be a reference to Umah, the female vampire from Blood Omen. If you look closely at her forehead and the sides of her face, you can make out tattoos similar to Umah's. In fact, one event that was removed from the game was the appearance of a pre-vampiric Umah.

Turel

The boss monster Turel, who Raziel encounters later in the game, was cut from the very first Soul Reaver. Although Turel was mentioned in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver as one of Kain's vampire clan leaders and his disciples could be found in the game, he himself was missing without any plot-related explanation. Furthermore, a strategy exploiting Turel's weakness is needed to defeat him in Defiance, similar to the bosses in Soul Reaver.

Information also contributed by Mark Ennis and Terok Nor

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Slug Camargo.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, Shoddyan, Qlberts, Kit Simmons, Klaster_1, Patrick Bregger.

Game added December 30, 2003. Last modified March 17, 2024.