Customer Reviews

EIDOS INTERACTIVE Legacy Of Kain: Defiance

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was hyped for this game, there's no denying that. I'm a big fan of the series so to hear that a fifth game was coming was like a dream come true, not least of all because of the prospect of being able to play as Kain and Raziel, alternating through levels. I'll touch on this issue first, as it's the first thing that I noticed about the game.

I have a perhaps odd fascination for Simon Templeman's voice, and thus for me playing as Kain seemed the obvious choice. You do not have an option of course, it's decided for you, but I was convinced I would much prefer playing as Kain than Raziel. For the first couple of levels, this was true. Kain seemed, overall, quicker and able to dispatch enemies much more efficiently. Once Raziel began to gain a few more advanced techniques, however, I was thinking the opposite. Kain became sluggish and awkward to play with, simply because Raziel is so much quicker and more fluid in combat.

Graphically, the game is superb. Everything is smoothly rendered and attention to detail is great. I actually must have spent about half an hour in total just looking at the murals and paintings that adorn the various areas within the game - in particular the gigantic portrait of Kain as a human noble man that you see within the vampire mausoleum. Each character looked excellent too. Kain improves from game to game, excluding Blood Omen 2. Moebius... I'm not too sure about. He is well rendered but looks a lot less sinister than he did in the Soul Reaver games. Raziel doesn't ever seem to change, aside from his hair.

The sound was great too. The voices were perfect, for the most part. I did have a one issue with them, however. The decision to recast Mortanius' voice irked me slightly (I heard this was done so that newcomers to the series wouldn't be confused as to who he was... Tony Jay, who voices the Elder God also, originally did his voice, so I can see how their might be a problem there, I suppose). He ended up sounding like Alan Rickman as Professor Snape. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but I preferred the booming voice he had in Blood Omen 1. Everyone else was spot on for voices, although Michael Bell (Raziel) did seem to waver about a bit with his accents. I am sure he sounded Irish at one point.

You get to meet an impressive array of Nosgoth's denizens in this chapter. Janos Audron, Vorador, Moebius, Mortanius, the Elder God and Ariel ("All you have is time"). Aside from the Elder God, I like see all of them. They all have great voices and usually provide some interesting plot development. One surprise appearance was Turel! I'll give you a bit of background info on him, just because I can - he was the only member of Kains brood that you didn't get to destroy in Soul Reaver 1. Every one of Raziels other brothers were laid to waste, and again in Soul Reaver 2, when you met and killed their human counterparts - but until now, you haven't had the chance to meet the mutated Turel. I actually remember seeing some concept art of him ages ago and wow... what an ugly bastard. He proved an interesting fight though, as did Janos Audron.

The bosses throughout the game varied, ranging from awesome to tiresome. Those which fell into the latter category were the spirits of the pillar guardians. Each one looked identical to the next, and therefore was indistinguishable. What confused me more was that you apparently absorb eight of the nine guardians (excluding Ariel), despite Moebius and Mortanius still being alive, unless I am mistaken and they were already dead in the time when Raziel visited the temples - regardless, I don't think it would make sense for him to absorb Moebius/Mortaniuss. Whatever the explanation, I disliked them. The temples were repetitive and predictable. Luckily, past Chapter 11, things got interesting.

Fighting Janos Audron was probably the most difficult part of the game. Of course, there is always a method to defeating enemies, and it just takes an attack or two to realize what that is. It just so happens that Janos had a more random method than the rest of the cast. Turel, on the other hand, was simple to defeat. The Elder God took two shots to kill - somewhat disappointing, considering he is supposed to be the hub of life and death and so forth. I forget what Raziel says exactly, but he makes a scathing remark about an eternity of damnation being having to listen to the Elder Gods voice. Too right! He never shuts up about being the purifying cycle, etc. ("There's some grim satisfaction in infuriating you.")

By far, the best part of the game for me was fighting Raziel and Kain.

"Your pawn has reached the end of the board, Kain. And now my powers may even surpass yours. How ironic if the creature that you made should prove your own undoing. Now, we finish this."

Yes, you heard me. Since you switch between characters, you are given the chance to fight yourself. In Avernus Cathedral, no less. Of the two of these fights, I think Raziel versus Kain was the easiest, which proves my earlier point about Raziel being the stronger in combat. When you play as Kain, Raziel cackles while fighting you, which amused me greatly. You also get a blast of Ozar Midrashim during the fight, which always fires me up - this only happened two or three times elsewhere in the game, I think. Outside Vorador's mansion was the first occasion, and I think I almost wet myself then. Kidding, of course.

The ending, to me, was a let down. It left Kain directionless. Where is he to go now that the Elder God is defeated? The pillars remain corrupted, Nosgoth is falling into decay, and I haven't got a clue what is going on with the Hylden - who I'm sure possessed Raziel while he was in Avernus - his eyes occasionally flashed greened, as the others who had been possessed did. I understand that he was both the vampire and hylden savior, and that he had a choice of which to be, but I am still confused about the story. I guess no one but the creators of the game will ever really know what is going on in the state of Nosgoth.

This game is really well designed- the combat system works well, the graphics (as always) are incredible, the story is intriguing, everything about it is great- except one thing, the camera.

The camera is fixed-position, which means that whereas in other Soul Reaver games you had a camera behind your character and 'move forward' would move you in whatever direction you were looking, this one has a fixed camera in every room. So not only can you not even see your character if he goes somewhere the camera can't see (read: half the room), it's nearly impossible to move him correctly given that 'move forward' won't move you in the direction the camera's looking but rather the direction the character is looking. This makes normal movement difficult and irritating and more tricky stuff, like jumping puzzles and walking narrow ledges, next to impossible.

It's a shame, really- this is a nearly perfect game, but some really really stupid decisions were made by the people designing the camera-work- which they probably thought was ground-breaking and amazing, because video game developers as a rule don't quite understand the concept of not fixing what ain't broken.

If you're thinking of buying this game, I'd suggest getting SR2 instead. While the graphics aren't as great and the combat / powerup system isn't as detailed and cool, it's a much more enjoyable game because it just works better.

I love the Legacy of Kain games. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Soul Reaver 2. This game, however, frustrates the heck out of me. I don't know why I'm still playing it. First off, I have to admit, I have not finished the game yet. I am only to the fourth chapter.

First and most annoying is the camera. It would be fine if it followed right behind you (I don't need to see Kain's face, he looks like a turtle...) or if you were able to move in yourself but instead it sticks itself at weird angles and moves around sporatically so you can never walk straight. There's a part in the game where you have to walk up a ramp and there are holes you have to jump over. It took me no less than 25 minutes to get past this seemingly easy place all because of the camera. My character actually died once (as fans know, the health of the character constantly decreases, something I am fine with except when you are forced to repeatedly do the same thing over and over...) while doing this. The camera makes the game practically unplayable.

The second thing is the repetativeness of the scenary. What I'm going on for this part is the Sarafan Stronghold. I constantly get confused on where I am because every room looks the same. I suppose it made it very easy for them to program. Just make a few rooms and then copy them when needed. The least they could have done is moved around the tapestries or something.

The third thing is just a technical problem for me that probably just has to do with my computer or something. In certain parts of the game everything starts going practically in slow-motion. It turns really jerky and slow. I have a very new computer so it can't be that. I've downloaded all the patches and still nothing works.

So overall this game has been a dissappointment to me. I'll probably keep playing it because I want to know what the story is (I have no complaints about that). Luckily I only spent $5 on this game so it's no huge loss. If you're intersted in getting into the Legacy of Kain games, I'd definetally recommend one of the earlier ones like Soul Reaver 2 instead.

2 1/2 Stars

I loved Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2, but after the slightly less than great Blood Omen 2 I was afraid Crystal Dynamics wouldn't deliver on Defiance. I was wrong. Amy Hennig has taken the helm once again and delivered a game worthy of eating up almost 20 hours of my life, and thank god for it. The opportunity to play as both Kain and Raziel is some of the most fun I have ever had. The graphics are astounding, in some places higher quality than most other games, but in some places a little less though nothing TOO bad. The character animations are incredible, from the walking to the combo moves. The camera can be frustrating at times, but as the old, cliche saying goes, "Trust your parents." Crystal Dynamics knew which camera angle was best for each situation (in most places) and therefore you can play the game, for the most part, without moving the camera.

What separates this game from most other Windows games? It's complete. I experienced no crashes while playing, and though there is an unsupported patch, you don't need it to keep playing. There was some solid effort put into this game. The gameplay is smooth, the graphics are incredible, it's bugless, there's bonus material, the story is complex and wonderful, and the voice acting is something you'd expect out of Lord of the Rings and not a video game. What does all this mean? It means you'd be dumb to NOT buy this game.

_Legacy of Kain: Defiance_ was a step into new genres for me. First, this is the first fantasy-themed game I've played since _Thief_. Second, it is the only hand-to-hand combat game I've played since _Enter the Matrix_ (which has some great fights, no matter what other flaws it might have). I have to say that both of these switches worked for me. The sword & sorcery setting is done nicely, with plenty convincing magic and powerful combat moves. The enemies are varied and visually impressive, though aren't all that smart, making them pretty easy to defeat in droves. The look of the landscapes and graphics in general are good, if a bit dated. The storyline is exciting, with plenty of drama and some nice twists at the end--maybe one of the better plots I've seen in a game in any genre. And the switching between characters dynamic makes for interesting, dynamic play.

I only have a few complaints about the game, and though they're relatively minor, they are pretty annoying. The first (and biggest) problem is the camera: you have no control over it. Mostly, this isn't a big deal, since the camera moves in interesting ways to give cinematic-feeling views of the landscape. But when it's a problem, it's really a problem. Sometimes the camera will move behind a pillar or something, so you can't see the battle you're trying to fight. Or the camera will just be at the wrong angle, making it tough to jump from one platform to the next, especially if you're like my and trying to navigate using only the keyboard. Depending on the camera angle, pressing "A" to move left may actually move you at some angle between left and up or left and down. Minor problems crop up with the camera angle throughout the game, but none are so bad as to keep you from finishing a level. The good part is that the camera will move into different places in replays of a given situation, so you're rarely stuck to a single angle.

The other thing that annoyed me about this game was its timed puzzles. Now I'm new to platform jumpers (though I used to play _Donkey Kong_ on Colecovision), so it might be a common feature of this kind of game, but I was frequently frustrated by the close timing of some of the puzzles. One, for instance, barely gives you enough time to complete it even once you've figured out what moves you need to do, meaning that you'll fail many times as you figure out where you're supposed to jump next. Add to that a dependence on the camera angle being just right and you'll end up repeating many of the puzzles 20, 30 or more times until it all falls together perfectly.

These flaws shouldn't keep you from playing _Legacy of Kain:Defiance_ if you're at all interested. The problems are localized to certain parts of the game, while there are plenty of exciting, satisfying moments in between.