The Legacy of Kain series has been known for many aspects over the past few years. While the voice acting has always been top notch and gameplay has always been innovative, most of the games in the series have been notoriously unbalanced and, in some cases, buggy as well. For the most part though, Legacy of Kain: Defiance takes everything that was good about the previous games and dumps the rest, leaving behind a solid and entertaining title for PlayStation2, Xbox, and Windows PCs.
This time around, the gameplay is an evolution of what was seen in the Soul Reaver games. There is a good mix of exploration, fights, and puzzles, which is more balanced than previous games in the series. Players will get to play as both Kain and Raziel, each following a separate path until they meet near the end of the game.
While the core of the combat system is from Soul Reaver 2, it has been vastly upgraded and improved. Both Kain and Raziel share the same basic attacks and combos, but they each have their own special attacks. Unfortunately, the control for these special combos is extremely difficult—one can play through the entire game and not be able to successfully execute a specific maneuver once.
The game has its share of puzzles too, some of which are clever, and some of which have already been done. Long time fans will be thrilled to hear that this game is 100 percent free of box puzzles, a problem that had plagued the series since it made the transition to 3-D.
Defiance originally began development as Soul Reaver 3, but it quickly grew to encompass the entire series. It decisively concludes the story begun in Soul Reaver 1 and 2, but it ties up many loose ends from the Blood Omen games as well and brings everything together into a complete package, which is full of twists and turns.
The story is also enhanced by the alternating views from Kain and Raziel as the game progresses. While the plot is complex, newcomers can still enjoy the story, although playing the previous games first will bring a greater appreciation for the complexities of the story.
What really brings the story alive is the voice acting for which the series is so well known. Simon Templeman and Michael Bell return to reprise their respective roles of Kain and Raziel. Templeman and Bell bring a sense of life to these characters that is rarely seen in a video game. They are backed up by a full supporting cast, most of whom are also returning. Simply put, the acting in Defiance is as good as it gets, in any medium.
The soundtrack in Defiance is fairly good, but it isn’t anything special compared to the voice-overs. A good portion of the score consists of reprisals of themes from earlier in the series. There is some new stuff in there is well, though none of it is really all that memorable.
The sounds, which are mostly standard fare, add a nice ambience to the game. Particularly noticeable are the effects in Raziel’s spectral realm. The voices of the damned create an atmosphere of what almost could be the realm of the dead. The only downside is that there are too few voices; they can quickly get repetitive and irritating.
The graphics, however, are far from irritating. The game looks quite good; it’s on par with the better looking games available today and fairly polished, complete with a varied assortment of large and small areas to explore. The game is not without its flaws in this department though.
There are times when there can be some clipping issues, and the camera is downright glitchy. Most of the time you can finagle Kain or Raziel just the right way to get the camera to reset itself, but this isn’t always the case, and the result can sometimes make the game completely unplayable until the game is reset.
Despite the minor problems, Legacy of Kain: Defiance is a successor worthy of its title. Fans of the series owe it to themselves to pick this game up. For those who haven’t tried out the series, Defiance is still worth a look, but it doesn’t hurt to try out the previous games first.
