Legacy of Kain: Defiance

the only thing I can complain about is that the story is not finished.

Like with the previous two titles, get the Peixoto’s and Widescreen patches and enjoy! My god, what a rollercoaster these series have been… Even though this is my third time replaying it I was still hooked. The gameplay/combat and graphics in Defiance are without a doubt the best in the series. And you play alternately as both Kain and Raziel in their respective chapters. It is fun and you have cool combos and different reavers each with its own special powers. But the story is the crown achievement of the series as well as Oscars-worthy voice acting. It is extremely well written, so mature and complex with lots of attention to details and plot twists. The whole series is meant to be played as a whole, and if you play a single game without the context from the rest you will probably be confused at best, especially because it constantly reflects on certain moments from the previous titles and you can easily get lost because of the time travel and alternate timelines. This game concludes the series and it wraps up quite a lot of the unanswered questions. It also concludes Raziel's story with a bittersweet ending. However, it doesn’t give us the definitive ending of the series. There is still a lot of stuff Kain needs to do and finally right all the wrongs. And it was all going to roll out in the sixth game, which was canceled sadly, to the disappointment of us, the fans. Finally, after nearly 20 years we got an in-depth survey for the eventual continuation of the series! If anyone over at Crystal Dynamics or Embracer Group is reading this PLEASE give us the conclusion this incredible legacy deserves. You saw that multiplayer and reboot are not the way to go. We need to see “that coin land on its edge”! As for the newcomers, start with Blood Omen and enjoy this masterpiece as a whole. You shall not regret it! I honestly can’t compare Legacy of Kain to any other games, series, movies, or books. It is unique, it is the best… it is simply Legacy of Kain.

Unless you are super talented at coping with awkward and poor controls I strongly recommend you do not buy this game. I have played games that I got for nothing which played well. With this game you are likely paying to be greatly frustrated and disappointed. Wish I could give it zero stars!

This game was supposed to be a worthy successor to the two first Soul Reaver games. And maybe (at least storywise) it is. I will never know, because the game has the most annoying camera perspective I have ever experienced. Its two predecessors were made in third person perspective. Defiance on the other hand has some sort of bizarre old fashioned console faux-TPP camera scheme (think Silent Hill 2 inside buildings, only worse), suited better for adventure games set in pre-rendered locations. Unfortunately Defiance is not an adventure game - it's supposed to be an action game, where your character fights, explores and solves some environmental puzzles. Camera angles switch constantly, frequently obscuring the player's view. They switch mid-actions, mid-jumps and mid-fights. What's worse - not only angles are constantly switching, they are also very rigid - in a given location (between camera switches) you can observe your surrounding only through the previously established camera perspective - you can't change it. You can only move somewhere else and hope the view from the other location is less obstructed. Another problem with perspectives offered by the game's engine is that for an action game they are oddly diverse - through constant perspective switches you view your character from sides, from very close, from below, distantly from above, frequently from the front. The last one is particularly egregious - I don't understand how developers thought you could comfortably control your character jump (or fight) while looking directly at his face. If you can live with such camera scheme you can give the game a chance. I'm not recommending it. Try Soul Reaver 1 and 2 instead.

The series died after this game. The game finishes on a cliffhanger (like Soul Reaver 1 and 2, by the way) and you're really left curious as to what was going to happen next. Well, business happened. While any fan will praise the series for the story and especially the voice acting, the game proper is bland, there's no way around that. The puzzles can get really boring and combat's there just to slow you down. At least it's fluid enough. You're probably better off watching it as a "movie" off youtube.