Legacy of Kain: Defiance

I love the series, I love this game, but character control is the worst experience I ever had - first two games had over the shoulder camera, this one has it in a roughly predefined position in the room/area, and the controls are relative to the position of the camera. Not a problem? Well, imagine that the camera changes during your jump/flight, and suddenly the keys that you're holding are no longer steering you toward your intended goal. And so you miss, fall down, repeat, miss again... Or the camera is at such an angle that jumping in the correct direction is not possible, or the camera angle is so strange that you cannot determine the exact direction into which you need to jump. One wonders whose bright idea was it...

I played the original Blood Omen and loved it, though I missed out of the Soul Reaver games, so I was looking forward to getting back into that dark, gothic fantasy world. And while there seems to be a really solid fantasy adventure game in here, it's rendered almost unplayable due to the most insane camera system I think I've ever seen in a video game. It's cinematic rather than the more sensible third-person view most games of this type go for and it never stays still. It's constantly swooping, spinning, pulling back, lowering the ground and suddenly switching viewpoints on you. It loves to show your character from the side or, even worse, from the front so you can't see what's directly in front of you. You know, things like 90 degree turns, traps, enemies... At first this just makes navigating the environments a confusing chore, as each camera change also changes the context of the controls, so you can run into a room then immediately run back out as pushing forwards now means you go backwards but when you get to the tricky platforming bits it's just an exercise in frustration. Often you can't see where you're supposed to jump to, or you can't effectively judge the distance or height of the next platform. Sometimes the camera even switches mid-jump, again changing the controls and sending you plummeting to your death because you're now pushing the wrong direction on the controller. Even the simplest jumps can be matters of pure luck. There's a patch which is supposed to install a normal third-person camera but every copy I downloaded set off my anti-virus software, so that wasn't an option. A lot of people seem to have enjoyed Defiance and managed to play it ok, but I couldn't recommend it myself and I'm glad I only paid a couple of pounds for it in a sale.

The story is mostly complete at the end, with a few bad guys still around that probably would have been dealt with in the planned sixth game. That put aside, this was a great game for peole who like action, puzzles, story, character developent, music and awesome landscaped with thematic look. This game should be played after playing the other games in the series, blood omen, soul reaver, soul reaver 2 and blood omen 2. In that order. On top of story this series had great supporting music and some of the best voice acting I have ever seen in gaming history.

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.