This is truly a game of its era: top-down RPG action, over-the-top depictions of anti-puritanical themes (thanks, Doom), full-motion cinematics, multi-colored lighting effects, excessive UI animation frames and "CD Quality" voice samples...Legacy of Kain really takes you back to gaming in 1996. Another big thing we shouldn't forget about gaming in the mid 90s is the experience of modern gaming in its infancy. I'm talking about finding holes in quality-of-life features. I'll get straight to the point: the first spell you acquire in this game, "Sanctuary," meant well as a means to escape hot situations in any dungeon and recover your health by teleporting you back to your home base. However, some dungeons were designed to block off sections of the level as you progress through it without being able to reset it. If you use Sanctuary in the middle of the dungeon, chances are you will get soft-locked out of progressing further when you make it back to the dungeon you just escaped from. Fortunately, the game can be enjoyed without using the spell at all (you will just have to grind your way back to health), so just remember to not use it and you'll be fine. Despite this design flaw, I still highly recommend buying this game. It is the beginning of a great series and was not previously available for purchase for quite some time (on Steam). It's like watching the Mad Max movies...you likely started watching the series with "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" but things are so much cooler if you go back and watch "Mad Max".
Get lost in the old era of Japanese PC gaming....perhaps quite literally! As long as you understand that you're playing a game from 2005, when certain QoL features for games like these did not exist yet, and that you are okay with that, this game is worth playing. I will warn you, however, that if you try jumping back into the game after not playing it for a few years (like I just did), you might have to live with the fact that you won't remember where you left off and what you should do next. The game does not mark off or close off areas that you completed, nor does it have a character level to indicate how far you've progressed in the game. Perhaps with the equipment I have in my inventory, I can look up in an online walkthrough where I am. While this setback might not sit well with some players, I would still recommend this game.
