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.
First, get the Peixoto's and Widescreen patches and you're golden. No bugs/crashes whatsoever. Blood Omen 2 is a hit-or-miss title, but regardless of its stature with fans I myself enjoyed it. It was developed by a B team at Crystal Dynamics and it was their first game ever. Let that sink in... With that in mind, I think they did a great job. They sought to create a game that was more action focused and they deducted exploration and puzzles from the previous entries. Gameplay and combat are enjoyable and I really liked the stealth mechanics together with Kain's powers at your disposal. It gets repetitive after a while, but I can't say I was bored. Graphics are aged sure, but they are still pretty fine, well except for some awkward animations and face models for civilians. The general atmosphere of the game is awesome and it really fits the game, as well as the soundtrack. Now for the story... I can see why fans don't like this game so much. It's because it feels like a spinoff of the series. And as it stands it kinda is. But! The story of the game was meant to introduce some very important plot points and to foreshadow the events that would happen in a sixth game that sadly never was released. There were some things that were left unexplained like how and why Vorador get resurrected and what were Seer's agenda and part in the series... I am sure that if the sixth game was released this game would be seen as a completely different picture. The dialogues and the story itself are not bad per sē, rather they are subpar in comparison to other titles, which is understandable in my opinion, especially because the A team was developing Soul Reaver 2 at the moment. Except for Kain of course. Kain as a character was done excellently and the voice acting of Simon Templeman is as good as always. In summary, I liked the game pretty much and I'm probably biased here because this is one of my favorite game series. Off to end my playthrough of the series in Defiance. Cheers!
First things first, be sure to install Peixoto's and the Widescreen patches and you'll be fine. Also, there is a troubleshooting guide over at PC Gaming Wiki if you still have some issues. That being said, Soul Reaver 2 is probably my favorite in the Legacy of Kain series. The story and the plot twists and the revelations... my God this is the pinnacle of storytelling! And the way that they incorporated plot points from Blood Omen is phenomenal! The game is linear, however, the story is densely packed in the game. Unlike the first Soul Reaver, every 10 minutes or so, you'll get to a story point and something new happens as the mystery unravels. This is probably the reason why I love it so much. The gameplay and the combat are a bit dated, but remember, this game came out 22 years ago. Even still playing it doesn't feel like a chore. The graphics are excellent for a game this old and the music and the atmosphere are well done, though nothing beats Ozar Midrashim. If anything, this game deserves to be played for the story alone! Well, off to continue my journey through Nosgoth in Blood Omen 2. Cheers!
I'll be perfectly honest. I played this game for the first time in 2009, I think, and even then it felt really old and I didn't like it. At first, it was a chore and I only played it for the story and to see firsthand the "birth" of Kain. After an hour or so you get used to it and it somehow grows on you. Now after a while I wanted to replay the whole series again, after that survey by Crystal Dynamics came up 2 months ago. This time I was prepared and the game felt really different. I didn't have that same feeling of dated graphics and gameplay mechanics. This game is a masterpiece in storytelling and the narrative and dialogues are one of the best I've ever seen (or read) in any medium with the excellent performance by Simon Templeman and Tony Jay (RIP). So mature and with lots of plot twists it can easily fit into a class-A novel. The character progression is excellently done and you can experience what motivated Kain to evolve into Kain we know from later games in the series. As for the gameplay mechanics, even though dated by today's standards, they were nearly groundbreaking in the early PS1 era. So many spells are at your disposal and different armor/weapon combos to face off against different types of enemies. I'm glad I've replayed this game and hope it will get a remaster (no need for a remake or reboot). Be sure to download Verok's patch as it fixes a lot of stuff like long loading screens, better cinematics, HQ sounds and music, added subtitles, to name a few. Off to continue my journey through Nosgoth in Soul Reaver. Cheers!
It is safe to say that by now you've at least heard of Dragon Age games, and if you are an RPG fan then you've played them at least once. If that is not the case, you should honestly play it immediately! I don't know how many times it was said, but yeah Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best RPGs ever made PERIOD! Personally, it's one of my top 3 favorite games ever, the other ones being The Witcher and Mass Effect. So about a game, you create your own character with one of the 6 completely different origin stories (hence the name Origins), and you are soon recruited into an elite order of the Grey Wardens destined to fight the Darkspawn and try your best to stop the fifth Blight (end of the world basically). I won't talk about the story anymore, but there are a lot of choices to be made and almost every choice has a deep impact on the story and first-time players should experience it without a single spoiler as it is seriously freaking amazing! Graphics are not bad at all, sure comparing to other modern games it fails, but in my opinion, it's more than good enough. The music and atmosphere are amazing and really complement the game. And the gameplay, though easy to learn and hard to master, it is very satisfying. It is somewhat similar to Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights and yet completely different. The only thing the game lacks is the voice for the main character, but it's not that big of a deal. The GOG release is the best release as it is completely DRM free and yes, it contains every single content released for this game, and you should play every DLC, especially if you plan on importing your save into Dragon Age II. Be sure to patch the game with a 4GB patch (ntcore.com/?page_id=371) and head over to NexusMods and basically download almost everything with "fix" in it, Qwinn's Ultimate Fixpack is mandatory. After that, you'll be fine. So in the end, I honestly can't recommend DA:O enough! Just buy this game and enjoy it in all its glory. Cheers!
This game is all about combat. It doesn't have a complex story and important choices (though there are some that change the game in a way) as seen in Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment, however, the story of Icewind Dale 2 is far from bad, rather it's linear. That being said, the game is awesome! Much like the first Icewind Dale you get to create 6 characters and start off your journey as a band of mercenaries hired to defend the town of Targos, only to realize there is far more to it than a simple Goblin attack. Not to spoil anything, the story is honestly good, and what amazed me the most is that it was written in 2 days only, because of the horrible crunch time, as was said by Josh Sawyer, Lead Designer. So hats of to the Black Isle team for making this game this good in under a year! As opposed to the other Infinity Engine games, this one is the only game that has Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Ruleset, which in my opinion is way better due to different mechanics and new spells. Not to mention the Drow as a playable race. I would say that Icewind Dale 2 has the most beautiful art out of all Infinity Engine games, except Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear which was released in 2016 by Beamdog. As for Beamdog, I'm sorry to hear that the source code for IWD2 is lost and we'll probably never get to have it enhanced like other games. However, there are a couple of mods you can install to enhance it yourself per se. These are Almateria's IWD2 Fixpack (game fixes and restored content), Widescreen mod, GUI Fix, and maybe Bigger Fonts mod (for resolutions above 1080p). After that, I honestly never had any problems playing this game, and I'm playing on a modern PC with the latest Windows 10 Pro x64 build (2004 at the time of writing this review). So, in the end, I'd definitely recommend IWD2 to any D&D and old school RPG lover, but I'd recommend you play Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition first cause of all the references about it in the second game. Cheers!
