Legacy of Kain: Defiance

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.

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...

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.

I had to restart playing this game multiple times, because I gave up on it, and let me tell you, it very rarely happens with me. Here's why. First, let's go through the game's good points: it has decent graphics for it's time, the music is great, the voice acting is awesome (as usual), and it concludes the great story of the series. It's a very promising game, until you start playing with it. The whole experience is ruined by the wretched, godforsaken camera and controls. It's mindblowingly awful. It was decent enough in Soul Reaver 1 and 2, why the hell did they change it? It's a fixed camera now (like in Devil May Cry), and the controls are relative to the camera. Well, it can work, but not in this game. This game changes camera view every friggin' corner, and I have to adapt to it. A lot of times, I want to make a precise or timed jump, but I fail over and over and over again, because I can't see where I'm going. The camera usually shows our protagonists frontwise - it defies all gaming logic and common sense. Sometimes the camera (and the controls with it) changes during mid-jump. Try to make a precise jump now! A lot of times simple tasks like going through a door or jumping on a single platform prove to be frustratingly difficult. And yes, I know that it exists a trainer, which "fixes" the camera (even the GOG version includes it), but somehow, it make things worse, and glitches out the game. In fights, usually I can't see whom I'm attacking. Speaking of fights, they are monotonous, braindead button mashing. There are no reason to kill anybody (except when the game forces me to do, or I really need some souls absorbing), so I just run through everybody. And don't get me started on the glitches - I've fallen out from the map multiple times, got stuck in corners and obstacles all the time. If you really want to know what happens in the last of this great series, read it in Wikipedia, or watch a walktrough in Youtube. Don't torture yourself with this "game".

First off and foremost I have to say that this is the WORST possible way to end a series. It didn't get wrapped up. The story is left wide open. The action is the best out of the series. Agreed about the story being crammed into the last hour or two of the game. The soul reaver series is definitely all about great story telling.....but to just not finish nor wrap up the story after how many years is just not acceptable. I don't care what these posts from gog say.......THIS GAME DOES NOT END THE SERIES. Crystal Knights just decided to wrap up the tomb raider contract they had, then were bought out by Square-Enix......and we all know how bad Square-Enix is with story telling nowadays since getting rid of their best game director/writer. Unfortunately, Squaresoft will not finish the LOK:Soul Reaver series and it's painful. Worst way to end a series is to just pretend that it's been concluded.