Legacy of Kain: Defiance

I just started playing this game and it rocks. I have no issues with the controls and I am using a controller. I couldn't get my controller to work in some of the previous entries in the series but I was able to get it to work in this game. I absolutely love it. I'm having no issues with moving Kain around and attacking. I highly recommend this game and I'm sure you will have a similar experience as I. Can't wait to get further in this game and hack some people to pieces and drink their blood!

Legacy of Kain will hold dear to me as a series where while gameplay didn't age quite well, the story is quite well made and probably one of the best written fictional worlds. Why Square Enix decided to cancel Dark Prophecy is a damn shame to the series. With that said, this game is very good. The combat has had major improvement comparing to Soul Reaver (and ahem *blood omen 2*), which I always found the combat to be kind of... lackluster. Special combos are added, more than one different kind of weapon and best part of all, you get to play both Kain and Raziel! That's really awesome. The story is also great, I always loved the story in LoK series, and this is one of the few games that made me play from start to finish. When the game drives me to play every day, then I know it's a fun game. There is one issue with this game, which is the reason why I won't give it 5 stars, and why I think it will drive some people off: Camera. This has to be the worst camera in the game series, it's like developers played Devil May Cry and put really awkward and bad angles. What's so bad about the camera is that it usually switches your controls, which causes some platforming to be challenging, even though they aren't. I know some people actually quit this game because of this issue, but my advice is to persevere through this and you will eventually beat it. The game isn't terribly hard and checkpoints are frequent. Bosses are challenging, but not dark souls level hard. After playing through all Legacy of Kain series, I can safely say, this deserves the second place. The combat, the story, the ability to play both Kain and Raziel and satisfying ending are actually worth your time. Vae Victis!

Fair warning: The camera system and it's somewhat repetitive nature (going to forges and gaining powers, revisiting locations to unlock new parts , etc) are still present in this game. BUT , after skipping all that stuff (regaining of powers, recapping the story so far) , the game truly shines. The combat has been greatly improved, every motion is more fluid and faster than before, even controlling the blocks for solving puzzles or opening doors and passing through them has been speed up and it gives a great feeling when you see everything happening fast and fluid. The story told in this long series of games is one of the greater stories the gaming world has ever seen. Though the ending to this game answers many questions from previous games in the series, it still leaves many more to be answered and also creates some new ones. I do hope that we will see a new LoK game in the following years because this series has been one journey that should not be so shortly lived.

These are no doubt some of the worst controls I have ever seen in a game. I remember control schemes having a pretty high learning curve back in the old days, but this is ridiculous. Almost up there with Die By The Sword in how frustrating it is to control your character and manuever about the world. Which sucks because it's got a really interesting story and very engaging gameplay that is utterly ruined by the garbage controls. It's frustrating because you will want to play this game. You will want to love this game. But for some reason they decided to make it so difficult to enjoy it by kneecapping your ability to move or see anything.

a great classic, need a remaster for the perfection