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Legacy of Kain: Defiance Review

Aisling Canton

06/02/2004

Raziel and Kain return in the finest game yet from the popular series...

After the popular Blood Omen and its impressive, if slightly unfinished follow up Soul Reaver, the Legacy of Kain series had a bit of a slump with Soul Reaver 2, which was too similar too its predecessor, and the plainly disappointing Blood Omen 2. Defiance is in a position to either consign the series to the "had potential once" bin, or bring it back to the level where once it stood.

The game is back in the hands of the Soul Reaver production team, and they appear to have taken note of past mistakes and problems with the series, namely that the game is not too similar too previous games in the series and we finally get some resolution on the plot.

Structurally the game owes a lot more to Blood Omen 2 than I would have expected. You can save at any time now, respawning your character at the last waypoint they passed. A heavier emphasis on action and battles than on the sort of logic puzzles that appeared in Soul Reaver, and the splitting of the game world into distinct levels rather than one continues world.

The splitting of the levels is part of what is probably the most important change outside of the fantastic new combat system; the story is now tightly integrated with the gameplay. Rather than overlong exposition scenes spread out between hours of heavy unrelated puzzles and combat, the story is revealed through comments the characters make and short character interaction scenes as you progress through the game. These range from smartass grumblings from Kain as he performs a fetch quest to conversations between Raziel and Ariel as he tries to find out what on earth is going on. And we do actually start to find out, no more layers of mounting complexity, shortly into the game it starts a steady stream of revealing the history of the characters, the story they are taking part in and where they are going with it.

All this plot integration leads to the game having a much more controlled flow to the pace which is set by the splitting of the game into levels. It is also necessary due to the fact that you now control both Raziel and Kain, a level at a time. The characters play quite similarly, they have mostly the same moves and abilities, the difference comes from the way their levels are played. Kain plays a combat oriented fetch quest sort of game, while Raziel plays a far more puzzle based game, though still more action packed than before.

Of course Raziel retains his dimension shifting tricks, but gone are his high leap and if he dies in the material relm now he's just dead. No more shifting back to the spirit world, he's far more vulnerable this time around, especially with the increased number of creatures he and Kain have to fight at once. Or at least that's how it would be if the tired old combat system hadn't been given a serious revamp (sorry) and wasn't faster, more versatile and basically more fun than before.

It's needed too as you face more numerous, and tougher opponents than before, though I do miss the huge puzzle based boss fights from Soul Reaver, and I have to say it takes some time before the difficulty curve really starts to ramp up. Nevertheless, it remains fun, which is the more important thing, and by the time that starts wearing out it has become challenging, which makes up for it.

In addition to the new combo's which you learn as you fight enemies throughout the game, the characters can both telekinetically pull, push, hold and throw enemies as they fight which makes the combat more suited to fighting large hordes of assailants, which you do. As you strike opponents your sword becomes charged, eventually able to unleash a powerful Reaver spell, depending on what sort of Reaver you are using at the time this can vary from blinding your opponents to setting them alight.

The Soul Reaver sword is no longer optional as you can not pick up enemies dropped weapons as before, though the game thankfully no longer penalises you for using it. As before the Reaver can be charged with different elements which play a large part in Raziels puzzles, it's more a combat enhancer for Kain. Kain also has a secret weapon unlockable with a cheat code which makes me wonder who at Crystal Dynamics has been reading Penny Arcade recently.

The story is helped in no small part by the superb voice acting that these games have always enjoyed. The usual actors all return to their familiar roles, each bringing the characters superbly to life, Kains menace and power especially coming through. You believe what's happening, the world feels real and affected by the events in the story as much as the characters. At the end of the day the story is as much about the Land of Nosgoth as it is about Kain and Raziel.

It's worth noting that this is the first game in the series to truly look like it belongs on the Playstation 2, everything from the character models to the detailed and decorated backgrounds have been created with real attention to detail. The music too is up to its usual high standards, epic themes which help to set the scene and tone of the game. However it's not all roses, there are a few serious, though rare, glitches present, such as the ability to get stuck in the floor and in walls. On one occasion I managed to walk Raziel through a rock fall that should have blocked my path only to end up trapped in the room on the other side. Also newcomers may be completely left behind by the story which is so central to the gaming experience; a summary of the previous story like that available in Soul Reaver 2 would have helped enormously, and is conspicuous by its absence.