PlayStation 2 Review
Legacy of Kain: Defiance

Back in the day, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain hit the Playstation. The game's excellent gameplay, gripping story, awesome voice acting and dark, gothic nature was enough to hook many gamers to the end. Years past, and Kain's story was succeeded by the next chronicle in the Legacy of Kain franchise: Soul Reaver was born. This time, however, it was not Kain who's story was unfurling; it was Raziel's, the first of Kain's six lieutenants, or ''sons''. Later on, Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2 came. While both were admittedly lackluster in the gameplay area, they laid down the building blocks for the story of the latest installment: Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

Defiance takes what the other games had and makes it better. While some factors negate the overall value of the game, die-hard and more casual Kain fans will almost undoubtedly find the game rather enjoyable. Myself? It's one of my favorite games on my Playstation 2, and perhaps one of the best I've ever played.

Story: The story of the Legacy of Kain franchise is large, twisted, layered and double layered with betrayal, death, and sorrow. Without revealing any big spoilers, I'll cover the past Kain games in a few paragraphs:

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain covers Kain's arrival into the world of Nosgoth, and his birth as a vampire and rise into power. At the end of the game, Kain is presented with a choice to kill himself and restore the world, or refuse the sacrifice and rule the world of Nosgoth, doomed to desolation.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver starts off approximately 1,500 years or so after Blood Omen's end. Kain chose to spare himself, and the world was damned to ruin. He became ruler of the world, trimmed out the human population, and raised his 6 Vampiric ''sons'' to rule the world with him. Raziel, first born of his lieutenants and strongest of them all, was Kain's right hand man, and stood with him at the dawn of the empire. As time went on, the Vampires evolved into higher states of being in periods of accelerated metamorphosis; however, when Raziel showed Kain his most recent evolution, a pair of bat-like wings, Kain reacted in a show of seemingly egotistical sadism by ripping Raziel's newly torn wings from his back, leaving only the tattered flesh to remain. He had Turel and Dumah, second- and third-born Vampiric sons, throw the 1,000 year old Raziel into the Lake of the Dead, to burn forever, suffering the fate of traitors and weaklings. Raziel tumbled into the abyss, and the water (acidic to Vampires) scorched his flesh. Raziel awoke at the bottom of the Abyss some several centuries later, finding himself in his own dissolved body, and as a devourer of souls. A mysterious entity known as the Elder had resurrected him, and sent him unto the world to take his vengeance on Kain, and his brothers. At the end of the game, all brothers (aside from Turel) were massacred at Raziel's hands, and Raziel chased Kain into a time-streaming portal.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2: Soul Reaver 2 follows Raziel back in time in his pursuit of Kain. The most complex game in the series, Soul Reaver 2 lays out a plot of indescribable twists and turns. By the end of the game, Raziel has discovered things about his past and future, allies are now foes, and enemies are now allies, Raziel is confused about his own identity, and Kain may not be who he seems.

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2's story only makes sense after playing Defiance (Kain fans rejoice!). Basically, after the events of Blood Omen but before Soul Reaver, Kain made an army of Vampires to defeat the Sarafan and rule the world, but Kain was struck down by the Sarafan Lord, an enemy of terrible power. Kain awakens 500 years after the battle to find himself in the world of Nosgoth, now ruled by the Sarafan, and must defeat them in order to reclaim his ownership of the land.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance, now, picks up where Soul Reaver 2 left off. The game starts out with Kain returning to the Sarafan Stronghold (don't ask me why he left, after Soul Reaver 2's ending) as he searches for Moebius. Raziel starts out in the Spectral Realm, held prisoner by the Elder God, who refuses to let him leave (though the Elder needs to plan a little better, seeing as how Raziel inevitably escapes). Raziel is searching for the key to his destiny, while Kain searches for Raziel, believing the soul-devouring wraith is the key to his own. Unfortunately, to say any more would be ruining the crucial plot elements of the game. But I can safely say, for fans of the franchise, that nearly all of the questions Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2 left you with will be answered, and a few new ones will arise (though with nothing like the crushing force of the cliff hangers left on either Soul Reaver game). I can also assure you that the story is dynamic, getting better and better and finally culminating in a spectacular ending which offers excellent closure while still keeping the path open for another game (and partially explaining Blood Omen 2's disjointed story as well) .

Gameplay: The Legacy of Kain games are usually mixed in terms of gameplay. Blood Omen brought in a new type of style, placing you into the shoes of a ruthless, intelligent, diabolical Vampire. You drained your enemies of their blood to keep your health intact. The next game in the series, Soul Reaver, put you into Raziel's place, which allowed you to shift between the Spectral and Material Realms, each realm holding its own possibilities for gameplay advancement and such, and the game also held true to the predatory sense of draining a victim of their life force to sustain your own, although in Soul Reaver you devour the souls of your enemies, not their blood.

Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2 were both rather lackluster in terms of gameplay. Soul Reaver 2's story was immense, but it seems Crystal Dynamics had to sacrifice gameplay for graphics, story and sound.

Now all of that has changed. Without sacrificing even one of the monumental aspects of the Legacy of Kain atmosphere, especially the story for all of you die-hard fans who are worried about it, the heads at Crystal Dynamics came together to create a brilliant experience in gameplay. Now you play as both Raziel and Kain in alternating chapters. When you start the game, you play as Kain, and the next chapter you'll play as Raziel, and so on and so forth. The good thing about this is, you'll never get sick of either character. The pacing is brilliant. When you complete a level with Raziel, you'll never find yourself going, ''Oh dang, I wanted a little more time with him,'' because you'll also want to know what happens to Kain.

Perhaps the biggest change of Defiance is the combat. Defiance makes up where the other games may have failed, stepping up to the plate and offering a unique (and insanely fun) fighting system. It's not as deep and complicated as Devil May Cry's combat system, which is probably the closest comparison, but it is nearly as large. The game starts you out with a few simplistic moves: a 3-hit combo with Square and the ability to lift enemies into the air with a slash, as well as follow them up and execute an aerial downslash or another 3-hit combo. This alone is open. The 3-hit combo can be cancelled at any time in favor of another attack. For instance, you could pull of the first two slashes, then lift the enemy into the air, and turn around to face the next enemy. Or you could follow the enemy up and take a slash or two then downslash and slam him into the ground. Or could you could stay up and throw him away with telekinetics, then toy with a few of the enemies on the ground using your mental abilities as well (more on telekinetics in a bit).

Then the game opens up with more moves. The more you fight, the more moves open up. There are a total of 5 unlockable attacks, each one of them changing the fighting in their own way, and each one being exceptionally useful. And each one of these special moves can also be used whenever you want them to be. One of the most entertaining new moves you acquire allows you to, after lifting the enemy into the air and following them up, hurl them into the ground from your aerial vantage point with such force that they bounce right back up to you. From here, you can do it again. And again. And again. Or use any other move at your disposal. The limitations are only presented by your imagination. The combo system is enormous in that there are literally hundreds of different combos you can pull off, but simple in that it's all done with no more than a dozen basic maneuvers. It's genius, I say.

Now, what of these nifty telekinetics you've been told about? They're also a part of combat, indeed, and very useful and powerful. At first, only Kain has the ability to lift enemies and throw them wherever he wishes. By pressing the analog stick toward the desired enemy and holding the Circle button, Kain will hold the victim in a paralyzing telekinetic grasp. By pressing any direction on the analog stick and releasing Circle, Kain will fling the enemy in that direction. This allows for many possibilities. You can pick an enemy up and use him as a human (or otherwise humanoid) bowling ball, knocking over his comrades and giving you some breathing space. Or you could grab an enemy across the room, pull him toward yourself and open up on him with a combo while he helplessly soars through the air on a collision course with the pointy end of a sword. Or you could grab an enemy and aim at an environmental hazard (such as an ornamental spike conveniently jutting from the wall) and hurl him into it to dispense of him. Or, by simply tapping Circle, focus your telekinetic force into a ball of energy, which will hurtle into him and send him flying away as if he were hit by a freight train. But don't go too crazy on the psychic insanity: your usage of the telekinetic arts is governed by a TK meter. Anytime you execute a telekinetic blast or pull, it saps a little TK out of the meter, and when its drained, you'll be stranded until it recharges. It recharges rather quickly, and before you know it you'll have a little more brain power to expend. Just don't solely rely on telekinetics and you'll be fine.
The only downside to all this is that Raziel doesn't acquire advance telekinetics until late in the game, and until then he can only fire out telekinetic bursts. Oh well.

Kain and Raziel carry one weapon in this game, instead of the numerous ones they had access to in the past. Kain carries the corporeal Blood Reaver, while Raziel carries the insubstantial Soul Reaver. Both Raziel and Kain gain enhancements to the Reaver. Raziel's are elemental (air, fire, etc.), while Kain's have to do with the Pillars (Balance, Dimension, etc.). Each Reaver has a different effect on combat (more on that below).

After you pummel an enemy enough, they become stunned. In this state, you can keep whacking them with regular attacks and they won't fall over, which makes it easier to finish them without accidentally ending it. By holding R1, you will feed on them. There are two different feeding animations for each character, one for close range and one for long range. At long range, you can feed on any number of stunned enemies at once, but you'll be vulnerable (although you can sidestep). However, in close range you can only feed on one enemy at a time, but other enemies won't attack you while doing it. It may seem a little unrealistic, but it helps give each feeding tactic their own benefits.

And last but not least is the feeding of the Reaver. Each time you slash an enemy, the Reaver gauge at the bottom of the screen gains a little energy. By pressing Triangle next to a stunned enemy, Raziel or Kain will impale the hapless victim and devour the host's blood or soul, respectively, thus giving the Reaver a large boost in the Reaver gauge. When the Reaver gauge is full, it activates the weapon's equipped property. This is where the different Reavers come into play. When the gauge is full, you've got two options: the first of these options is to unleash a Reaver spell, which gathers all of the energy harnessed in the Reaver and lets it loose. They effect enemies differently depending on the equipped Reaver element. The second is to use the powered-up Reaver to fight in combat.

To expound shortly, say you're righting wrongs with Raziel, and you've got the Dark Reaver equipped. When it's fully charged, hitting an enemy with the Reaver causes ''dark bombs'' to be released after every powerful hit. When a concussive blow connects with an enemy, several small orbs of energy are released and home in on the nearest enemy, dealing him damage while you deal with your current victim. Or you could use the Reaver spell and become completely invisible.

As you can see, the combat system is extremely large and open, allowing for any number of possible combinations and outcomes. The fighting system in the game encourages you to make your own decision on how it's going to go. Everything is on choice, and nothing is held to a flashy combo that you must perform. It's extremely free, and only as complicated as you want it to be, and I mean that. You want to go through the game with the same 3-hit combo? Go ahead. Want to expand a little bit and add a little more flash? Have a blast. Or you could go for the direct approach and annihilate everything as quickly as possible using the most powerful moves at your disposal. It's all your choice, make it how you best like it. That's why I love it so much. What's more, you don't even have to fight if you don't want to. Almost every enemy fight in the game can be bypassed if you see fit. Occasionally, the game will impede your progression with a barricade, and you must first destroy all enemies in the room before it opens. But these types of situations occur infrequently, and not enough to cause frustration. Of course, you'll need to fight and get combat exp. if you wish to open up the new moves, but if you don't like fighting in the first place, what good do new moves do? Just have fun with it.

The game progresses chapter to chapter, but there are no ''levels'' to the game. You can leave any area at any time and go back to explore other areas if you think you've missed anything. There are objects to find here and there. Telekinetic Runes grant you a larger TK meter, Health Talismans make your health vial/coil bigger every time you gather 3, and Arcane Tomes unlock bonus materials, such as voice sessions and out-takes.

Kain and Raziel, while playing similarly for the most part, have their idiosyncrasies. For instance, while Kain can phase through gates and grates by taking advantage of his Mist form (activated automatically, not via form selection as in the past), Raziel must first shift into the Spectral Realm to allow the disintigration and re-formation of his body to pass through.

The Spectral Realm in this game is much like the last, with only a few differences. First, Raziel doesn't automatically pass into Spectral when he loses all health on the Material Plane, don't ask me why. If you allow yourself to be completely depleted of energy on the Material Realm, you die. Therefore you must retreat into the Spectral Realm strategically if you get in a bind. Also, you do not continually gain health in the Spectral Realm; although you do not lose health in this plane, you must actively hunt lost souls in order to regain your health. Sluagh, as in the last game, populate the underworld, devouring souls and giving you a hard time (although they're not really hard at all, it's just a figure of speech...you know). Also, you can now climb surfaces that were hitherto only accessible in the physical world. I guess they figured, hey, if Raziel can pull himself up onto ledges, he can grab the dang wall and climb it. I guess that makes sense.

Last but not least of the interesting developments is Raziel's actual entering into the Material Realm. Since the Elder God decided to stop being a pal, Raziel must find his own way into the world, and he did just that. Raziel can locate buried corpses hidden underground by watching for the rise of ethereal gases abundantly spewing from the corpse's location. By focuses his energy, he can project his spirit into the body of the corpse, burst through the soil (like in The Mummy), and fling the decaying flesh from himself to be reborn in the physical world. It's much cooler-looking than the old method of transporting from Spectral to Material Realm. You also don't need to be at full health to pull that off.

What happens when you die? While Raziel has a slight solace, knowing that he can slip into the Spectral Realm to gain back health in a close scrape with death, what about Kain? Kain has no area of escape, and must face the rigors of the world by himself. While there are blood and soul basins laid out for each character to find and use when no enemies are around, ''death comes for us all''. Thankfully, there are checkpoints frequently laid across the path, and whenever traversed, they will activate and give the character a place to return to in death. Another good thing is, should you pass a checkpoint, solve a puzzle and grab an TK Rune or something, and then die, you'll be returned to the checkpoint without having to do it over again. You'll still have that TK Rune, and the puzzle will still be solved, so it's not frustrating at all (granted you will have to bear some 9-second load time, but it's not that bad).

Puzzles in this game are no where near the larger magnitude they used to be in. While sad, it helps keep the game moving. Usually a puzzle just involves carrying an item hither and thither and placing it into its respective area, or shoving a block into place (Soul Reaver fans needn't worry, the block puzzles aren't in mind-boggling magnitude, and they're rather simplistic anyway).

Levels progress in a linear fashion, where you solve one area to open up another. Again, you can go back and visit past areas, but it's still rather linear, only allowing you to travel backward and forward on a preset line.

Graphics: Graphics in Defiance are awesome. Being as good or better than the phenomenal Soul Reaver 2, these graphics are some of the best on the Playstation 2. Textures are done well and are varied, for the most part; environments are beautiful; character animations are excellent; framerate is nearly flawless, offering only the occasional stutter; and camera is well done...for the most part.

Camera is an issue for any game out there. The only perfect camera in gaming so far exists in 2D side-scrollers, in which your character in centered and the camera follows you. 3D games have always strived for that just-out-of-reach camera, though; the mythical object that can never quite be obtained. Likewise, Defiance tries, but falls short by an inch. The camera is excellent for the most part. Unlike the past games, it doesn't follow behind the character using the stiffened camera of BO2 or the more elastic system shown in SR2; instead, it shows the action from preset points, as in games such as Devil May Cry, ICO, and Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, to name a few. Most of the time it does a good job, but there are a few moments here and there that the camera will flow behind a solid object, or you'll be fighting an enemy off-screen. It does present a problem, but I was never bothered too much by it. You can also nudge the camera with the right analog stick to show the area more fully, or use a first-person perspective to get a better look at your surroundings. 90% of the time, it does a great job. Framerate is usually great. Sometimes it dips, but it usually corrects itself rather quickly.

Raziel and Kain look better than ever, as does every other character and enemy in the game. Almost everything in the series has had a makeover. For instance, instead of Raziel slowly gliding around, he now zips around faster than he did in the past games, leaning into a full horizontal tilt while clutching his wings for faster flying. The Spectral Realm is more twisted, employing a sort of blur effect while you explore it, and watching Raziel bust out of a corpse as he makes his way into the Material Realm is great.

Soul Reaver 2 did great work on facial animations, and Defiance picks up the torch where SR2 left it. You can always tell what the character is feeling, as the match-up of voice and face makes a perfect combination and adds to the depth of the game. Well done, that.

Levels are somewhat varied, and at the same time horribly redundant. While many of the areas are beautifully detailed, large, and open, roughly 1/2 of the game takes place in Forges. Raziel must go through Forges to unlock all but 2 of his Reavers, and with some 8 Reavers, that's 6 Forges to go through. All Forges look identical in texture, with the same white tile spread on the floor and round hub room. Although each Forge requires you to go to a different area and do a different thing to activate the Forge itself and exit the area, the area itself looks just like the next. Still, if it's not a Forge, it looks great.

So as far as the graphics go, it's very well done for the most part. Aside from a lack of a large enemy library, repetitive Forges, and a sometimes glitchy camera, graphics are excellent.

Sound: Sound has always been very well done for Legacy of Kain games, and Defiance is no exception.

Voice acting, as always, is the best of the best. All of the old characters return to play their roles, namely Michael Bell and Simon Templeman as the voices of Kain and Raziel, respectively, and they do an awesome job. The script is expansive, excellently-written, and uses a large vocabulary seen in few games (yeah, half of the words I'm using here wouldn't be in my vocabulary had I not played the Kain games. Before Legacy of Kain, my vocabulary was restricted to such words as ''hi'', ''bye'', and ''hamburger''). Combined with voice actors that emphasize just the right words and make use of flawless accents, the voice acting is truly entertaining to listen to, and a perfect vessel to carry the story.

Fighting is done nicely. Enemies scream and yell as you slay them, and using telekinesis to hurl an enemy off of a ledge is priceless. They scream all the way down, baby. The Soul Reaver sounds as it did in past games, as do the enemies.

In the Spectral Realm, you'll now be accompanied by a number of tortured sounds. People crying and screaming in the background now echo off of the desolate walls, and the sounds of hovering souls is present a good deal of the time.

Music is done well in this game, also. Bringing back tunes from previous titles, Kain and Raziel venture through the worlds with music of the past (the ever-popular Ozar Midrashim also returns in this game, at some parts). It's a welcome aspect to a great game.

So in total, sound was done very well, indeed.

Replay Value: For the average or casual player, Defiance's replay value may be rather limited. With no branching paths and a few power-ups to go back for, no alternate endings, there may not be much want to start up a new game when you're done. Myself, I'm already on my 3rd-playthrough (and I've only had the game since Nov. 26th), just because I can't get enough of it. But I'm also a die-hard fan, so that could be just me.

Rent or Buy?: If you're a fan of the series, even casually, I can almost guarantee a satisfactory buy. Remember, though, that I am a die-hard fan. Though I strive to make my views unbiased and un-opinionated, there are no guarantees. If you're new to the Kain universe or aren't quite sure, then by all means rent.

All in all, Defiance is, in my opinion, the best installment in the Legacy of Kain universe as of yet. With an open-ending, excellent fighting system, awesome voice acting, incredibly story, well-done sounds, simplistic controls, nigh-flawless graphics and an agreeable camera, this game is awesome.

Overall: 9/10

By: Cory McGray