Legacy of Kain: Defiance

As far as I know, this game is out tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be able to secure a copy and tell you all what a marvelous experience it is bound to be. For God's sake, you get to play as both Kain and Raziel in this one!!!

And I hear they cut down the snore-a-thon movies without crapping out on the story. I'm exciting. Tell us how it is and if you liked it, I'm buying it.

Yeah, CD has been saying that they've tried to take a "more show and less tell" approach to the plot in this one. Which is certainly a nice change of pace. Although, I have to admit that I honestly liked the long-winded conversations of SR2. Probably the "overblown vocabluary nerd" portion of my personality coming out.

I'm not saying I didn't like them... I'm just saying I'd rather it be done in a different way. We don't need to discuss philosophy if we're about to fight eachother.

A solid point. The volume of conversation definitely needs trimming, but I'm hoping they don't skimp on the flamboyance of the language used. It just wouldn't seem natural to have Kain say to Moebius "I'm going to fucking kill you, bitch." That, and the LoK games have been a steady source of vocabulary expansion for a number of years now, and I'd hate to see that trend thrown out the window. There are few lines in video game history better than this:

Raziel: "Kain. Every time you appear, something monumentallly disastrous seems to happen."

Yeah buy it and tell me if its worth it. I'm tight on cash and I won't buy a game if I don't know if its good or not.

I think i'll get it if it shows up in stores tomorrow.

Okay, right off the bat I've got opinions. I just picked it up yesterday, and I got to play it for about an hour before going to work.

Pros

The combat system is badass. It's just a hell of a lot flashier than the combat systems from the previous games in the series. Kain can telekinetically levitate and hurl enemies in practically any direction he wants, and I assume that Raziel will be able to do it as well. At this moment, I'm not sure what Raz is completely capable of. Both characters can toss their opponents into the air and string together badass combos, or blast their opponent away in midair with TK. Both have a ton of mobility in combat, with 360 degree dodge control. It's pretty badass to have Kain dodging all over the place because he momentarily turns to mist and just reappears somehwere else. I'm looking forward to the large number of special attacks and Reaver Spells to fill up those empty slots in my inventory.

The graphics are incredible. The character models and enemy models are just simply flabbergasting. Maybe the most detailed in-game models I've ever seen. Most of the animations look flawless, and all of the special effects so far (transparencies, particle effects, etc.) look fantastic.

The levels themselves look incredible too. Great lighting techniques, amazing texture work, brilliant architecture. The Underworld (Raziel's first level) is absolutely mind-numbing. The colors and special effects used constantly throughout the entire chapter are just breathtaking.

The sound is great. The music is exactly what you would expect from a Legacy of Kain game, taking mainly from the Soul Reaver side of the music scope. The voice acting is, as always, absolutely perfect. There is subtitle option, but honestly, you won't need it. The voicework is crystal clear.

And there are a ton of extras on the disc as well. If anybody else here played Soul Reaver 2, you'll remember the Dark Chronicle. For those who don't know, the DC was a the game's script, with "stage directions" and everything. You unlocked it cinematic by cinematic. The Dark Chronicle is back in defiance, but this time it's a list of all of the game's cinema sequences, and it will just replay the whole scene for you. A vast improvement over the original.

Aside from that, I've unlocked three art galleries, and there are bound to be videos of the cast, and other things as well.

Cons

The camera. Think Eternal Darkness, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence or Devil May Cry. It's an on-rails, cinematic view camera system. You have a limited "pan" ability with the right joystick, but no first-person view, and no ability to actually change the position of the camera. Now, while this could have been executed very well (as was apparently the case with Devil May Cry) this camera system falls a bit short. Most of the time, the view point is fine, but occasionally (and apparently throughout the entire game) it becomes a problem. You'll either get into a scuffle behind a half-wall, or in a doorway, and it will be impossible to see what the hell is going on. Now, the issues I've run into with the camera have not been even that serious, but it's still a bit of a nuisance.

The joystick. I want it to be known that I loathe the Dual-Shock joystick. It has horrible response accuracy, isn't particularly sensitive, and it just feels too damn loose. That said, you must control your character with the joystick. The d-pad is used to switch between Reaver types, and there is no control configuration option. This was a bit of an aggrivation for me. At least it's 360 degree control, unlike Blood Omen 2, which used FPS controls (up goes forward, left turns left, down goes backward).

Overall

I'm pleased with it. Like I said, I'm only an hour, maybe an hour and a half into it, but it's quickly gaining more and more praise from me. The only gripes I have with the game are ones that I've looked beyond in other games (Bad controls? Resident Evil. Shitty camera? Blast Corps) and the good certainly outweighs the bad here. I'll post more once I get a bit further into it. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a cool action/adventure, and I don't need to recommend it to fans of LoK, because you probably already own a copy.

Don't care if it's a double post, I'm going to conclude my impressions anyway.

99% SPOILER FREE

I finished the game a few days ago, and it was simply amazing. If you haven't at least played Soul Reaver 2, then the ending might not satisfy you as much as it did for me. Every single outstanding question I had about the series as a whole was answered, with the exception of one question I still have about Blood Omen 2, and one that I have about Defiance itself. But, both of those were left purposefully vague so that they could be covered in a future Legacy of Kain game. With that said, there is a very good possibility that the Legacy of Kain series is not yet over.

The combat system remained awesome throughout the entire game, and Raziel does gain extended TK abilities, exactly like Kain's, later on. All of the special attacks and Reaver enhancements were awesome, particularly Raziel's Water Reaver and Kain's Time Reaver.

The challenge level in the game ramped up nicely, but never felt unfair or unbalanced. There were a couple of boss battles that I died in (maybe three times total) and all because I hadn't figured out the boss' weakness quickly enough.

My only new gripe with the game, now that I have completed it, was the puzzle selection. Here's specifically why I was disappointed with them. Soul Reaver 2 featured the best (and I mean THE ABSOLUTE BEST) puzzles I have ever seen in a game thus far. Each one of the four elemental forges contained one giant puzzle that spanned the entire level. The Dark Forge was one giant puzzle in which Raziel had to locate and correctly position a series of reflective mirrors, in order to supply sunlight to power the forge itself. The Air Forge required Raziel to activate a series of air mechanisms (by solving a number of smaller puzzles) which would allow him to float to the top of the forge and activate it.

The puzzles in Defiance (by comparison) were nothing to write home about. For example, at one point in the game, Raziel must find a set of three spear-like artifacts that are used as keys to open up one of the elemental forges. The entirety of this puzzle is exploring every single unexplored area of the level, finding the spears, and then placing them in the locking mechanism. Not a bad puzzle, but certainly not better than any found in SR2. And the spear puzzle was probably the best one in the game.

Otherwise, I loved it. The puzzles were uninspired, but everything else was pure fucking gold, and I can safely say that Legacy of Kain: Defiance is my favorite game in the series thus far. I honestly didn't think that there was any way to top Soul Reaver 2, but Crystal Dynamics pulled it off, and with flying colors. Well done. Well fucking done. *claps*

I think I will eventually get this.Thank you for the review.

Have you played any of the Legacy of Kain games so far? Because, if you haven't, I'd be willing to bet that the story won't make a lick of sense to you. If you want to understand the plot more thoroughly, I would suggest playing at least Soul Reaver 2 before taking on Defiance.

But, if you don't really care about the plot, and just want to kick some unholy ass, then by all means, pick the game up.