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This was really bad

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 10
Date: December 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I rented this game and wow it was just as bad as the others (LK's)were good. Bad camra angles, bad play through system, and what happend to all the cool stuff you got in the last games. Don't buy this one!!!

Oh dear oh dear...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: August 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

How disappointed can you be in a game?

Like many I was a big fan of "Soul Reaver" however this installment of the series just didn't cut the mustard.

Good points:

1. The TK stuff is a neat extra, it's nice to throw you enemies around.
2. Fighting as Kain had a nice feel to it.
3. Excellent voice talent.

Bad points:

1. The story is far too complex, even Kain and Raziel are constantly going "What does this mean?"... How the hell am I supposed to keep up? There are too many twists and turns that make no sense. There are too many protagonists and too many loose ends.
2. Linear gameplay. This game consists of: warp to dungeon, get locked in a room, fight bad guys, room opens, goto another room, get item, warp to another dungeon, then repeat with either Kain or Raziel (in the same dungeon mind...). I was bored stupid by the endless hack-n-slash and running around the same dungeons.
3. The bad guys just aren't bad. I was only killed once in the game, the bad guys just aren't bad enough. They have very virtually no AI (the giant stone guys with a big sword are so stupidly easy to kill it's laughable).
4. Pointless "reaver" collecting that is never developed. For Raziel you collect various types of reavers, however all you wind up doing with them is opening doors.
5. The "spirit world" was woefully under-used. In "Soul Reaver" there is excellent use of the spirit world, however in this installment you only use it about 3 times to help you progress.
6. Camera... at first I was quite pleased by the new camera action (instead of roaming around the camera takes a more fixed "corner of the room" approach). Trouble was I frequently found myself being "hidden" behind blocks and towers whilst fighting this just led to frustration. Also, sometimes you need to do some tricky jump-n-glides and with the fixed camera angle there was no way to judge how far you had to go.
7. Combat, you also have pointless power-ups that are really hard to activate and use properly. Eventually you'll just hack-n-slash without trying to have any strategy when fighting.
8. Length, the game is far too short (and coupled with the over-complex story) leaves you with a similar feeling to that experienced at the end of Matrix 3 (anyone who has seen it will know what I mean). I found that I completed the game within a week (playing it about 2hrs a night) and for the money I paid I felt decidedly ripped-off, especially since the game has no replay value at all (you can see all the cut scenes that make up the baffling story once you've completed the game, so there's no point re-playing).

Overall, this is a poor sequel to "Soul Reaver" which is a shame. It leaves the door open for further sequels however they need to be much more non-linear for me to part with my cash again.

I don't like it

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: December 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game has great voice acting, graphics, and plot. So far it sounds like a good game, but it isn't. I beat it in 5 days which consisted of running around in the same looking levels fighting the same looking bad guys. It's nearly impossble to beat without a guide book. You'll have no idea whats going on if you never played blood omen or the soul reavers. One awful thing is that you can't first play the game as kain and then as Raziel. It swiches off between them.

Great game;but the story is starting to fall apart....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: December 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Before I start my review,I want to make it clear that I have played LOK:Defiance all the way through to the ending.I have also
played through all the other blood omen/soul reaver games.But I have to say,the story just leaves the player with more questions.
The few that are actually answered don't really make much sense.

This story is just not that good anymore... It's become so complex,that it even goes against it's own storyline.(WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD)To start with,when is this game taking place?Is it after soul reaver 2?Playing through Raziel's walkthrough,I would say yes.Because he awakes in the underworld after being consumed by the reaver.But then why is Kain trying to break into the Sarafan stronghold in the begining of this game?He was already IN the stronghold with Raziel.

There are even bigger mess ups as the game progresses.Janos Audren is perhaps the biggest mistake in the LOK timeline.I understand that he was killed by Sarafan Raziel before the events in Blood Omen 1,and he is resurected by Raziel with the Heart of Darkness in this game.But between those two time periods
there was Blood Omen 2,to which Janos appeared perfectly alive and well.Again,how is that possible?

The other deal is with Moebious.In blood omen 1,Kain beheaded Moebious in a village.So I understand Kain and Raziel went back in time,and that's how they speak with him in this game.But at the end of this game,Kain impales him with the reaver.So if Kain killed Moebious in the past,then how can he be alive for Blood Omen 1 to be beheaded?This legacy never even bothered to explain how Vorador magically came back to life in blood omen 2,after being executed in blood omen 1.

The problems with these kinds of stories involving time travel,
is that they end up tripping over their own histories.I also never really understood how Raziel is Hylden;it just sort of threw that out there on a whim.The whole Hylden/alien race seems kind of dumb to me;they belong more in a sci-fi story than one about vampires.

The game itself is extremely fun,the graphics are beautiful and the voice acting is superb.But unfortunatly,they've just dragged this story out too far for too long;and now it's starting to collapse on itself.

A step backwards from its predecessor, but still good

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is the latest (but hopefully not last) game in the Legacy of Kain Series. It is also the only game in which you get to play both Kain and Raziel.

I was really excited about this game at first, hearing they had revamped the combat system, about the only thing not great from the previous games. The actual result was only really a slight improvement.

They modeled it after Devil May Cry (A game near and dear to my heart), but its execution was not good. There are more camera issues with this game than almost any I've played previously. Too many times did I find the camera looking at the corner of a passageway while I'm busy fighting on the other side of it. What little control over the camera you have is useless; instead of rotating around the point of interest (ie, your character) it rotates on its own position. So instead of swinging around the corner so i can actually see Raziel, it looks in the other direction.

The style in general worked well in Devil May Cry (though I recall less camera issues in that game), but that game had an emphasis on nearly equal melee & ranged combat. When enemies were offscreen, you could at least shoot at them. This game has some ranged capabilities (telekenesis or TK), its not something you can use too much of.

I will admit though that using Kain's TK to throw enemies off a bridge, onto a spike, or just pull them closer was suprisingly fun.

That said, when the camera was working correctly, battles were slightly more interesting and frenzied than in previous games, but they also became frustrating sometimes. Also, the game's attempts at bosses (ghosts of previous pillar gaurdians) were extremely lame.

Graphics-wise, the game is pretty good. Kain and Raziel both look great, and little things like Kain's mist-form looked suprisingly good. The lighting/shadowing was particularly well done.

Plot wise, the game is good, but nowhere near the greatness of any of the previous games (except maybe Blood omen 2). The pacing drags, and it seems a little forumlaic. Also, while the voice acting is top-notch as usual for this series, the dialogue seemed to suffer a bit; it was a little over the top in some places (the lines and words themselves, not the acting).

The game gets better near the end, and many people will probably prefer it than to the end of the Soul Reaver games. This one leaves off with a definite "To be continued..." feel, but doesn't leave you with a Cliff-Hanger or with a feeling of unfulfilment.

Great storyline and characters, but needs more polish

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Until now, the Legacy Of Kain games have failed to leave a positive impression on me. The storyline and voice acting caught my interest, but the gameplay and graphics were mediocre at best. When I heard about Defiance being an improvement over the last installments however, I decided to give the series another look. While it is true that Defiance sports better scenery and more exciting combat than it's predecessors, there are still some aspects that need refining. The sound effects seem muffled and too quiet for an action game, and some of the animations of the characters are awkward (when Kain/Raziel take a hit, they just quietly slide across the floor). Some of the backrounds are beautifully detailed (such as the mansion area later in the game), but others are drab, cookie cutter rehashes of previous areas. Other problems such as slow-down and jittery camera movements put a damper on what would have otherwise been an excellent experience. Ultimately, the overall quality of Defiance is inconsistent. If Eidos spent just a little more time ironing out the rough spots, it could have been a true classic.

Not great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: September 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I wasn't very impressed with this game, yet it is much better than the Soul Reaver 2 game. I don't think they've captured the complete entertainment of "Soul Reaver, The Legacy of Kain." I didn't care much for playing as Kain which didn't make much sense to me. In certain levels Kain and Azriel pretty much do the same thing which seems too repetitive. This is definitely a rent before you buy game. It balances on, some will REALLY like it, and others will think it's OK.

Fantastic game with some minor flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: December 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have long been a fan of the Legacy of Kain games. Blood Omen was one of my first playstation games, and it still stands as one of my all-time favorites. When Soul Reaver hit about 3 years later, the dramatic change of game play and surprising turn of the story was a huge hit, and I became instantly hooked. Like Blood Omen before it, I was compelled to finish Soul Reaver to the end, and to this day Soul Reaver also stands out as one of my all-time favorite games. Afterwards, the offerings of Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2 were decent, but the gameplay didn't live up to the standards set by Soul Reaver. Defiance changes everything...once again, the Legacy of Kain series successfully combines a spell-binding story with excellent gameplay.

Picking up shortly after Soul Reaver 2, Defiance has you assume the role of not only Raziel, but Kain as well. Although Blood Omen 2 allowed you to play as Kain as well, I must admit that it was a real gift to be able to play as Kain again, especially since the gameplay in Blood Omen 2 was awful compared to Defiance. As the story progresses, you will switch between Kain and Raziel in a series of chapters. Often times, the chapter you are currently playing ends with a brief cliffhanger, and thrusts you into the other character's shoes. What is great about this game is that the designers understand that the following this series has is mostly a cult following, or rather somewhat small amount of very devoted people who truly love the story. Long-time fans will be thrilled with the questions answered, most notably questions from Blood Omen and Soul Reaver 1 & 2, but unfortunately many of Blood Omen 2's questions still go unanswered. Despite this, I myself was absolutely stunned by the story...I almost got lockjaw syndrome from my mouth being gaped open in shock during the entire last 3 hours of the game.

The gameplay is tons of fun. Unlike the mediocre combat offerings from Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2, I actually found myself thirsting for combat in this game, and when it happened, it was alot of fun. Although fundamentally the same, since both Kain and Raziel have the exact same special moves (which are learned through the game by gaining combat experience), Kain and Raziel play somewhat differently. Kain is definitely the stronger powerhouse, able to make short work of most enemies, where Raziel is considerably weaker, but is much quicker and is better at evading enemies rather than facing them head on. When playing as Raziel I found myself wanting to avoid combat until I started gaining more special moves as the game progressed. The special moves are easy to perform and the same for both characters (though the look different and are called different things).

Unlike previous games, you cannot pick up weapons as you go. Kain and Raziel both wield their versions of the Reaver. Kain possesses the Blood reaver, while Raziel possesses different incarnations of the Soul Reaver. As you progress, both Kain and Raziel's Reavers gain new powers, which substantially sets them apart from one another. Each weapon can be powered up by using it to finish the opponent. So instead of consuming the soul or drinking the blood themselves, Raziel and Kain can instead use their Reavers to consume the Soul or Blood of their enemy. Another gratifying aspect is that there is a purpose to getting the new Reaver upgrades. Each one has its own unique power that is useful in the right situation.

In terms of overall gameplay, Kain and Raziel have different games. Kain's game focuses mostly on locating keys or artifacts to progress, and is combat intensive. Raziel's game, however, is heavily puzzle-oriented and lighter on combat, though there are situations with overwhelming enemies.

In terms of flaws, this game is utterly packed with glitches. On countless occasions, I had to save the game(which can be done anywhere, thankfully) and turn off the machine because the game would suddenly stop playing sounds. Other times, the game froze when there were large amounts of enemies on screen. This also happened when the game seemed to go nuts and spawn massive amounts of enemies on the screen, which couldn't be hit. The game then proceeded to freeze. Sometimes the audio cut out during cut scenes, which was royally annoying. There were some minor clipping issues during combat as well.

Overall, despite the countless amount of glitches and bugs, Legacy of Kain: Defiance stands out as one of the BEST games I have played in a long, long time. I don't think i've been this compelled to sit down and finish a game since the first Soul Reaver. The story is excellent, with the same returning voice-acting cast, some of which are notable Hollywood talent. All of the cut scenes are saved as you progress, so you can view them at any time. This game was also longer than the past 2 outings, clocking in for me at about 25 or more hours. I was very happy with this game and pleased to see that it was so improved over the last 2 offerings.

Ah, The Children Of The Night....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Latest in the long-running vampire series, Legacy of Kain: Defiance chronicles the return of everybody's two favourite anti-heroes to the blood soaked world of Nosgoth.

To bring the newbies up to speed, Legacy of Kain follows Vampire tyrant Kain and his vengeful prodigy Raziel as they battle for supremacy across time and space in a mythical world of supernatural mystery. Both protagonists wield an ancient sword, the Soul Reaver - Kain's is the physical body of the sword, while Raziel is fused to the spectral essence of the mighty blade. The time sorceror Mobius has cast both vampires back into the past, to the roots of Nosgoth's history, and it is here that we pick up the latest chapter.

Soul Reaver is a 3D action adventure in which players alternately assume the roles of Raziel and Kain. Each character is unique in that Kain requires blood to keep his health up, while Raziel, a spectral vampire, requires souls. To this end each vampire has a unique repetoir of combat and finishing moves to dish out on enemies, such as Kain sinking his fangs in his dizzied victim's throat. In addition, both characters are able deploy complex sword combos, as well as magical powers in combat - one that looks particularly satisfying is the ability to telekenetically pick up and hurl opponents off of cliffs, or into nearby spikes, impaling them. Indeed, much of the focus for this game is an overhauled combat system, and the player will often find themselves attacked by multiple foes.

In keeping with the traditions of the series, there will also be plenty of mind-bending puzzles to deal with. Raziel is capable of shifting between the living and spectral worlds, and in each environment is able to achieve different things to solve a puzzle. For example, while Raziel cannot pick up objects in the spirit world, he can warp through gates and other thin obstacles, or jump to otherwise inaccessable areas. This gives the game a fantastic degree of scope and depth to 3D problem solving.

The graphics for the series are top notch, and its one of the first series of games to do away with loading screens - clever coding allows the game to load upcoming environments before you reach them, allowing a seamless transition through the vast land of Nosgoth. The world is realised in beautiful, lovingly crafted architecture, spooky, mist filled forests and flickering caves. The spectral world, which Raziel is tied to is rendered in eerie blues and greens, and there's a lot of excellent lighting throughout. Its one of the most atmospheric games you'll play this year.

One of the chief critisisms levelled at the last game, Soul Reaver 2, is that it was too wordy and complex a plot, with not enough action and exploring. This latest title seems to have addressed those concerns by upping the action in spades, while staying true to the devious twists and turns of the series. This should be on every fan's wish list, and I'd recommend it to anyone in search of an offbeat and spooky adventure game.

Good Old Fashioned Vampire Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing the Soul Reaver games since the beginning and have always been captivated by them. Great story, great gameplay and some of the best graphics. Thankfully, "Defiance" lives up to the usually high standards.

This is a great game, pure and simple. The graphics are outstanding and the gaemplay is extremely fun and easy to get used to. It seems a little over complicated at first but you get the hang of it very quickly. For those of you who have followed the storyline from the beginning, this one does not disappoint as it twists and turns between Kain and Raziel, letting you play as both characters of course. The graphics are outstanding, and that's on playstation, so imagine how could they'll be on Xbox.

I do have one major complaint and this is the sole reason I gave it 4 stars and not five. The camera in this game makes me want to hang myself. It is terrible, period. Maybe the one of the most annoying cameras in the history of games. But like I said, being that this is the ONLY problem I find with the game, it can be overlooked.

Overall, a quality, nice looking game, with great gameplay and great storyline makes this one probably my favorite of the series.

Graphics: 9/10 (PS2)
Gameplay: 9/10
Storyline: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

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