Legacy Of Kain: Defiance Remastered Review
My Kingdom For Some Cliffs Notes
HIGH The new camera is a literal game changer.
LOW This combat system was not designed for bosses.
WTF Is that statue bleeding light when I hit it?
Legacy of Kain: Defiance is the fifth — and until very recently, anyway — final entry in the Legacy of Kain franchise, which tells the story of… well, it’s kind of confusing.
In Blood Omen, a petty nobleman got turned into a vampire, and at the end of the adventure, the player got to choose whether to end the world or save it. Canonically, the end happened and vampires started running things. This led to disaster for everyone, forcing Kain’s lieutenant Raziel to try and destroy his former master across the two Soul Reaver entries. Time-travelling shenanigans in the story there created a new timeline in which Kain had to battle a nefarious empire’s to rise to power, which largely formed the plot of Blood Omen 2. Finally we arrive here, at Defiance, in which the two leads chase one another through time in an attempt to wrap up the story in satisfying fashion.
Suffice it to say, Defiance‘s story was absolutely baffling at times, especially since the last time I played through the series was when they were originally released over two decades ago. I’m reminded of the original PS1 Metal Gear Solid, and how it offered a novella’s worth of text for anyone interested in catching up on the story of the NES-era Metal Gear 1 and 2 before hitting play. The basic timeline feature this game offers doesn’t get nearly granular enough.
As a remake of the original 2003 release, the gameplay is as good as it ever was, but that’s not exactly a compliment. In controlling two vampires, the player has access to a wide arrange of magical powers. Kain can turn into a cloud of bats to travel from one area to another and use powerful telekinesis to toss enemies around like ragdolls, while Raziel has a set of elemental abilities to switch between, as well as the ability to move into the spirit realm in order to see puzzles from a different angle.
Defiance’s levels are built around two main gameplay mechanics – puzzles and combat. I found the puzzles to be the better experience, although that may owe partially to nostaliga for how games used to be designed. Said puzzles generally involve moving blocks and manipulating switches via psychic powers or elemental devices. Players can also use light powers to shatter dark doors, and vice versa. There’s nothing too taxing here, but the charming retro quality had me smiling as I smashed a drawbridge mechanism to open up a new path or channel power to a vent so that it would have enough energy to toss me into the air.
The combat hasn’t aged quite as well. Kain and Raziel have similar movesets, so it’s not like I had to relearn a bunch of abilities with every character swap at the start of a new chapter, but the actual meat of combat is unsatisfying. Enemies swarm around at all times, and the special abilities that allow for crowd control take far too long to charge up. It winds up being a question of constantly trying to make enough room so that a given enemy can be focused on long enough to put them down. The only tool in the arsenal that allows the player to do that is the telekinetic shove, and the targeting system is so wonky that it only works about half of the time.
On the plus side, at least I didn’t have to fight against a terrible camera at the same time. While the original version featured a camera system built around fixed angles that swooped back and forth as the player moved around the screen, this remaster puts those angles at the whim of one of the thumbsticks, and it’s a revelation. Being able to lock the camera took all almost all of the torture out of the many platforming sequences, just as being able to spin the camera around during fights allowed me to see where off-screen attacks were coming from – a situation which made combat in the original frequently unbearable. Players can switch to the original camera system if they want to, but I can’t imagine why anyone would.
I can’t say the same about the upgraded graphics that the remaster offers, though. Flipping back and forth between the original graphics and the modern version is accomplished with the tap of a button, a process so seamless it doesn’t even affect the framerate.
While the HUD is far more readable than the original, and the textures are obviously more detailed, some of the graphical adaptation choices are a little confusing. The main issue is that the enemies look bland and interchangeable. Where the first release featured foes that were clad in garish greens, purples, and yellows, the new version offers muted tones and enemies that tend to blend into the background. Yes, the models are more detailed, but the enemies themselves are more forgettable, and considerably less entertaining to look at. I reached a point where I found myself flipping to the classic graphics whenever a fight started because the blood-soaked combat makes more sense if the gore is being splattered in a field of equally extreme hues.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance is an interesting choice for a remake, because it starkly shows just how far we’ve come in the field of third-person action adventure, and the unlocked camera completely transforms the experience, making it feel indistinguishable from any number of current indie platformers being built with the PS2 aesthetic. It’s too bad the developers couldn’t similarly rescue the combat, given that a full half of the playtime is about slaughtering foes.
When Defiance was originally made, developers had largely figured out how 3D platforming should feel, and the only real hurdle that remained was being willing to trust the player with the camera. Combat still had a long way to go at that time, though, and it’s in the stumbling, awkward fights that Defiance shows its age. It’s an interesting curiosity, but anyone considering loading it up should be ready to slog through some truly annoying fights.
…Also, be sure to bring along a plot synopsis and list of characters – it’s a necessity.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is developed by Crystal Dynamics and PlayEveryWhere and published by Crystal Dynamics. It currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 12 hours of play was devoted to the single-player mode. The game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: This game was rated M by the ESRB, and it features Intense Violence, Blood and Gore. There are only villains in the world of Defiance. The evil empire/church are horrible monsters, but so are the playable vampire and wraith who oppose them. One of the first things that happens in the game is that Kain arrives in the dungeons, finds the empire’s victims chained to walls, and announces that it’s dinnertime.This is bleak, unpleasant, and absolutely not for children.
Colorblind Modes: The game does contain colorblind modes.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played almost the entire game without sound and encountered zero difficulties. All dialogue is subtitles, but the subtitles cannot be resized. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Yes, the game’s controls are remappable.
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