Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered Review – Clunky Classic

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered Review

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is a remaster of the once-final installment in the seminal Legacy of Kain series. These gothic fantasy games explore the lovingly horrific land of Nosgoth and star the ruthless fiends who might save or doom it. But has this classic lasted the test of time?

I would love to have a firm answer for this question. Unfortunately, the answer is a strong ‘kinda.’ It really does depend on your ability to ignore frustrating gameplay for one of the best narratives in video game history.

This game follows two protagonists: the monstrous vampire overlord Kain and the surprisingly moral wraith Raziel. After clashing repeatedly throughout the series, the pair find themselves on a collision for what might be the last time.

Raziel’s twisted fate doomed him to become the maddened spirit of Kain’s weapon, the Soul Reaver. However, Kain would rather break time itself over his knee than kill Raziel. As Raziel is the only entity in Nosgoth that can truly defy fate, their interactions will determine both Raziel’s destiny and the fate of Nosgoth.

Kain, Raziel, and Legacies Thereof

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is a 3D action-adventure title that has a lot to offer even after two decades. The narrative, voice acting, and sound design are of course the highlights.

The voice acting is gorgeous. I would happily listen to Kain and Raziel bicker over making a grocery list. The soundtrack is also excellent and adds a lot to the game’s mood. Unfortunately, the subtitles can get unsynced at times.

While the graphics are a bit chunky, the overall visual style of the game is largely intact. The main difference is the camera, and you can set it back into cinematic mode with a button.

New fans, the good news is that Legacy of Kain: Defiance has a hell of a story. The bad news is that you need to know what happened in the four previous titles to understand it. Fortunately, the game offers a brief summary of the events leading up to Defiance, so you can follow along.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered Shows Its Age

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered makes some interesting gameplay choices. Combat is a bit clunky, but largely serviceable. I can’t say the same for its platforming.

As a vampire, Kain’s health is constantly draining. You restore his health bar by stunning and draining enemies, and manage his health by gathering power-ups or moving quickly through levels. Raziel combines this health drain with a realm-shifting mechanic. When he’s in the spirit realm, he can’t touch items, but his health remains stable. And he can find souls to devour.

The cursed weapon called the Soul Reaver also needs to eat. You can feed it by plunging it into stunned enemies as well. When charged, the Reaver can unleash powerful spells. The need to balance your health with your combat power creates some nice tension.

Kain’s sheer panache is incredible. I really felt like a nigh-unstoppable immortal overlord smashing through foes with style and pitch-dark humor. And Raziel, while (slightly) more heroic, also has a delightful charisma as he carves his way toward his destiny. They’re both very fun characters, which makes it very frustrating how annoying the gameplay can get at times.

Frustrating and Fascinating

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered has some truly frustrating platforming. It can be quite difficult to tell what parts of a level can and can’t be interacted with. The map has no labels, so good luck backtracking for hidden secrets. And the camera can make it very hard to know where you’re meant to go next.

The game’s most frustrating moments for me came when it prompted me to do something without including the button. I got very confused when asked to use the darkness spell to go invisible, for example. And the platforming puzzles became exponentially more frustrating as they got more complicated. The swimming physics are also dreadful by modern standards.

As I said, there’s an option to control the camera instead of sticking to the original’s cinematic camera angles. This makes combat easier, but can be frustrating if you aren’t sure where to go next.

Despite all of these complaints, I had fun with Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered. Does it feel exactly the same as the original? Of course not. But it’s a fun trip back to Nosgoth, even if a few puzzles sent me scrambling for a guide.

If you’re a fan of the classics, give this game a shot. Just be prepared to bring up a strategy guide as needed.

***Steam code provided by the publisher***