Legacy of Kain: Defiance

"Blood Sucking, Soul Devouring adventure"

First of, let me say this. This is a great game. At first it'll seem like another of those 3rd person adventure games you rent, play a little, and hand it back to blockbuster. But this is one of the few that is actually worth buying.

Graphics: 9
Raziel and Kain look great. They animate smoothly, and there combos look awesome. You go through several beautifully done environments, and they are all extremely detailed. An intersting thing is how Raziel and Kain are in different time periods, and they sometimes travel to levels previously played by the other. The levels are always different though, and provide some interesting eye candy. The reason for the nine is that the FMVs could have looked better. The close ups on the character faces make the bumpmap texturing look a little muddy. Other than that, this game has great visuals.

Sound: 9
Enemies scream realistically as you hear the blade coming down on them. The voice acting is great, and battles sound realistic. The music score is nothing noticeable, but it provides fitting background music.

Gameplay: 8
This is a hard part of the game to rate. There are two parts to the gameplay: Combat and Puzzle Solving. Combat is fun, and gives you freedom to do whatever you want. Kain can telekineticaly hold enemies in the air, and a second later fling them off a high bridge or impale them on a sharp object in the background. You can also unleash some really fun combos, adding them together to design you own(like slashing them into the air, hitting a hammer blow that sends them down and back up, and then a spinning blade move to hit them another six or seven times, followed by a slash that brings them back to the ground for good. And this is just what you can do in midair) And things get really fun once you get Raziel. The combat gets a 10, but the rest ges a 6. We've seen it before, getting an artifact that will open a door that will get you another artifact that will open another door back at the begining of the level that will power up your sword, so you can go and power up your sword again, so you can get another artifact, which will...
Anyway, this part of the game gets extremely tedious, and takes a needlessly long amount of time. The promise of the combat ,though, should make the game more fun.

Overall: 8
Great game. The plot is awesome, combat is awesome, sound is good, graphics are awesome, and artifact searching sucks. This all balances out to mkae a truly good game, and definately worth playing. Now, if you are a fan of the Blood Omen and Soul Reaver series, I strongly reccomend this game. Not any kind of dinamic, earth shattering new game, but an excellent one nonetheless.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/20/04