Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered Review – Too long in the tooth

I love the Legacy of Kain. The original RPG, Blood Omen, was one of the games I bought alongside my PlayStation (from Toys “R” Us to give it nostalgic context) and I replay it every few years. The Soul Reaver games, also recently remastered, still stand up as excellent 3D search adventure games. Kain’s forays into 3D, however, are not quite as fondly remembered, as his relative lack of agility and the more linear level design of the games haven’t aged quite as well. Defiance was always the narrative and gameplay climax of the series, so the announcement that it was getting a remaster was a welcome one, but this is sadly a game where the harsh progress of time has been less than kind.

The remaster boasts updated higher resolution graphics, an improved camera, and controller support for the PC version, which are all great quality of life improvements (to a point), but this is pretty standard stuff and does little to disguise the dated nature of the game. These updated graphics come at a cost, as I found them bland and washed out compared to the more interesting designs of the original. Aside from character models and draw distance, I actually preferred the original visuals, so it was nice that you can switch between old and new by pressing the right stick.

All versions of the game contain concept art unlocked through finding arcane codexes scattered across the levels as well as cut content titled ‘Lost Levels’. The latter is a bit underwhelming, as the levels are empty and effectively just act as explorable concept renders. The code we received was for the Deluxe Edition, so it included all of the concept art and bonus videos in the standard version, and an extra menu option that features comic scans and a demo of the cancelled Dark Prophecy game. The comic scans are interesting, but very short and it’s unlikely you’ll look at them more than once, whilst the ‘demo’ lasts about two minutes and features combat mechanics and game assets simply lifted from Defiance.

So, the bonus content is not great and I certainly wouldn’t advise spending the extra money on the Deluxe Edition unless you are the most diehard of Kain fans (although even then it’s not really worth it) but what about the main game? Well, nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but some things are better left in the past.

The story-telling and worldbuilding are still superb and there are some fabulous callbacks to the wider narrative of the Legacy series, so I certainly enjoyed delving back into the twisted world of Nosgoth for those reasons. The voice acting, particularly Simon Templeman as Kain and Michael Bell as Raziel, is some of the most distinctive and memorable in gaming and I’ll never tire of them delivering the deep lore and over the top monologues. Some of the environmental design is also fantastic, with huge Gothic architecture and the always impressive Shadow Realm you shift into as Raziel.

But unfortunately that’s about it for the positives. You switch between the two protagonists who are on an inevitable collision course as the game progresses, solving basic environmental puzzles and collecting upgrades for the two versions of the iconic Soul Reaver sword. Raziel is still able to switch between material and spirit versions of the world which leads to some interesting platforming sections, while Kain’s sections are almost entirely combat based (to be fair, there is a lot of combat for Raziel too). In contrast to the agile Raziel, Kain is clunky and heavy to control, making his sections feel particularly laborious.

Aside from the platforming and environmental puzzles, Defiance involves a lot of very basic combat against mobs. There are a small number of boss battles but these aren’t as well designed or memorable as those in the Soul Reaver games and much of the level design is far more repetitive too. There are endless numbers of identical corridors to navigate and repeated temples for the sword upgrades. These elemental upgrades do enable you to open up previously inaccessible areas but it is all far too linear to consider it a genuine search adventure.

The combat is so frequent it becomes exhausting, especially considering how limited the move set is. You have light and heavy attacks, along with a telekinetic push that can also throw lighter enemies onto spikes. This sparse set of mechanics is pushed far beyond its limits through the endless cycle of arena battles. Fights are rarely challenging, but enemies can be quite tanky so everything takes far longer than it should.