Product Description

Legacy of Kain: Defiance is the next instalment in the multi-million selling Legacy of Kain series. For the first time in the series both Kain and Raziel will be available as playable characters in all of their blood-sucking and soul-devouring glory. They are pitched against the Hylden; a force so evil that these two embittered rivals must unite. Taking on the role of Kain and Raziel in alternating chapters, you must battle through a world loaded with conflict and intrigue in order to defeat the dark forces that threaten to condemn the land of Nosgoth to eternal damnation.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance focuses much more on combat as Kain and Raziel confront hordes of monstrous enemies in fierce, fast-paced battles. The completely "revamped" combat system promises to be accessible, responsive and satisfying, allowing for non-stop action and thrilling combo moves unique to each character. The inclusion of the new "telekinesis" feature plays a fundamental role in not only deepening the combat system, but level and puzzle progression as well. A redesigned in-game camera offers dynamic views of both the action and breathtaking environments.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7807 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Eidos
• Released on: 2004-02-06
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: PlayStation2

Official PlayStation 2 Magazine
"Elegantly-honed combat action and the power of telekinesis make Defiance the finest instalment yet. 8/10."

GamesMaster Magazine
"The best of the brood... worth sinking your teeth into."

Customer Reviews

LoK deepens in dramatic force and improves gameplay.
The Legacy of Kain must stand as the greatest fantasy epic in the popular media that is the least known. The Saga of the Pillars of Nosgoth deepens and reveals more and more fascinating backstory with every passing episode.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance is the game in which the two strands - of Kain, the blood drinker and Raziel, the Soul Reaver - are united, with both characters playable for the first time. Soul Reaver (1) was the first 3D game in the series, and introduced some really original gameplay, most notably the shifting between the Material Realm, the day to day world of the living, and the Spectral Realm - where walls, floors and pillars would distort and shift, sometimes revealing new paths to inaccessible areas. In his pursuit of Kain, Raziel had to find and defeat each of his brothers in brilliantly designed boss battles. In addition there was the Citadel of the Humans, which was not directly related to the plot, but where your behaviour to the humans would determine whether they worshipped you or fled you in terror. Nothing did the ego more good than to watch NPCs fall to their knees at your appearance! However, the depth and beauty of the storyline and the visciousness of the battles was sometimes at odds with the oddly prosaic puzzles that had to be solved for Raziel to progress. Sometimes it seemed that Raziel's saga was advanced not by his ability to switch between realms or his prowess with the Reaver blade, but by his talent for solving jigsaw puzzles! Soul Reaver 2, heavily anticipated (and even more so after it was cancelled for the Dreamcast) was expected to be bigger and better than Soul Reaver 1, but transpired in fact to be little more than a transitional game designed to deepen the backstory of Nosgoth, but very little else. Gone were the side quests and vast explorable environments of Soul Reaver 1; gone were the boss fights. No sooner was a puzzle solved and the Reaver enhanced with a new ability than the player was forced to sit through a seemingly endless cutscene in which either Kain or Moebius would explain to Raziel that everything he had just accomplished in his determination not to act the pawn to either of them, had in fact been entirely what they had expected and wanted him to do; or to fill in the increasingly complex history of Nosgoth and the discovery of Raziel's true nature.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance absolutely overcomes all the problems of the previous two games, with the best balance yet between action, puzzle solving and storytelling. Soul Reaver set the standard for environment design, whereas Soul Reaver 2's largest improvement over its predecessor was in character design, particularly of the enemies you have to fight. Defiance improves even further on both of these elements, with better lighting and shadow effects in addition.

Defiance, it has to be said, is every bit as linear as Soul Reaver 2 - but the saving grace is the compelling urgency of the plot. Raziel and Kain have no time or desire to explore Nosgoth anew, and their singlemindedness is very effectively transmitted to the player. As you progress through the story, even though the complexity grows so that it will be sometimes incomprehensible to any player new to the Legacy of Kain, nobody can fail to be impressed by the increase in excitement and dramatic tension to an absolutely fever pitch, which will by the end of the game leave the player absolutely breathless.

Gameplay is a lot of fun. Both protagonists gain new moves as they increase their fighting experience, and the character animation during fights is of a very high quality, with very satisfying gouts of blood issuing from one's adversaries! Bosses make a very welcome return, at least 10 major ones by my count, plus half a dozen more "minor bosses" in the form of walking statues. Having got approximately half way through the game, I was left with the impression that the serious puzzle element of the previous games had been toned down to please the action fans. Then Raziel arried at Vorador's mansion, a veritable labyrinth of mind-bending complexity sufficient to satisfy the most hardcore of puzzle fiends, which took me two days to solve.

The glory of the entire Legacy of Kain series is the quality of the writing and voice acting. All the former cast members have returned yet again to give us the benefit of their magnificent voice talent: Simon Templeman as Kain and Michael Bell as Raziel are as excellent as ever, and they are perfectly complemented by Tony Jay as the Elder God, Richard Doyle as Moebius and Paul Lukather as Vorador, as well as others I don't want to reveal in case of spoilage.

Gripes and niggles: Whenever a major change in the format of a game occurs you'll see it promoted as "solving the problems of the previous versions", when sometimes there wasn't any problem, and the new system makes it worse. Here this is sadly the case with the camera system. I was entirely unaware of any serious camera issues with the two Soul Reaver games, and certainly the switch to a cinematic, Devil May Cry-style third person camera position creates far more problems than it solves. Furthermore there are more than a few glitches which have crept into the new version, presumably due to insufficient time for testing and a more rigorous insistence on a release deadline. However, as the game progresses the problems become less irritating and are submerged beneath the overall excellence of the game.

An absolutely worthy addition to the Legacy of Kain series, and in fact the best game so far.

What a legacy it is!
The LOK series has to be one of the most well thought out and in-depth story lines for the PS2. I would deffinatley recommend plaything through all of the games (starting with blood omen 1). My favourite has to be Blood Omen 2 however, Defiance comes second. The combat system is simple and easy to master and also looks really cool. As well as this there are puzzles as well which means the game isn't entirely fighting. All I can say is I truly hope that they make another and if you play through the games you will too. A must have game!

get them all !
Legacy of kain spans over five chapters from Blood omen1,2,Soul reaver 1,2 and Defiance. ps2 fans can be happy to know that you can get all of the Legacy of Kain series on ps2 and I recomend you do because if you know northing about the story then Defiance is abit of a leap forward. By going throught the story you see how Kain and Raziel came to be and why they fight each other. Because Kain is much older than Raziel the Blood omen series is set before Raziels time. In the Blood omen series you see Kains change into a vampire and Kains rise to power in Blood omen 2. In Soul reaver you see why Raziel hates Kain and why he wants revenge. I my self have only completed Blood omen 2 and Defiance Because the voice acting and story are so fantastic by playing thought the Legacy of Kain series the story begins to build by the time you have got to Defiance you will have to know how the story ends. Unfortunatly I know how the story ends but because in Defiance you play as both Raziel and Kain I wanted to know more about Raziel so i have bought soul reaver 1 and plan to by Soul reaver 2 and Blood omen 1. So my advice to you is buy the game if you have played thought the series or at least half the series but not if you havent played any of them. (please note that Blood omen and Soul reaver are on ps1 not ps2)If you have played thought the story you probaly have a favirate character mine is Kain.