Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered has launched 15 months after we received the excellent Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered. This sees the final story in the trilogy, with both Kain & Raziel having their own separate storylines to follow. This sees Kain going after Mobius The Timestreamer and Raziel escaping the Elder God to follow his path of Vengeance for Kain’s transgressions, amongst other things!
Fix the timeline and defy fate….
Both main protagonists are trapped in different times, given the events at the end of Soul Reaver 2, so the gameplay sees Kain fighting against Mobius and his Sarafan enemies in his pursuit, but then you have Raziel fighting against Vampire hunters and the usual creatures in the Spectral realm, which is used as a key gameplay mechanic and has been since the first Soul Reaver.
Again, much like the previous games, the voice acting, music, and storytelling is some of the best ever created, in my personal opinion. On launch, hearing the familiar drum beat with Kain refused the sacrifice whispered instantly pulls you back into this fantastic universe. Amy Hennig of Naughty Dog fame did the writing on these, hence why it is so damned good before heading off to do the Uncharted & The Last of Us titles.
With this game being a remaster, reviews from 2003, as well as guides, etc., are all still relevant today. The remaster, like the previous Soul Reaver 1 & 2, brings modern improvements, as well as a visual overhaul. The previous games were done by Aspyr, who also did the Tomb Raider Remasters, but this one is done by PlayEveryWare (It is spelt that way!), and the quality is on par with the previous remasters.
So, there are two big differences with Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered. First up is the modern visuals; the new look for Raziel is absolutely superb; the new look for Kain is decent, but I honestly prefer the older darker tone from the original. Now, with a quick click of the right stick, you can easily swap between original graphics and the new visuals.
In all fairness to the original team, this game has aged extremely well, and it still looks superb on the PS2, Original Xbox, & PC. Thankfully, if you are using the modern visuals, then you have access to new and old skins for both Kain and Raziel. This includes the skins from the OG Soul Reaver in the case of Raziel or Kain from the OG Defiance. On top of these skins, you will unlock additional modern skins, which look vastly different from the source materials; however, these skins cannot be used if you decide to play with the original graphics.
The other main change is the tapping the left trigger will switch the camera from original to free look. Free look is literally what you are used to today with the right stick, a typical third person action camera. If you do use the original camera, then you have static fully rendered backgrounds, and the right stick will only pan left of right.
Other quality of life improvements include holding the left trigger will show a glyph in the direction you need to be going, making getting lost a thing of the past! You also have a full map of each area you are in that can be zoomed in and out. Much like Soul Reaver 2, LoK: Defiance is a more linear approach, unlike the first Soul Reaver game. You will play chapter by chapter, taking turns between Kain and Raziel; it feels like it is saying and meanwhile this is going on with the other character.
It does have a few niggles and frustrations, though, much like Soul Reaver 2, especially with the combat. In some cases, enemies respawning even if you cleared them out a few minutes before after going and collecting something. If you just want to get an objective done and move on, it slows progress. Additionally, it likes to lock you into a circle of light you cannot escape until the enemies have been eliminated. Now, these are what annoys all the more! At times, especially when playing as Raziel, you get the vampire hunters trapped behind something outside the temporary arena.
When this happens, you cannot get to them: magic users that buff their team mates and ranged enemies that lob explosives at you into said arena, making it frustrating, and you have to try and use a psi blast to break whatever is stopping them while doing crowd control. Then, around halfway through the game, they introduce larger, harder to kill enemies, and if you are trapped in an arena with multiple standard enemies with polearms, a magic user that heals and buffs, and also a few explosives lobbers, then you can easily get overwhelmed, no matter how much you try and dodge out the way.
Then, on top of that, when playing as Kain, using the telekinesis to grab your enemies can be hit and miss, especially trying to lob them into a wall spike of pull them in closer, as in most cases the directional throwing doesn’t work. So, in some cases, the enemies that like throwing explosives will be stood back above you with no real way to thin the numbers before reaching a higher platform. The kicker here is that as soon as you start to climb up, they start lobbing explosives again, knocking you back down or stopping you from managing to grab a ledge to get to their level. Go figure!
Overall, though, it is a great game, but you REALLY need to have played at least the two previous Soul Reaver games to know what is going on, as the history/chronicle available on the title screen doesn’t really explain too much. You do have access to cut levels again in the bonus content, so you get a glimpse into what could have been. Some of the areas are really cool to explore but empty. If you have the deluxe edition, you get a brief demo of the cancelled Dark Prophecy, which is a single short level travelling to a shrine. You also get a few comic books to have a read through, which I have enjoyed with translated German only versions included.
At least we also have the upcoming 2D pixel art action platformer: Legacy of Kain Ascendance, launching 31st March 2026 to also look forward to. Not sure if this is a level by level affair of a Metroidvania type title, but we will see soon enough!
Thanks to our friends at Crystal Dynamics for the review code.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is out now on PC / Steam and the digital stores for Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5.
Important info:
- Crystal Dynamics, PlayEveryWare
- Publisher: Crystal Dynamics
- Players: Single player only with no online copmponents
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered – Launch Trailer
FINAL SCORES:
GRAPHICS
SOUND
GAMEPLAY
ENJOYMENT8
9
7
7OVERALL 7.5
Retro at heart and lover of all things ’80s, especially the computers, the music and the awesome movies and TV shows! Crazy huge retro gaming collection spanning the ’80s and ’90s with hundreds of tapes, discs and carts for various machines on top of a 600+ strong Steam library that is ever-growing. No I am not a serial hoarder, just a dedicated retro gamer!