Prior to the remaster of the first two Soul Reaver games, playing either on modern hardware was a bit of a tricky endeavour. This made the remasters that much more appealing, as they finally became easily playable (despite the number of bugs present.) Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is a bit of a different story solely because the PC port of the original is still highly playable (and I’d even done a playthrough of it recently.) Despite this, a new coat of paint, a mostly terrific new camera perspective, and some bonus material make this remaster worthwhile for fans.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is a remaster of what I personally find to be the best of the Soul Reaver trilogy. It has the best visuals, the best combat, and brings the story home in a satisfying way in spite of how badly Blood Omen 2 threw dozens of wrenches into the narrative. The story here is just as good as it was a couple of decades ago, with lots of excellent dialogue and some of the best voice acting around, courtesy of some truly talented actors (including the late, great Tony Jay.)
Visually, the original game’s art direction has held up pretty well, I think, even if Kain’s character model is ugly enough to make one’s eyes bleed. Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered updates the models and textures, much like in the previous remaster. That being said, the textures here have been given a significantly better upgrade than Soul Reaver 2 received (although this was due to the game not being able to hold larger textures in its memory on account of a design quirk.) The new models aren’t exactly top of the line, but they’re much closer to most of what the character designers had in mind.
It’s especially nice seeing higher resolution versions of the murals found within the forges. Muddy, low-resolution textures have been replaced with much more attractive ones across the board. Some of the new models do step on the toes of the art direction a bit, but it’s a pretty large improvement overall. I can’t say the same for the lighting and colour grading, however. Things are mostly on par with the original, but certain areas look more different than I’d like. For instance, the outdoor areas near Kain’s mausoleum early in the game were considerably more colourful in the original game.
Here, they’re foggier and drenched in green hues that make the areas pop less. The visuals while Raziel’s in the spirit world, which were more of a blueish colour in the original, are now more uniformly green as well. But there’s a lot of variance. Most areas look better, some are a bit too dark, and others have their details come across less strongly. The devs did a pretty good job here, though, and it doesn’t hurt that the art direction’s held up well. All the Soul Reaver games just have that really lovely, moody, gothic feel to them. Most of the new textures are extremely faithful too, although some surprising places are less so (such as the bases of the Pillars of Nosgoth.)
The original game solely has a Devil May Cry-esque camera system that shows everything from a fixed perspective, but Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered adds a third-person behind-the-back camera akin to the other two games. I found this to be very welcome much of the time, as it allows us to see the world in more detail, along with not having to deal as much with situations where it’s difficult to see. For instance, one of the jumps in Raziel’s first section is a bit of a pain in the original game due to a poorly chosen camera angle, but it’s a cinch using the new camera.
That being said, I do think that the old camera is better for combat overall, as it’s steadier and you don’t have to worry about the camera swinging around while locked on. Thankfully, you can switch between the two cameras with a press of a button. This alone makes Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered the best version of the game, even without considering the updated visuals. There’s also some extra content to enjoy in the form of more lost levels returning, showing some cut areas, including the different forges that were originally planned before time constraints forced the devs to just start copy-pasting.
If you purchase the deluxe version of the game, you even get a rebuilt version of the Dark Prophecy demo, which was the cancelled sequel to Defiance. This is not worth that price, though, as it’s just a few minutes long and you don’t get to see much of anything at all. Locking something so slight behind an upgrade doesn’t look great, to be honest, but it’ll at least be neat for fans. Concept art and the like are something else to be perused, if one so chooses. This is a solid package, even if all three games should have been remastered together (although I’m not troubled by the fact that Defiance wasn’t put in a two-pack with Blood Omen 2, a game which I don’t even consider worth playing.)
As for the game itself, Defiance has held up nicely, despite being quite dated by today’s standards. The game switches you between Kain and Raziel, although they both mostly have similar attacks and abilities. Combat here is miles better than in the first two games, but it’s too basic and not all that engaging. Both characters have a three-hit combo, a launcher, an air combo, a dodge, and can knock enemies back with telekinesis. Since their health is usually draining, Kain drinks the blood of downed foes to heal, and Raziel sucks the souls out of their bodies. They can also charge their swords to use special attacks.
The game is a mix between combat, platforming, and some lightish puzzle solving, but it switches up enough to keep gameplay interesting for the dozen-or-so hours the story lasts. You can hold a button to be shown the way forward at all times, which makes navigation here far easier than in the other two games, but the game’s structure already means that this would be the case without it. Much like the other two games, though, Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is certainly a title one plays for the story and atmosphere more than the game design or gameplay.
I didn’t notice any new bugs or have any major issues, unlike the last remasters, so that alone is a cause for some celebration. Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is a good update to an enjoyable game, and I think fans will appreciate this update. That can’t make going through the same exact forges over and over again any more bearable, but at least the murals look good now!
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered: Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is a solid remaster that mostly just touches up the visuals of a game that's held up decently all on its own. – Andrew Farrell
Check out our previous review:
