Game

Legacy of Kain: Defiance

2003 · Xbox · PC (Microsoft Windows) · PlayStation 2 · Hack and slash/Beat 'em up · Adventure

81IGDB player score
77 ratings

Previously Take

A respectable 81 average that never found its audience. Horror that commits — its own thing atmosphere, real dread, and scares that aren't cheap. No multiplayer, no problem — the campaign carries the whole thing. A 2003 original that still holds up — they don't make them like this anymore, literally.

About this game

Legacy of Kain: Defiance is an action-adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and released in 2003. It is the fifth entry in the Legacy of Kain series and continues the intertwined stories of Kain and Raziel. Players alternate between controlling the two protagonists, each with distinct abilities and combat styles. The game combines exploration, puzzle-solving, and fast-paced melee combat in a gothic fantasy setting.

Defiance continues from where Soul Reaver 2 ended. In Soul Reaver 2, Kain saved Raziel's life by drawing the Soul Reaver from him – Raziel was meant to enter the blade and become its soul-devouring spectral half. This causes a paradox that changes time for the worse and separates Kain and Raziel. Kain's part of the game follows him seeking Moebius the Time Streamer, a time-travelling mystic, for answers to where Raziel is, how he has changed time, and later following a lead Moebius gives him to explore a Vampire citadel. During his quest, Kain finds and completes a broken talisman of a Vampire construct known as the Balance Emblem. Kain discovers murals during his quest, dictating an ancient war between the first races to inhabit Nosgoth, the Ancient vampires and the Hylden. After sealing the Hylden in an alternate dimension using the Pillars of Nosgoth, the Hylden cursed the Ancients with bloodthirst, sterility and immortality, turning them into the first Vampires. Kain discovers from the murals that it was prophesied that both races would have a champion arise – a Vampire champion wielding the Soul Reaver, and a Hylden champion wielding a flaming sword. Because he possesses the material Soul Reaver depicted, Kain comes to believe he is the prophesied Vampire champion. The outcome of the battle between the two champions remains ambiguous.