After the Soul Reaver games, Defiance also received the Remaster treatment. The last single player main story game that is as much about fate and time travel as it is about vampires and ancient creatures.
In Defiance, for the first and only time, we have the possibility to play with Kain and Raziel, which is divided into separate chapters.
Raziel begins his story with the motivation to break free from the shackles of an ancient god and discover his role in it all while Kain struggles with fate, consequences and searching for meaning in the vortex of time.
The story is certainly the most important feature of the series. Although it is strong on exposition and monologues, it is well written and plots and focus on details are constantly present. It's hard not to spoil it for those who haven't played the previous games, and Defiance itself does a hard job here when it comes to introductions. However, everything else that follows gets better and better and it's easy to say that the second half is the strongest point here. That's exactly what makes Defiance a meaningful game that brings together both the Soul Reaver and Blood Omen series, wraps it up, and provides a kind of closure at the end whether or not there are sequels later (and judging by the rumors and these reissues in question, there could be).
The visual shift is the easiest to see and is significant. Everything is sharpened, textures are new, artwork too, light effects and HUD too. New models were also created, not only new textures were added to the existing ones, which is best seen in the numerous animations. Something was also done with the atmosphere, considering that the original has pretty much the same color palette throughout the game, while the Remaster version changes the atmosphere through ambient palettes from chapter to chapter. However, the environment is quite faithful to the original and it can be said that the game has avoided the danger of changing the expression as is the case in some other modern game reissues despite the richer color palette. As in many remasters, here we can also switch the graphics from the new to the old and back at the press of a button, which is still my favorite feature, and we can see the differences made here at every opportunity.
The issue of the camera was also solved by adding a third-person view with the possibility of moving the camera in the middle of the gameplay, while the original was based only on certain angles, which was also a criticism of the game at the time. I wouldn't say that it solves all problems because there are still moments when visibility is difficult, but in any case it helps and the feeling is significant, as if a world that was limited has opened up.
A nice addition here is the Photo Mode, with which we can stop the game at any time and take a screenshot as we like.
Combat is very simple despite the presence of combo attacks. The good thing is that the controls for Raziel and Kain are the same, but the bad thing is that the moves are the same. Or is it both bad... Hmm. What makes all the freedom of moves futile is the fact that despite the constant discovery of new moves, you can still get through the entire game with only the basic ones. Here and there it has the ability to interact with the environment in such a way that opponents can be telekinesis thrown into ravines, into water, onto a spike, etc. Which, however, enhances the experience a bit.
Level design is also a weak link. And while certain parts are well thought out, especially when it comes to puzzles and platforming, there are still more empty rooms. However, what condemns this aspect is yet to come, which is the constant return to the same thing again and again under the guise of time travel. Although there are differences, they are mostly only superficial and only here and there some aspect has been changed just enough to redirect the player. Far from significant.
The positive thing as far as levels are concerned is definitely the Lost Levels add-on where we can play levels that were not completed and made it to the final edition of the game. Admittedly, they are festive and seem unfinished, but that is the point. On the other hand, it is interesting and surprising to see how much was planned before.
And speaking of 'lost levels', what about a lost game? That! Believe it or not, with the Deluxe version of the game you can play one level of the delayed sequel called Dark Prophecy. In addition, there are several Dark Horse comics that can be viewed.
Fun fact: the PS5 controller lights up red when playing with Kain and blue-green when playing with Raziel. So, for example, when the power of the sun is detected, it lights up yellow, etc.
As far as bugs are concerned, it's not that there aren't any. Graphical glitches as well as opponent glitches are rare but still present. Likewise, some animation in the gameplay and players getting stuck in the architecture, but overall nothing significant or frequent.
What does irritate are the clumsiness in the controls and detection of the environment. First, the same button is used for different actions depending on where the player is, and secondly, not infrequently, that secondary action, for example receiving an edge or a special sword power, is not registered. For a game that's a platformer most of the time, this can't be ignored and makes it a pain to navigate at times.
Under the umbrella of Remaster, there are skins and additional information to find and collect, which certainly came in handy. Among the more interesting ones are Raziel with a ripped out heart (Angel of Death), then dark Raziel with a black torso (Keeper of Secrets) and Raziel as Hylden Adversary, which is definitely his strangest skin. Kain has a variety of vampire variants mostly period-oriented. Scourge of the Circle is black and gold, Risen Conqueror is from the later Conqueror days when he dominated Nosgoth while the unseen Scion of Balance belongs to the unsuspecting continuation of what Dark Prophecy should have been.
Also there are those from the intro animations of Soul Reaver and Blood Omen.
Despite its flaws, Legacy of Kain: Defiance - Remaster is still the best edition of this game. More information, more options and more improvements, although not as much as it could have been, but again it makes something that fans will be interested in while for new players it is the best option to choose. If you've decided to visit Nosgoth for gaming reading, this is currently the best you'll find.
Rating 3.5 / 5
PlayStation 5 version of the game provided by the publisher CRYSTAL DYNAMICS for review purposes
