May 12, 2003 - In a world of bloody razor teeth, undying vampires, soul sucking rapiers and creatures that defy description, a little blood lost here and there is no biggie. But a few brain cells lost -- or a few unfocused minutes -- may mean you've missed a tiny little story element rendering you lost and frustrated. Unlike any vampire universe before it, the Legacy of Kain series takes the common themes from the standard bible of vampire themes and goes into the ether, a fictitious plane entirely unique to itself, a world still very much unexplored. The universe is so large it's difficult to understand for mere mortals, and perhaps that's why Crystal Dynamics has taken an entirely new look at the series.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance was created under the premise that players want a good story, but perhaps more importantly, they want to have fun, they want to do cool things. They want to kick some ass. And they want to do it with Vampires, in bloodthirsty, visceral style. LOK: Defiance, the newest game in the Legacy of Kaim/Soul Reaver series (fifth to be exact) brings action to the forefront, giving players the ability to take on the mangled hoofs of Kain and Raziel.
Shown from a wholly changed camera system, which moves from still cinematic angles to zooming angles to sweeping shots, LoK: Defiance enables players to switch back and forth between Raziel and Kain as they weave through an action-packed adventure game. Each has his own weapon and can control enemies using telekinesis. The combat system enables players to juggle enemies into mid-air, use telekinesis to manipulate them -- such as throwing them off bridges and cliffs, or hurling them into fires and lighting them on fire -- and generally experiment with the amazingly addictive fighting system.
To get a better understanding of how the game has been re-thought and re-vamped, we spoke with Director Amy Hennig, who holds the grand master key to all things Kain, and who's worked on the series since it began with Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain on PlayStation.
"After finishing Soul Reaver 2, we felt it was time to step back and reevaluate the franchise," Hennig explains. "We didn't want to reinvent the wheel, but knew we needed to reinvigorate a few key elements of the game design. First and foremost, we decided to reunite the series under the Legacy of Kain banner, and to include both Kain and Raziel as playable characters. We wanted the title to communicate that this is not just another sequel, but a whole new approach to the series.
"We also felt that the game's action and adventure elements had gotten out of balance, that while story has always been the heart of the Legacy of Kain series, the gameplay and action aspects had suffered in comparison. So with LoK: Defiance, we set out to overhaul the game's combat system, and to fully exploit our heroes' dark, vampiric natures.
"To that end, we integrated their feeding mechanics into combat in a much more visceral way, gave Raziel's plane-shifting mechanics a more sinister aspect, and outfitted both characters superhuman telekinetic powers. Finally, we scrapped our old camera system in favor of a new, more cinematic in-game camera model that flows seamlessly to follow the action."
Having visited Crystal Dynamics' studio in Menlo Park prior to E3, We got a hefty taste of what the Kain team is cooking up this year. Though this particular journalist wasn't unhappy with Soul Reaver 2, the general response by other journalists and gamers wasn't positive. So, for the first 45 minutes of the demo, all we looked at was the combat engine. I watched as Kain and Raziel fought like they never have in the series, quickly, brutally, and using a robust "telekinesis" system that ties the inherent vampire elements of the series into a complete fighting system.
With combat as the focus, LoK: Defiance still retains its dramatic story and lethal relationships, but it's all about the visceral this time around. With health and telekinesis meters showing your level of health and power, players can use either Kain or Raziel to lift enemies up and play with them like insects. You can hurl enemies away, or send them rushing toward you, which can be smartly followed up with an uppercut. You like juggling enemies in fighting games? The uppercut can be followed by several more moves. As players earn more moves throughout the game, they learn combinations too, which means players can literally stick around juggling enemies for as long they want, just to see what they can do.
"One of our top priorities for LOK: Defiance was to overhaul the combat system," Hennig said excitedly. "We felt that there were a lot of 'legacy' elements left over from the SR games that no longer applied, and that overall the combat had become a little too tedious and tactical.
"In general, we wanted to give the combat a more exaggerated, heroic feel, with more intuitive controls and satisfying, over-the-top effects. Previously, combat required the player to engage the enemy tactically, using dodges and blocks to defeat the enemy's defenses. Kain and Raziel can now take on hordes of enemies (who work intelligently as a pack, through our new group AI system), rather than engaging a single enemy at a time. The player can easily target any enemy with seamlessly choreographed directional attacks."
Using a quick, invisible targeting system, players can attack enemies in any direction without even thinking about it. The animations show Raziel and Kain instantly switching direction and attacking whomever is closest. Players use their own primary sword throughout the game, instead of using numerous found weapons.
"Flexibility is the key to the new combat system," Hennig continued. "Rather than having a broad and shallow set of combat mechanics, supporting a variety of mundane weapons, we've focused instead on creating a deep suite of combat moves for Kain and Raziel's primary weapons (each is armed with an incarnation of the infamous Reaver blade). Each character has a rich set of moves that can be linked together in variety of ways to create combos -- these moves define a combat "language" which the player can assemble to choreograph the combat according to his own style."
If using vampire magic is your style, hurling enemies around using telekinesis is pure bliss. Pick up an enemy and hurl it into another. Hurl it across the room. Into hooks on the walls. Pick him up and throw him into a raging torch, which will then light him on fire and cause him to run wildly around the platform. If played well, the opponent will light other enemies on fire.
"All of the combat mechanics also can be combined with Kain and Raziel's telekinetic powers -- they can blast enemies backward, pull them in for a close attack, lift and throw them into deadly or damaging obstacles, or hurl them to their deaths from great heights," She added. "All the TK moves can be incorporated as combo starters or finishers, at any point within combat.
"As would be expected, Kain and Raziel also have a variety of vampiric finishing moves. They can tear the blood or souls from their enemies to feed from a distance, or seize the enemy up close for a more visceral (and rewarding) kill. They can also choose to forego the meal, and feed their vampiric weapons instead, imbuing the blades with energy to perform more devastating attacks and charge moves."
Strangely enough, after all this talk about the combat, I began to become hungry for the storyline. Being a true fan of the series, I wanted to know what happens? What time periods does it take place in? Does it skip throughout time like in Soul Reaver 2Does Kain befriend Raziel? What about the Elder? Do we learn more about his mysterious role?
"In an effort to get the balance right, we did initially prioritize the action and gameplay issues we felt we needed to address," Hennig said simply. "That's not to say that we've dumbed-down the story or adventure elements in any way -- we just felt we needed to enrich the action and combat mechanics to appeal to a wider audience, and make the game more fun overall.
"The spine of the game is still its story -- but with LoK: Defiance we've set out to make the plot more accessible, less convoluted and wordy, and more dramatic (less "tell" and more "show"). In other words, less like a stage play and more like a movie. For longtime fans, the depth and consistency is there -- but the story will not be impenetrable for players who are new to the series.
"Without giving away anything specific -- the story follows Kain and Raziel as they battle against the relentless forces that seek to thwart their true destinies and annihilate them. Their bond is as ambiguous as ever -- neither allies nor adversaries, Kain and Raziel venture alone through alternating chapters to unearth the truth behind Nosgoth's ancient prophecies, each fighting to preserve his free will in a world enslaved by the agents of Fate."
Another element wholly refined is the camera. It works better than it ever has. The way Hennig described it is as if it's on a rail, but a moving rail that can extend and contract with an incredible amount of flexibility. If you have played Sony Computer Entertainment America's brilliant adventure game, Ico, you may recognize glimmers of it in LoK: Defiance.
"Although we were pleased with the camera model we had developed for SR2, we felt it was time to make a radical change," said Hennig, who steers the direction of each Kain title. "So many third-person action/adventure games use a similar camera -- either a behind-the-back camera, or an "elastic" follow-cam like SR2's --- that the games all start to look (and play) alike after a while.
"We wanted the camera in LoK: Defiance to support the epic feel of the game, so we developed a scripted, cinematic in-game camera system, which captures the action from the best possible angle and distance as the player moves through the environments. The player no longer needs to manage the game camera in order to navigate the levels, and the game overall has a much more seamless, movie-like feel. I should note that the camera isn't "locked" -- the player is still able to nudge the camera, and explore the environment in look-around mode (just as in previous games); we just don't require the player to manage the camera in this way."
Even though I saw several levels, the game still seemed a little confusing, with regards to the way both Kain and Raziel were each able to play the game. Players start off with Kain, and as he is played, the story unfolds, until at some clever point, it switches characters to Raziel.
"Raziel and Kain's journeys are separate, and while they sometimes visit the same locations, their paths only occasionally cross, Hennig said. "This enables us to exploit some interesting narrative devices you don't usually see in games. The player, as 'privileged observer,' sees the entire plot unfold from both characters' limited perspectives, which raises the overall narrative tension.
"It's important to note that, while the game plays out in chapters, the player is still completely free to explore the world in a non-linear way, revisiting previously-explored areas or tackling sub-goals, rather than always following the linear story path."
But wouldn't the game be difficult for people to play, especially if the characters control differently? "We didn't want the player to have to readjust to a new control scheme every time we switched characters, so we designed both of their control systems around the same basic structure," she explained. "In other words, while Kain and Raziel may perform contextually different moves (e.g., blood-sucking vs. soul-devouring), each move uses the same button, so the player can transition seamlessly between the characters without missing a beat.
"Many of their powers overlap, but Kain and Raziel feel different to play, and their mechanics behave in different ways. For instance, holding [X] allows Raziel to glide; the same move enables Kain to slow his descent for a silent landing. Different functionality, but logically equivalent in the control scheme."
Fans of the series won't be let down. Each character has his own set of unique mechanics, For instance, only Raziel can shift between the spectral and material planes. Only Kain can perform superhuman leaps across gaps, or use bat form to travel great distances. "Kain's telekinetic abilities also outstrip Raziel's at the beginning of the game, enabling him to topple obstacles that Raziel would find impassable," says Hennig.
As for the series great looks, LoK: Defiance looks better than the highly detailed, architecturally sound Soul Reaver 2. Using an updated, faster, more robust streaming system (like in Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2), LoK: Defiance looks beautiful. Gothic empires stand tall and incredibly gorgeous. Waterfalls crash down, and iridescent fireflies show off a healthy particle system. The levels themselves are well textured, with layers and layers of organic material flowing from above ground to underground, and the Elder looks larger more creepy than ever.
Given its emphasis on action and combat, Crystal Dynamics smiled and told us that fans of the series can relax. All of the voice actors from the past will return to voice their parts, and the music and extra DVD material will also be in there. They are well versed with how to manage the voice actors and feel confident fans will receive the high quality production they have in the past.
There is more to tell, but Hennig and team want to hold something back. And believe us, we'll be here to give you every last bit.
IGN
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The trailers look great, so I'm looking forward to the game. 
