TheRetroArcade
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Posts: 1,980
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Welcome back, 2003.
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By inexplicable coincidence, the best videogames ever all seemed to come out when I was between the ages of 10 and 13. KOTOR, Oblivion—the list goes on. Scientists are presumably trying to figure out just what was in the water during that period, leading as it did to, objectively, the bestest and most important games ever made.
Somewhere near that list? 2003's Legacy of Kain: Defiance, which a young Josh (that's me) had on his original Xbox and very much enjoyed. Gothic, befuddling and weird, I played the heck out of Defiance back in the day, and I'm rather pleased and, I admit, a little surprised to say its recent remaster seems to have recaptured the magic wonderfully.
That's not to say I had any doubts about Crystal Dynamics' ability to handle the job, just that the Kain games feel sufficiently lost in the mists of time that I wouldn't think anyone would give a team the resources to handle the job right. Well, more fool me. Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered does deft work, polishing up the original game to produce something that really does feel definitive.
If you've never touched this series, the broad strokes are: Kain (Blood Omen protagonist, and co-protagonist of Defiance) is an amoral and haughty vampire lord who pretty much doomed the world when he elected not to make a heroic sacrifice at the end of the first game in the series.
Raziel (Soul Reaver protagonist and Defiance's other protagonist) is his ex-lieutenant whom Kain executed (or tried to) for growing wings and thus surpassing Kain in power/majesty. Also, there's aliens and time travel and Lovecraftian elder gods in there. It's a whole thing.
All of which remains unchanged, of course. Also unchanged: the oozing, sonorous voices of Simon Templeman, Michael Bell, and Tony Jay, who serve as the game's main voice actors and who are constantly attempting to one-up each other in a swagger-off, lending even the game's most baffling and esoteric monologues a kind of profound, faux-Shakespearean weight.
So what has changed? Well, the textures, of course. Every polygon of detail has been fed into an upscaler, lending Kain, Raziel, and everything else new bumps and cuts and details. I'm iffy on this. There are times when the game makes the mistake of remasters of yore: cramming so much extraneous detail in that the textures begin to look odd and misplaced amid th...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
By inexplicable coincidence, the best videogames ever all seemed to come out when I was between the ages of 10 and 13. KOTOR, Oblivion—the list goes on. Scientists are presumably trying to figure out just what was in the water during that period, leading as it did to, objectively, the bestest and most important games ever made.
Somewhere near that list? 2003's Legacy of Kain: Defiance, which a young Josh (that's me) had on his original Xbox and very much enjoyed. Gothic, befuddling and weird, I played the heck out of Defiance back in the day, and I'm rather pleased and, I admit, a little surprised to say its recent remaster seems to have recaptured the magic wonderfully.
That's not to say I had any doubts about Crystal Dynamics' ability to handle the job, just that the Kain games feel sufficiently lost in the mists of time that I wouldn't think anyone would give a team the resources to handle the job right. Well, more fool me. Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered does deft work, polishing up the original game to produce something that really does feel definitive.
If you've never touched this series, the broad strokes are: Kain (Blood Omen protagonist, and co-protagonist of Defiance) is an amoral and haughty vampire lord who pretty much doomed the world when he elected not to make a heroic sacrifice at the end of the first game in the series.
Raziel (Soul Reaver protagonist and Defiance's other protagonist) is his ex-lieutenant whom Kain executed (or tried to) for growing wings and thus surpassing Kain in power/majesty. Also, there's aliens and time travel and Lovecraftian elder gods in there. It's a whole thing.
All of which remains unchanged, of course. Also unchanged: the oozing, sonorous voices of Simon Templeman, Michael Bell, and Tony Jay, who serve as the game's main voice actors and who are constantly attempting to one-up each other in a swagger-off, lending even the game's most baffling and esoteric monologues a kind of profound, faux-Shakespearean weight.
So what has changed? Well, the textures, of course. Every polygon of detail has been fed into an upscaler, lending Kain, Raziel, and everything else new bumps and cuts and details. I'm iffy on this. There are times when the game makes the mistake of remasters of yore: cramming so much extraneous detail in that the textures begin to look odd and misplaced amid th...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?