The Legacy of Kain series is a sort of generational series for me. My mother loved Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, and played the Blood Omen games as well as both Soul Reaver titles when I was younger. I grew an affection for them as I got older, and as an adult, I have lamented that Legacy of Kain: Defiance was where the chronology ended. Now, it seems that the team at Crystal Dynamics is testing the waters to return to the land of Nosgoth with a new side-scrolling action-platformer. The question is, has our wait been in vain?

I hesitate to speak too much about the plot of Legacy of Kain: Ascendance, as a large part of the appeal of the Legacy of Kain franchise is its story. However, to give you a bit of an idea of what you are in for, I’ll give a slight overview. Ascendance is a trip through time, offering multiple protagonists. Kain and Raziel (of course) show their faces, while a new face named Elaleth is also playable. Each character has their role to play in the tapestry of time, and it seems that the plot of Ascendance may very well dictate the future of the Legacy of Kain franchise.

In simple terms, each character (Raziel in two separate forms) has a unique playstyle. Kain is a vampire with raw power and vampiric might at his disposal. Elaleth is a vampire with a fast and aggressive playstyle, and you play Raziel both in his vampiric form and as a Sarafan Knight, a first for the series.

Ascendance has multiple difficulty options, from Story-focused all the way to much harder difficulties. The variance is wonderful, as Ascendance will require you to get used to not only each character’s combat skills, but also their platforming abilities. You’ll chain dashes, attacks, and other supernatural abilities together to survive and progress through each level. There are also hidden secrets filled with lore, as well as upgrades for health and your supernatural abilities hidden across the levels.

The story is front and center here as well, with the original voice cast from the franchise returning to reprise the roles of Kain, Raziel, Moebius, Ariel, and more. There is also an original score by Celldweller, which has a beautifully gothic tone that matches the dark and dreary land of Nosgoth.

The levels are perfectly animated, with beautiful pixel art that gives the land of Nosgoth a new visual style. In addition, animated cutscenes blend seamlessly into the levels, blending gorgeous character art and voice acting. I honestly cannot speak enough about how much of a wonderful job the dev team did with building the world and characters, especially bringing back a world with decades of history behind it.

Now, with all of the good that Ascendance has in it, there’s a little bit of a wrinkle in terms of its gameplay. The combat is…a little clunky. There are a few options you can work with, from parrying mechanics to a few other things. However, the standard attack is a little inflexible and the parry doesn’t always work as intended. On lower difficulties, this isn’t much of an issue, but I can see it being a problem on higher difficulty levels.

Also, strangely enough, the volume levels on certain characters’ voice acting are lower than others. I’m not sure if this is intended or not, but I had to raise the voice volume so that I could hear the voice acting of one specific side character, even though Elaleth, Kain, and Raziel’s voice acting could be heard perfectly fine.

Aside from those gripes, Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a fine addition to the Legacy of Kain story. I’m really curious to see if this leads to another proper, full-fledged 3D entry in the series. Regardless, I’m just glad that Crystal Dynamics is paying attention to the land of Nosgoth again.

A PC Review copy of Legacy of Kain: Ascendance was provided by Crystal Dynamics for the purposes of this review.

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Legacy of Kain: Ascendance

$29.99 USD

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Fantastic Voice Acting
• Gorgeous Pixel art and Animations
• Intriguing Story
• Accessible Gameplay
• Lots to Explore and Uncover

Cons

• Volume Levels for Certain Characters are Weird
• Melee Combat is Clunky
• Parrying doesn't always work