People have a fascination with vampires, whether it is the traditional Dracula by Bram Stoker, or Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. Maybe it's because the idea of immortality and supernatural powers in exchange for sucking blood from innocents' sounds like a great proposal - I don't know, really. It's probably some of the same reasons that games like Legacy of Kain: Defiance appeal to people.

One of the best things about Legacy of Kain: Defiance is the graphics. It's a game with some really well-done environments and some nice effects that at least make the time invested a pretty one. Yet, while these graphics are definitely appealing, they lack the ability to mask the fact the level design is repetitive. Often the adventure becomes nothing more than tedious because the environments are too similar in layout and don't offer any amazing surprises as the game progresses on. This leaves some blemish on the overall beauty of the game.

Thankfully, it's not all bad, as one of the most impressive elements makes itself known very early on in the game, as players hear the difference in quality. No, the sound track isn't that great, it's the voice acting that is able to wow the gamer. These talented voice actors give and amazing amount of character to both of the polygonal protagonists, making the cinematic sequences something to enjoy, as they're able to break up the monotony found in the gameplay.

Therein lays one of the other major flaws. The gameplay isn't special at all. In fact, going to the game store and selecting some random title you've never heard about would probably have some similar gameplay. It's mashing the attack button as much as possible to beat the hordes of enemies, with little to no strategy involved.

Well, there are some varying types of special abilities, but nothing amazing. There's the fact that both Kain and Raziel lose energy over time and have to replenish it in two different fashions. Kain restores his health by sucking the blood out of properly weakened enemies and shackled humans. Raziel consumes the soul of people and enemies to keep on trucking.

In fact, the existence of two different protagonists allow for a neat way of progressing a story. It almost reminded me of a television show, where the point of view will change between two rivals as they complete various, and self-set objectives. It all leads up to the unavoidable conclusion where the two face off in some battle of epic proportions. Sure, it's formulaic, but an approach not often taken in videogames, which allows it to be considered a different, if not fresh approach.

While this idea was a good one, further observations reveal it to be not much more than a cheap gimmick. Yeah, there are two different characters, Kain and Raziel. Or are there? There are two different voice actors, one for each. There are two back stories that vary enough where the intertwining didn't hinder the development. But, what about how they control? For two characters that seem like that they should have different feels in terms of moment and combat, it sure doesn't seem like it. This is a glaring oversight by the developers, as this is the type of error that completely turns a novel idea into a cheap exploit to increase the amount of gameplay.

The more puzzle based gameplay of Raziel should have taken advantage more of his ability to shift between the planes of the spirit world and living realm. Rather, it seems like both characters devolved to the point where they could replace one another at any point in the game and nothing would have been lost, other than some hurt fans. Those people probably were already hurt much earlier than that.

In the end, Legacy of Kain: Defiance is a game filled with great parts that would have made for a fantastic sum, if not for the parts that hold it back from normalcy. Yes, there are some good parts - the voice acting, the story presentation - and they do deserve mention, but not more so than what keeps the game from being fun- no difference in characters, repetitive gameplay. In the end, only those who are diehard fans of the series should approach this title, least they have to forfeit a soul or blood to tango with this rather lacking game.