Legacy of Kain: Ascendance

« Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a mixed bag. It was great to see a continuation of the world and characters from Nosgoth. The story is beautifully told and realized. The gameplay was really fun once I adapted to it. The different characters keep things feeling fresh. But the game is very linear, and there are no skill trees or RPG mechanics. There’s no way for the player to experiment with the game’s mechanics, and there’s not a lot of reason to keep playing once the story’s done. There are some of us who like nice, linear old-school action platform progression, though. The game also demands a lot of the player and has a lack of polish that works against those demands. I’m still so happy Legacy of Kain: Ascendance was made, though, and I really hope this leads to more games in the series. »

« Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a fun addition to the series and offers a nice shift in the wider narrative. The mix of nostalgic and new characters works well and series fans will be excited to finally play as Raziel in vampire form in particular. The combat is solid if a little repetitive, and the weird shifts in visual style are off-putting at times, but this is a good little spinoff that hopefully promises more adventures in Nosgoth to come. »

« Legacy of Kain: Ascendance follows the storyline of a brand new character, who has been retroactively insterted into the main canon in a minimalistic and repetitive side-scrolling game. With strong spin-off vibes, it might not be a good indication of the revival of a classic franchise. »

« Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is simultaneously everything we wanted and everything we didn’t from this franchise. Crystal Dynamics and Bit Bot Media skillfully use the character of Elaleth to recount the behind-the-scenes events that shaped Nosgoth, introducing a series of narrative elements that pave the way for the saga’s future. On the flip side, however, the artistic and gameplay offerings fail to satisfy those who have waited over 20 years for a new chapter. With the exception of the voice acting and a soundtrack that matches the quality of previous entries, Ascendance represents a technical step backward in every respect. For those who love 2D platformers or can look past a low-budget aesthetic and gameplay, there is a well-told story here; one that lays the groundwork for a future that will hopefully head in a different direction. »

« I am well aware that I am settling for scraps—that this could have been done a thousand times better, and that the *Legacy of Kain* saga deserves so much more... but I’m going to choose to believe that this is merely a new step toward a future where we’ll finally get a new installment done right. »

« Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a decent new addition to the franchise after 23 years. It tries to breathe life into the franchise, but it makes only a bare minimum attempt. Though the voice work and soundtrack are the standouts here, the action and platforming suffer from bad level design and bad enemy AI. Even the game's story suffers from simple and mediocre writing, something that was once a standout for the franchise. »

« We’ve thought about it, but Ascendance doesn’t even manage to earn a 6, in our opinion. The developers’ love for the Legacy of Kain saga is evident in the lore and the narrative structure. Everything else, however, is truly lacking. Ascendance is a very weak game, never fun or entertaining; it’s playable from start to finish, but don’t expect this to be the game that will resurrect Raziel from his eternal slumber. »

« The first new entry in the Legacy of Kain franchise in over twenty years is, unfortunately, a total flop. If it didn't carry the weight of such a legendary name, it might be considered a simple and somewhat enjoyable 2D action-platformer, despite its short runtime. The real problem is that it chooses to interfere exactly where it shouldn't: the story. The changes to the original lore, combined with the introduction of a poorly written character like Elaleth—who is, for all intents and purposes, the game's true protagonist—and several questionable narrative choices, will be hard for long-time fans to swallow. Even on the gameplay front, despite a few good ideas, the title feels extremely basic and lacks variety in both its platforming and combat sections. Furthermore, the 3D sequences feel superfluous and barely relevant to the overall experience. The final impression is that of a low-budget product that, at best, could have worked as a fan-made project. Seeing it as an official release published by Crystal Dynamics makes the end result all the more disappointing. »

« The development company is astro-turfing the user scores with fake accounts. Check the Legacy of Kain reddit. »

« This game is an abomination to the franchise, and every positive review on this site is by the people who made the game in an egregious case of astroturfing. No real Legacy of Kain fan would give this game a positive review. »

« Presentation is poor, gameplay is poor, writing is poor. The ONLY redeeming feature is the voice actors and they likely didnt know what a crock of **** this project was going to be. »

« This is a painful score to leave. I really wanted this game to be good, despite it's rocky premise. Unfortunately, the baby simply needs to be called ugly in this case. I'll start with the good - mostly because there's not much to talk about. The art is actually quite nice. At times, the art direction seems conflicted and confused, as though there wasn't any clear leadership in charge of presenting a coherent vision, but each unique and varied style that the game cycles through is meaningfully well executed. Some of it is even more charming than it ought to be (I was a big fan of the retro PS1, blocky cutscene at the pillars). As for the gameplay, it's not good. It's reminiscent of the original Castlevania games, but lacks the in-depth "metroidvania" style exploration that you see with the Castlevania series at the height of its popularity. So, in essence, you're left with a simple side-scroller, with punishing platforming, and painfully basic combat. LoK: Ascendance lack intricacy, is poorly balanced, and I'd go so far as to say uninspired. Flash games had more complexity than we're seeing here. It feels as though the developers went with the cheapest- and easiest-to-produce gameplay loop that they could think of. Finally, the story. Good gracious, what have they done? Truth be told, I'd be heavily inclined to forgive any missteps in gameplay design if the story could pick up the slack. That'd be very in line with some of the previous Legacy of Kain titles. Unfortunately, this isn't a Soul Reaver 2 situation where a masterclass story assuages an under-baked game design. Instead, the story in Ascendance is about as trite and unnecessary as one can possibly imagine. The quality of the narrative is poor enough that it would've been rightfully torn apart even if it belonged to a new IP. Unfortunately, however, Ascendance is drowning in the shadows of its predecessors. Comparisons to other Legacy of Kain games are unavoidable, and in this endeavor, Ascendance falls hopelessly short. I hoped I'd never see the day that a Legacy of Kain game would dethrone Blood Omen 2 as the poorest written title in the franchise - and I'm gutted that it was the first game in about 20 years to be released that does the deed so extraordinarily. I regret that this review is so scathing, because I did really want to like the game. I've put my money where my mouth is repeatedly to try and nudge this franchise back to life, but Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a suggestion that maybe the Dead shouldn't Rise, and that we should be content to let them rest in peace. »

« It's come to the attention of Legacy of Kain fans that this game may be getting review boosted by BitBot. Sleuths on social media have found that several 9 and 10 reviews have usernames that are related to BitBot associates. This is rumor and speculation, please do your own research. As for the game itself, it's not fun. I've been waiting for a new LoK game for 20 years and this isn't what I wanted. Elaleth takes center stage and she's just not a good character. »

« An insult to the source material, all who worked on it, and its fans. This game is not only a poor representation of the world of Nosgoth and its history, but it is also just a dog **** game. Such a shame that this will likely be the last we hear of some of the original voice actors in these roles. Bit Bot is a shameful company of vision-less grifters who stifle and disregard criticism, while patting themselves on the back for somehow continuing to fail upwards. How anyone gave the okay for them to get their hands on the Thief series next is beyond me. Do your mind and wallet a favor and avoid anything Bit Bot like the plague. They do not care about the franchises they get their hands on, they just want your money and praise. I would say shame on them, but given their copious astroturfing in this very forum, I very much doubt they are capable of shame. Legacy of Kain deserves better. Revived franchises deserve better. You deserve better. »

« If you're a fan of this series, you're going to hate this game. It retcons a lot of the story with a new unlikable Mary Sue character, gets alot of the lore completely wrong, and is horribly written. The comic book it's based on is just as awful, which is expected given its the same writing team doing the game. And it's also embarrassingly obvious that a lot of the story and lore bits were written by AI slop. But even if you're not super into the series or a new comer, this game still stinks. The gameplay is overly simplistic. It's an action platformer (NOT a metroidvania btw) with one attack, sometimes a secondary attack, and some pretty terrible flight sections. There are NO power ups or extra abilities. It is as simple and barebones as it gets. Do you like mashing a button to fly, and have to keep refilling your stamina to keep in the air? Cus that's what this game does and it ain't fun. Boss fights and the enemy ai are lame as hell and boring. And to top it off, it's criminally overpriced at $20, and you'll only get 3 hours out of it (which honestly, is fine because I wouldn't want to play it for much longer). Don't be fooled by the 9s and 10s on here. Its obviously written by the company BitBot to deceitfully inflate the score here and gaslight you into thinking this is a good game. The ONLY positive thing I can say about this game is that they got the original voice cast to return. But that's not enough to save the terrible story. I will also say that I thought the music was good, BUT is not fitting at all with the tone of the series. Don't buy this garbage. Go buy the amazing remasters of the original games instead. »

« I had enough fun playing it until near the end. It's not ground breaking or really good by any means but I am willing to play it again in a series replay. The story did unfortunately assume that the player was familiar with The Dead Shall Rise comic book. There are too many art styles that don't mesh together well and in some cases (the anime style segments especially) are flat out unpleasant. The writing is not the worst but not on par with most of the series. It sits slightly above Blood Omen 2 for me in both fun and story. It has some seeds of interesting concepts that were simply not presented well, but I have enough imagination ability to deal with that. I quite liked the music. »