| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Video Games |
| Genre: | Role-Playing |
| Console: | Other |
Every epic story has elements that were removed for one reason or another during its creation. For many of these stories, they are lost forever - or slowly fade into obscurity and misunderstanding.
The goal of The Lost Worlds is to preserve in as much detail as possible the apocrypha of the Legacy of Kain series of video games. Like the deleted scenes bonuses on DVDs, these pages catalogue what might have been - and in some cases what might yet be.
Lost Worlds talks about one of my all-time favorite game franchises, Legacy Of Kain.
The Legacy of Kain series now encompasses 5 games: Blood Omen, Blood Omen 2, Soul Reaver I and II, and Defiance. The story is not yet complete, and neither the publisher, Eidos Interactive, nor the creators, Crystal Dynamics, are willing to speculate on how many more games there might be in the series.
This is a very gothic, very ornate series of games, with a plot that spans millennia, and involves vampires, humans, a third race called Hylden, demons, time travel, fate, and the nature of free will. Continuity is preserved across all the games, with the sole exception of Blood Omen 2, and the same actors play the vocal parts throughout, which rapidly makes Kain and Raziel some of the most distinctive, and recognizable, videogame characters ever.
Much of each game is told through voice-overs and asides by the characters. The game designers were courteous enough to include what they call the "Dark Chronicle" in each game, which allows you to read the scripts for each cutscene and rendered sequence in each game, so if you use a cinema to get a drink, you haven't missed anything you can't find out about again. I'd really use the pause key, though: the writing is really good, if a bit melodramatic, and some of the comments the various characters make are fascinating.
The basic premise is simple, but its implications aren't. Kain, the main character of both Blood Omen games and co-lead of Defiance, is born fated to be the "Guardian of Balance," which makes him one of the guardians of an ancient artifact known as the Pillars of Nosgoth. However, just as he's born, the guardian he's fated to replace is murdered, which drives all the remaining guardians mad. Kain himself is later assassinated and resurrected as a vampire, and then confronted with a choice: he can kill himself, which will cleanse the Pillars of their corruption, or he can live, which will doom the world, but make him its ruler.
The thing is, Kain quickly realizes that this is a false dilemma, which he explains later to the other major character in the series, Raziel, in what I think is one of the best cutscenes in the entire series to date. This takes place in Soul Reaver 2:
Kain:
Thirty years hence, I am presented with a dilemma - let's call it a two-sided coin. If the coin falls one way, I sacrifice myself and thus restore the Pillars. But as the last surviving vampire in Nosgoth, this would mean the annihilation of our species. Moebius made sure of that. If the coin lands on the reverse, I refuse the sacrifice and thus doom the Pillars to an eternity of collapse. Either way, the game is rigged.
Raziel:
We agree then that the Pillars are crucial, and must be restored?
Kain:
Yes, Raziel - that's why we've come full-circle to this place.
Raziel:
So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate you must die so that new Guardians can be born.
Kain:
The Pillars don't belong to them, Raziel...
[Kain gestures derisively, indicating humanity in general.]
Kain:
...They belong to us.
Raziel (disgusted):
Your arrogance is boundless, Kain.
Kain (laughing softly):
There's a third option - a monumental secret, hidden in your very presence here. But it's a secret you have to discover for yourself. Unearth your destiny, Raziel. It's all laid out for you here.
Raziel:
You said it yourself, Kain - there are only two sides to your coin.
Kain:
Apparently so. But suppose you throw a coin enough times... Suppose one day, it lands on its edge.
(This taken from DarkID's excellent script guide for SR2, available at GameFAQS and specifically, here.)
This, to me, is an excellent example of the kind of discussions that happen in this series. The entire storyline is based around the essential question of free wil and destiny - is destiny immutable? Or can we change our paths?
LoK is one of the few game series that has improved with age; Defiance is one of the best games I've ever played. Most series repeat themselves, but because of the time-travelling nature of the story, you find yourself seeing the same events over from different perspectives as you play through the games, and new information about them comes to light.
For anyone who loves a good story and doesn't mind a LOT of combat to get there - along with a good deal of puzzle-solving - this is definitely the series for you. Anyone else need not apply; if you can't hang with puzzles you will HATE these games.
One final note: Be aware, if you play Blood Omen 2, that it was not made by the same design team as the rest of the series, and there ARE continuity flaws in it. I didn't hate it; it's certainly an enjoyable game, but there is a definite difference in the production values between it and the rest of the series.
