Legacy of Kain: Ascendance Review - A Monkey's Paw Of A Game
When Crystal Dynamics surveyed fans of the ‘Legacy Of Kain’ IP three years ago, I felt incredibly bullish about the future of a franchise that I dabbled with as a kid, but didn’t get to invest nearly enough time into. Among questions surrounding remasters v remakes (which they’ve answered through multiple released remasters now), there were also questions about what should come next, from single player sequels, to multiplayer games, and more. While Crystal Dynamics, along with parent company Embracer Group, took the feedback and ticked all the right boxes, with remasters of the classics coming along, allowing an easy entry/re-entry point for fans old and new, it was with the single-player game that things fell apart. That single-player game, Legacy of Kain: Ascendance, is a monkey’s paw moment for a dream franchise return that we never thought would happen. It’s a single-player new franchise entry that we’d all hoped would happen, but it is simultaneously a massive misfire for the beloved IP.
Usually, I’d begin with the critique of any game by exploring the narrative, but let me come back to that in this case, as it’s the gameplay that must be the focus here. Ascendance changes up the franchise norm, shifting perspectives from the third-person action-adventure fare that we’re used to to an NES/SNES-inspired 2D action-platformer, and fails to stick the landing. For the most-part, you already know how this game plays as a result of this decision, left to right (with the ability to backtrack, most of the time) platforming, a limited selection of abilities to fend off threats, and a series of platforming challenges to put your skills to the test. The game simply suffers from a range of poor design decisions that derail the possibility of any prolonged fun found in play. Players will at times assume the role of vampiric characters, and in these instances, you will be hamstrung by a rapidly depleting health meter, representing the need for blood. To restore your health, you’ll need to best and then feed on fallen enemies, avoiding burning hazards along the way, and absolutely not touching water. It all makes a lot of sense in theory, but the execution is poor. The parrying windows are minimal, and the enemy animations are subtle enough that the best way for players to survive an encounter is to recklessly go on the attack, relying on the temporary invincibility that you earn while feeding, to restore health before continuing the assault. It hurts the power fantasy that you should be experiencing in these moments. As a vampire, the player can swoop down on unsuspecting enemies to inflict some hurt, which is a cool addition, but when the game shifts perspectives to a pre-corrupted Raziel, the game becomes a lot blander with pretty stock-standard sword flailing and simplified platforming becoming the focus. As a blood-sucker, the playing experience was fun but flawed, but playing as Raziel is completely forgettable. Combine all of this with enemy-AI that self-sabotages, throwing themselves off platforms and to their deaths, inconsistent and unpredictable attack windows for enemies, and incredibly frequent checkpoints, which can either be a blessing or a curse, purely depending on how balanced a gameplay sequence is, and Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance will be constantly frustrating you.
Don’t confuse my criticisms of the game with a suggestion that the choice to make a 2D action-platformer such as this was a bad decision; it wasn’t, it’s just that the execution is largely abysmal. Where things begin to improve are in the realms of narrative and presentation. Throughout the game, you’ll assume the role of two different vampires, Elaleth, and Kain, as well as the pre-corrupted Raziel, as you explore a fascinating timeline that both acts as a prequel to the series and a side-story, as you shift through windows of time. We see the origins of Raziel’s wings, learn about the often-referenced but never-seen Elaleth, and even learn about Kain’s Sarafan Lautenents. Crystal Dynamics and lead developer Bit Bot Media haven’t layered the game too deeply with critical narrative points, but there’s enough here to whet the appetite of fans who’ve waited a long time for anything new from the IP.
As for the presentation. The game is inspired by the NES/SNES eras in both it’s game design, but also in it’s visuals. Ascendance is at times, a very pretty pixel art title. While backgrounds can be a bit lacking in depth and detail, the three playable characters look fantastic, and the contrast of them against the light of the moon, the flickering of nearby fire, and explosions of colour from enemies, really helps the visual design to pop. During dialogue sequences, there are some pretty impressive character portraits, and in a couple of the game’s chapters, the perspective completely shifts to a PS1-inspired low-poly look that feels like it had been ripped right out of 1995’s Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. Much of the old cast returns to bring their voices to this new title, and the soundtrack is sublime, with orchestrated gems contrasting pairing nicely with more intense, metal-inspired tracks. The audio work is absolutely the highlight of the Ascendance experience.
Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is not at all the return we had been hoping for – not due to the direction of the game, but due to the poor execution. Outside of the soundtrack and voicework, if there was any other praise I could give the game, it is that after 3-4 hours, it is done, with very little incentive to go around again. If this is the opening salvo ahead of a much larger return, I’m now feeling pretty hesitant for whatever comes next.
Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance was reviewed on PS5 with a code kindly provided by the publisher.
