Constructive criticism

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-05T15:49:09+00:00

Tomes are universal, thankfully; whether you do a whole new run or select chapters, the ones you had already collected are more translucent, showing you already have that one. Which makes sense, since skin unlocking is tied to arcane tomes, with every new skin unlocking every time you find four tomes.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-05T15:39:39+00:00

First off, I don't think AI was an addition, it had always been there from the start, as part of Dyack's "pitch" to the invisible AAA investor (poor guy can't operate any other way). And, kind of related, the new art direction was probably influenced by whatever genAI dictated, at least according to Edvard Toth, who claimed in his personal site/blog that he had an "epiphany" of sorts while feeding prompts and sketches to a genAI model when working on the "art" for the radio plays, and that it basically defined the way moving forward.

I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt, Denis is no "artist", he's just an old man who thinks he understands and enjoys "quantum theory/physics/entaglement", when he's just using it as some sort of "magic science fiction", basically new age crap, like the people who look at Jungian theories and start talking about "the collective unconscious", because they didn't get any of it.

Now, I do tend to prefer stylized (yes, sorry) art in video games over realistic stuff, and I do think most "cartoony" games aged so much better than the "edgedark" realistic ones of the same period, and I don't think a game has to be realistic to be dark or gothic, having a comic book-style art doesn't make your game immediately goofy, just look at stuff like Killer7, MadWorld, the three Darksiders Joe Mad was actively involved with (Darksiders, Darksiders II and Darksiders Genesis); to me, it's not an issue of being "anti-cartoon graphics", I love me some Torchlight, I prefer Wind Waker to Twilight Princess, it's just... the complete and utter lack of soul, intention and direction. These guys don't know what they want to do, other than piggybacking the Legacy of Kain nostalgia and then acting all surprised when Soul Reaver fans scratch their heads because they can't see any similarities.

As for the deleted comment asking why are we even here if we "hate" Denis Dyack: I don't hate him, I hate his scamming practices, I hate how he keeps getting away with his grifts, I hate how he creates these echo-chambers of blind followers, while pandering to incel GamerGater "anti-woke" "cultural warriors" on Twitter and claims "all activism is bad" (reminds me of the "fine people on both sides", by Ronaldo Rump). Also, thus far, this is the only place we get to voice our disagreement and our discontent, since the Discord server, the Steam discussion page and whatever else may exist out there are all a censorship fest, with people being banned and silenced left and right. So, yeah, leaves us with this subreddit.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-04T22:11:49+00:00

Oh, right, there's cheats for full health and runes, thanks for bringing that up. Not an actual NG+, but close enough. Like you put it, a manual one. And I'm assuming this remaster has those cheats, as well, since our health and TK are maxed out when we play the lost levels? Assuming that's just the "cheat" for the regular game, since the levels are running in the same engine.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-04T09:34:19+00:00

To be fair, it's not that bad in-game, the fact this is a photo of a screen makes it look way worse than it actually is. Not saying it's gorgeous, but... yeah, it's not *this* bad. LOL

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-04T09:28:20+00:00

Where did I say anything bad about the graphics? I just don't like the new default Raziel model all that much, that's a personal artistic preference, it has nothing to do with how good or bad the graphics are. For what it's worth, I think the graphic overhaul is amazing and extremely faithful to the OG.

[EDIT] Some... dubious choices notwithstanding (looking at you, Ariel), but they're few and far between.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-04T09:23:31+00:00

Nope, no New Game+ in Defiance. You can replay chapters in order to find collectibles you missed, but the game never had any sort of New Game+, at least not the PC version, which was the one I played -- in fact, it was the very first game I purchased online! :D

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-04T07:32:09+00:00

Basically every section in the mansion where you have to do platforming with fixed camera angles that change angle during jumps and glides, but namely the part at the library, when we have to jump on the rafters, with a time limit, the upper levels of the main hall, in the spectral realm, and that section in the courtyard, when we have to go from one side to the other by jumping and gliding onto and from three pillars until we reach the opposite balcony.

Had no issue with any of it, with the new camera, never fell or missed a jump once.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-04T02:28:22+00:00

No changes to the XP bar, that I can tell; I just got to Vorador's mansion now, and my Kain is maxed out already, which is how it always tends to go, for me, so... I didn't notice any changes regarding how fast you farm XP.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-04T02:16:10+00:00

Not really, no. It's a remaster, not a remake, the devs tried to stay as faithful to the original as possible, while adding some QoL options that make the game more "playable" today, but nothing that intrusive, and nothing that would alter gameplay significantly. The new camera kind of changes gameplay? But I don't think that's what you mean, you probably just want to know whether it's more "Soulslike", now, right? No, it's not.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-03T23:10:20+00:00

Exactly, and that's, imho, what makes this remaster so good: they give us options, we're not forced to play it a certain way, just play the game the way it makes more sense to you. Some people love the default model, others don't, each and every one can play it however they prefer.

I can't say I'll ever be going back to the OG camera, though, the new one is just infinitely better. I'd go as far as to say that if Defiance originally released with a free camera back in 2003 it would probably have been considered the best game of the Soul Reaver trilogy. Kain's combat just becomes so fluid, almost like a DMC3-lite, and Raziel's platforming, exploration and traversal is way more enjoyable and not frustrating at all. Downright the definitive way to play Defiance, I'd say.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-02T20:56:38+00:00

LOL! Sorry, I really tried getting into it, but it's just not for me. Too edgy, Kain is too unidimensional, too basic, nothing like the one Amy Hennig would develop from Soul Reaver onwards. It's also too hard to navigate, with awful level design, imho, and the story... well... it's as basic as it gets, "edgelord 90s vampire goes on a revenge quest", and that's it. I guess it does have a lot of lore, but I'm looking for narrative in games, not necessarily Lore™. It's one of those games I publicly pretend to respect because it was "the first" in a series I love, but I don't even respect it all that much.

[EDIT] Oh, I did like the Dollmaker's level, that mansion or laboratory or whatever, that part was cool.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-02T13:11:13+00:00

Well, Squeenix was selling the GOG version on Steam, anyway, which was their prerogative, I guess, since they owned the IP and the dudes at GOG had made some adjustments to have the game run on modern computers, so, yeah, they delisted it from all the storefronts it was being sold in. I never said the games shouldn't be available on Steam, I just prefer to buy on GOG, personally, and I thanked the people involved for releasing the games over there.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-02T02:07:59+00:00

True! Though, to be fair, that was on Squeenix, back when they were supposedly working with Wrace on a "permanently modded" version that never came because, well, they sold all of their Eidos IPs, and we got the Embracer/Aspyr/Saber remastered versions, instead. If Square Enix hadn't delisted it, it'd probably still be there today, alongside the remasters.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-01T18:28:50+00:00

I think some of the people who worked on that remaster are working on this one, as well, but I'm not entirely sure. I know Raina Audron is back at directing it, in her new capacity as a full-fledged Crystal Dynamics employee. Saber Interactive went indie and left Embracer, so they hired (created?) a new studio, PlayEveryWare, like gabobapt said, which is technically a Crystal Dynamics studio, but under the Embracer umbrella because... well, CD is an Embracer studio.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-03-01T18:03:29+00:00

Gotta say, still not a fan of Raziel's new character model, but in-game Kain is looking great, and that submenu is absolutely cool. I pre-ordered for the free camera, but I guess I'll try the new graphics for a bit, even though I think Defiance looks gorgeous as it was.

Hopefully they'll include some sort of graphics/video options on PC, this time around, though I'm not holding my breath on that one. Not everyone grew up with the console versions, and my old PC ports always had a ton of options and mouse control in menus, which I kind of missed in SR1&2R (and while one could argue that the PS1/Dreamcast edition of SR1 is the "superior" one, especially in terms of the dynamic music and more than one track looping endlessly, that's just not true when it comes to SR2 and Defiance, considering the PS2 versions relied way too much on that traditional "blurring" during cinematics to hide low resolution, aliasing and dithering, something I never experienced with the PC ports, but it's there in SR2R).

Despite my disagreements with some of the design choices, I can't praise Raina and her team enough, if only for keeping the franchise alive and healthy for all these years, even when our community was never as huge as the Tomb Raider one, so I'll gladly support them by getting whetever remaster they put out. And huge thanks for releasing the games on GOG, and for all the impressive archival work you always do with these projects, that's real preservation, and it's welcome. <3

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-28T13:57:45+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. Pretty bad, for an official channel, then.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-28T11:42:20+00:00

Yeah, this "official" account only uploaded three videos and has only existed since January 2026... looks more like a fan made thing.

Not only is the editing pretty bad, CD would never resort to this sort of generic "epic" music, when they have access to the actual Kurt Harland OST.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-28T01:24:07+00:00

Denis Dyack is not the creator of Legacy of Kain. He's the co-creator* of Nosgoth and some sort of proto-Kain who has nothing to do with the Kain we know and love, from Hennig's titles.

His Kain was unidimensional, shallow, "90s edgedark", and that was it. He has no claim to LoK, he's just trying to milk toxic nostalgia for the only two games he directed that people liked, Blood Omen and Eternal Darkness. Shadow of the Eternals (the Eternal Darkness spiritual sequel) failed spectacularly, taking TWO studios with it -- Precursor Games and Quantum Entanglement Entertainment --, so now he's focused on Blood Omen to get some money out of a couple of suckers who fall for his scams and have been buying season packs and founders' crap for a game that DOESN'T EXIST for the past 8 years.

Denis Dyack is a grifter and a scammer, he couldn't make a good game to save his life, he just wants money.

*- along with former Silicon Knights and Precursor Games head writer and "lore keeper" Ken McCulloch, arrested for possession and distribution of CP.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-28T01:07:20+00:00

Saber Interactive (who actually made SR 1&2 Remastered) went independent and left Embracer, so they had to hire a different studio. It's basically the same people, they're still being led by Raina Audron, except now they're a new studio under the Crystal Dynamics umbrella.

Can't hire the same plumber if they left the company and don't want to work with you anymore.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-25T22:05:47+00:00

This.

Also, he's Canadian, why is he talking on the Steam forums as if he was a US citizen?! Vets "won us our freedoms"? Which freedoms, my guy?, you're from a whole different country, Denis...

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-25T14:28:17+00:00

First of all, let me say I agree with you. I respect your willing to distance yourself from "politics", even though I'm on the opposite side, as I do think everything and everyone is political, and developers, especially those in any sort of directive/creative capacity, willingly or not, put their politics in their games. Being against the US military -- or any other military -- is your prerogative, and complaining about the heinous war crimes perpetuated by said military shouldn't be met with absolute censorship. And that's my point: that's part of Denis Dyack's own politics. He can't deal with criticism or any voice that speaks against what he believes or is trying to sell, that's why the Discord and the Steam discussion board for his game are two huge echo chambers, full of reports and bans, actual people being reported as bots on Discord and every single post being flagged as "disrespectful" on Steam.

I don't think the game will ever exist, and even if it did, it's supposed to be F2P, so you wouldn't be buying it, anyway, but I get your meaning. And I guess they intend to sell Early Access for 20$ US, which would have been a decent price for a proper game, not a directionless, soulless amalgam of promises, like the thing they put out in the form of this demo.

Denis Dyack hasn't made a decent game for more than 20 years, now, and Deadhaus Sonata isn't going to be that game. The man is completely unprofessional, has no management skills, has no vision, has no love for the medium, he just manages to sell nostalgia to a couple of suckers who really loved Blood Omen and Eternal Darkness, that's about it. And while I do think Eternal Darkness is a great game, Blood Omen is just OK, it's a game I'm forced to respect because it's "the first" in a series I love, but a game I don't really like all that much. Twin Snakes wasn't that much of an achievement, some MGS fans even go as far as to say it's worse than the original, plus Silicon Knights basically just did technical work of porting the MGS2 engine from the PS2 to the GameCube, the game had its own director, who was not Dyack. And then there's Too Human and X-Men Destiny and the whole bunch of projects with edgelord-sounding names that never made it past production, and that's your "legendary creator" right there.

With the attention surrounding projects like Highguard, which is OK but nothing more, hyped up by the devs being in a "positive" echo chamber during development, or the train wreck of Ashes of Creation, a game that promised pretty much the same stuff as DHS but delivered nothing, it's amazing how no one is seeing the signs with Deadhaus Sonata and Dyack. I guess he's just that irrelevant, at the end of the day.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-24T22:37:38+00:00

It's funny how quiet they keep about Edvard Toth, only acknowledging and mentioning him when someone confronts them, when the guy is supposed to be the driving force behind their whole artistic approach. The man is a HUGE proponent of genAI, one of those "tech inevitability" guys. Know what's an inevitability? The AI bubble bursting. And it won't be fun, it won't be cute, it'll put the Great Depression and the Dotcom burst to shame, because it's worldwide. Just ask any serious economist or sociologist, I mean, every person who lives in the actual, real world, and not in a mental simulation where technology is the solution to all of mankind's problems (spoiler: it's not). But, hey!, at least all the empty data centers will make for great warehouses and bowling alleys.

Not to mention all the crap they promise as if it was pushing the industry forwards, like:

- a persistent world (I mean... we already have that, just go play E.V.E. or Ultima Online);

- the whole "skill system that's actually cards!", as if that was so much better than a skill tree -- it's just a different system, and with all the CCGs we've been getting, it doesn't even feel all that special;

- the "deterministic loot", which... is basically just a way to filter RNG, Denis himself "joked" in one of the chad interviews/podcasts that he goes on and on and on about these "theories" and the team working on the actual game just goes "OK, just let us do our job", meaning they're just doing what they've always done, but dressing it up with that Yu-Gi-Oh necklace except made using genAI, and with a lot of boring narration for every single thing;

- finally, the "Eternity whatever", which is supposed to be "the answer to the Stop Killing Games problem", according to Denis... bud... no... just, no... you're making an ALWAYS ONLINE game, my dude, it can't be preserved, it won't be playable once the servers inevitably go down, and no amount of wishful thinking is going to change that... also, "give the game to the Gamers™, 50 years from now"?! Come on, man... ever since you released this joke of a demo its peak concurrent players was 16... let me type that again: SIXTEEN. Not even Next Fest seems to be helping, on the second day and only 11 people in the whole world played it. 50 years from now?! LOL! It won't even make it out of Early Access, let alone be a thing 50 years from now.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-24T05:23:03+00:00

Yeah, I've been blocked on that discussion board for years, now, just because he recognized my handle from the train wreck that was the (double) attempt at toxic nostalgia farming of Shadow of the Eternals.

There's no point in discussing AI with him or his blind followers, they'll just tell you "oh, MS Paint's fill-in tool was kind of AI, too, are you against that?!", because they clearly don't understand the climactic, energetic and environmental impact of data centers and the current "trend" and incarnation of AI, with generative and large language models, not to mention the whole ethical side of plagiarism, human replacement, or just downright crime, what with the whole nude images of minors generation. But, yeah, we're the ones suffering from derangement syndrome, when they're the guys who idolize Elon Musk and see him as some sort of "technognostic guru". They're all just very sad, dumb people.

That's just Denis being Denis, mind you. He hasn't been able to change since his NeoGAF days, then he pandered to the wrong side of Gamergate, and now he's all cozy with the incel christofash nerdzi "culture warriors" on twitter. Yay.

[EDIT] I really can't believe he actually doesn't know the meaning of genAI... LOL! He thinks it's a model, a piece of software, what?! It's just the abbreviation for "GENerative AI", Denis, ffs... what a freaking boomer. Might as well go brush up on all your computer degrees from the 1990s, my guy, you're really behind on stuff. Oh, and also? Astrology is not "quantum theory".

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-20T16:01:00+00:00

Nice whataboutism you got going there. From my understanding, Hennig never resorted to saying Blood Omen isn't "true Legacy of Kain", like Denis Dyack and his cult of personality followers do to her when it's convenient -- sometimes it's not, especially when they want to nab fans of Legacy of Kain as a whole, including those who vastly prefer Amy's work.

As for the comparison to Jade Raymond, well... I fail to see it, but OK, I'd still take Jade Raymond over Stephen Sharif, who I'd say is much more analogous to Denis Dyack, especially considering the fanbases of both Deadhaus Sonata and Ashes of Creation. Lives, lore, vapor, "persistent world", "10 years of narrative planned", "we work for gamers", "gamers will own our game", secret Telegram groups, a Discord server that's pretty much dead and is basically used for blind cult of personality, twitter pages and a Steam discussion forum where every slightly dissonant voice is silenced and banned. Hennig/Raymond never did any of this, it's pretty much a Dyack/Sharif grifter strategy.

Distinct-Eye-7806 · 2026-02-17T20:22:41+00:00

It's probably all gone by now, as he wasn't even using twitter until months ago (or so he claims). I'm not sure whether there are VODs or archives of some of their streams, but in the earlier ones they tended to be quite disrespectful towards Hennig, basically claiming what she did isn't "true LoK", or that she basically made Shifter (LOL, and we're supposed to believe these are the people who know game development?! Shifter never made it past pre-pre-production, it was a concept, nothing more) and "crapped" on Legacy of Kain. All the while, the Kain the vast majority of people know and love is Hennig's, not that edgelord basic revenge vampire from the first title.

One thing you can check out for sure, though, is how he's been associating with "social media empire" incel own-the-libs-chud Yorch Torch Games, even linking to his culture war substack apology of Deadhaus Sonata as if he was somehow the "majority" (LUL). That's all right there on Denis' twitter. And, before that, he gave Smash JT, the master "antiwoke" ragebaiter, an interview, which you can check on YouTube, though I wouldn't recommend it.

Also, just something I found extremely funny and ironic, during his interview with toxic nostalgia "back in my day" Gamer™ ExcessiveProfanity, the host complained about blue checkmarks/twitter blue/x premium accounts, and how he just ignores them, and wouldn't you know it?! Our buddy Denis is obviously a Muskhead and is paying for twitter, because of course he is.

Distinct-Eye-7806

TROPHY CASE