Defiance is a game which succumbs to repetition but is redeemed by enjoyable combat mechanics and a superb story.
Without going into detail, Defiance picks up where Soul Reaver 2 left off and it brings the Legacy of Kain series to a satisfying conclusion. Unfortunately, most of the story elements are clustered at the very beginning and very end of the game, which leaves the middle of the game a boring, barren monotonous waste of emptiness where you will spend most of your time unlocking new powers for your weapon so that you can open another door or bypass another obstacle and while many of the environments are interesting and varied, you will get tired of seeing them after playing through them, backtracking through them again and then seeing them once again when you play through them as the other character or in a different time period.
Raziel and Kain play almost identically, with only minor variations between their move sets. Both use only a single weapon, which gains energy with every hit and, when maxed out, allows you to unleash a spell whose effects vary based on the weapon ability you have equipped. Sadly, most of these effects are simple area of effect damage abilities. Some interesting variants do exist however. The fire reaver, for instance, burns your enemies, causing them to run about frantically while the water reaver encases them in ice and the time reaver slows them down. Unfortunately most of these abilities are acquired late in the roughly 15 hour long game.
There are other issues as well. Unlike in the Soul Reaver games Defiance does not allow you to control the camera, instead it moves on a predetermined track. It works fine most of the time but can get aggravating during jumping puzzles or when a large object in the foreground blocks your view during a battle. There are also fights with demon and angel statues that are repeated entirely too often.
Defiance doesn't live up to its predecessors in most respects but one aspect that improves upon the other games is the combat, which is much more fluid than in previous Soul Reaver games and really gives you a feeling of being a demigod battling against demons and furious crusaders.
Despite its shortcomings, Defiance does succeed in bringing the Legacy of Kain series to a satisfying conclusion. It's a tough game to recommend on its own merits, but fans of the previous games in the series owe it to themselves to give this one a try, especially if they buy it for $2.50 on a Steam sale like I did.