Skip to main content

Watch 30 minutes of the cancelled Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun

legacy kain dead sun footage of
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Footage has surfaced from the cancelled Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun, an action role-playing game that was cancelled by Square Enix in 2012 after three years of development at Climax Studios. NeoGAF user Mama Robotnik has compiled an extensive post of everything we know about the lost action adventure game.

Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun (32min HD video of the cancelled successor to Soul Reaver)

Crystal Dynamics, which shepherded the series for most of its run, served in an advisory role to Climax. According to sources close to the project, Square Enix felt  that the game was not going to meet the necessary sales projections in order to be worthwhile, and so the game was scrapped, much to the chagrin of the people who had invested considerable time and effort.

Dead Sun would have introduced a new protagonist into the struggle between humans and vampires in Nosgoth, while expanding on the story and mythos of the previous games. Like prior entries in the series, gameplay would have combined action, exploration, and puzzle solving, with roleplaying elements like upgradable abilities. It was also supposed to be strongly story-focused, described by one source as “if HBO did Zelda,” which is particularly funny given the recent reports about a Netflix Zelda series.

In addition to a single-player story, the game also included a separate multiplayer component. Teams of technology-armed humans would face off against bestial, super-powered vampires in bloody deathmatches. This element, along with some of the art assets, survived the game’s cancellation and was greatly expanded upon for Nosgoth, the online multiplayer spin-off that is currently in open beta on Steam. Mechanics that were introduced in Dead Sun like wall climbing and flight have also been fleshed out for Nosgoth.

Check out more screenshots, concept art, and details about the game’s plot over on NeoGAF.

Editors' Recommendations

Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
How to get to Monkey Island in Sea of Thieves
An election poster for guybrush in Sea of Thieves.

Over the course of its many years of updates and expansions, Sea of Thieves has had a few notable crossovers with other pirate franchises. The Pirates of the Caribbean crossover let you team up with the legendary Jack Sparrow, but the Monkey Island content felt like it came out of nowhere. For those unaware, Monkey Island is a series of pirate point-and-click games that were as funny as the puzzles were obscure. Thankfully, you don't have to intuit that you need to combine a cat whisker with a mason jar to bypass a skeleton guard to get to this new content, but it is more challenging than you might think.

Read more
3 Xbox Game Pass games you need to play this weekend (May 3-5)
Senua in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

Another weekend is upon us, and you're probably looking for some games to kill time with over the course of it. We're in a bit of a lull right now ahead of a flurry of releases starting next week, so it's a great time to dip back into the Xbox Game Pass catalog and check out some games that you may have missed. There are three games in particular that I think you should check out this weekend if you're looking for something to play.

One is an unsettling adventure that's getting an Xbox-exclusive sequel later this month. The next is a finely animated roguelike indie that recently made its way to Microsoft's gaming subscription service. Finally, there's a relaxing adventure that gives players a lot of freedom, yet is short enough to beat in a weekend. If you're having trouble deciding what to play this weekend, give one of these games a shot.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Read more
3 underrated PS Plus games you should play this weekend (May 3-5)
The main character of Tales of Kenzera: Zau stands with two elemental items.

PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra have been around for almost two years, and during that time the subscription service has established itself as an ample competitor to Xbox Game Pass. That means there is a wealth of great games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 owners to check out if they're looking for something to play this weekend. I think PS Plus subscribers should be looking toward some of the more underrated games in the subscription service this weekend too.

I have three particular picks in mind. The first is an enjoyable Metroidvania that came to PS Plus' game catalog when it launched just a couple of weeks ago and deserves a lot more attention than it's getting. After that, there's an action-platformer that pays homage to series like Ninja Gaiden that you should check out before it leaves the catalog. Finally, there's a PS2-era Star Wars game that fills the niche a recently canceled game would have.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau

Read more