The story of the Legacy Of Kain series is fascinating, complicated and full of conflict – much like the famously lore-heavy and brutal stories of the games themselves. Five Legacy Of Kain games were released between 1996 and 2003, and although the series never achieved true blockbuster sales, it has always had a devoted cult following. Legacy Of Kain was doing the dark, brooding anti-hero thing years before games like God Of War and Darksiders, and the rich, vampiric lore that underpins it all is eminently rewarding to get your teeth into (so to speak).
The first game in the series – Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain – was created by Canadian studio Silicon Knights, which developed the concept for what was initially called The Pillars Of Nosgoth in around 1993. Key inspirations for the game included the Necroscope series of horror novels by Brian Lumley, which feature a vampire-dominated parallel world, and The Wheel Of Time, an intricately plotted series of fantasy novels by Robert Jordan. Game director Denis Dyack has also described the Clint Eastwood movie Unforgiven as a key influence, with its blurring of the lines between good and bad characters. The name itself was inspired by the title of Ken Follett’s historical novel The Pillars Of The Earth.
Crystal Dynamics soon signed on to publish the game, and initially it was being considered as a 3DO title (the Californian firm was one of the 3DO’s key developers, releasing titles like and ). However, it was quickly decided that Silicon Knights should instead target Sony’s new
