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2014 · Psyonix · Action · Fighting

Nosgoth

Nosgoth was a free-to-play multiplayer action game, developed by Psyonix and published by Square Enix for Microsoft Windows through digital distribution. It was a spin-off from the Legacy of Kain series of action-adventure games, and took place in its eponymous fictional universe. Nosgoth employed a player versus player system in which each match consisted of two rounds. Teams were composed of characters assigned to one of two races: vampires, designed around hack and slash combat; and humans, whose gameplay was styled after third-person shooters. Between rounds, teams would switch to control the opposing race, and the team which accumulated the most points by fighting their counterparts won the match.

Released: 26 March 2014
Platforms: Windows
Genres: Action Fighting Shooter Vampire
Developers: Psyonix
Publishers: Square Enix
Series: Legacy of Kain
Modes: Multiplayer
Perspective: Third person
Themes: Action Fantasy Horror Historical Stealth
Engine: Unreal Engine 3
Country: United States
Age ratings: PEGI 18 ESRB M
Languages: English, French, German
Composers: Kevin Riepl

About

Initially announced in June 2013 following internet leaks, Nosgoth was the first Legacy of Kain-associated game to debut in almost ten years, preceded by 2003's Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Though once intended for release as part of a single-player project, Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun, it was reconceptualized and continued development as a standalone title following Dead Sun's cancellation. When officially revealed in September 2013, Nosgoth attracted negative reception for its conceptual departure from the traditional single-player and story-driven Legacy of Kain formula. Initially beginning its closed alpha and opening up its servers to registered players in late 2013, the game's open beta began in January 2015 and ended in May 2016.

›Story

Nosgoth chronicles a previously-unexplored span of time in the events of Soul Reaver: the centuries between Raziel's execution and Raziel's resurrection, both events originally depicted in the introduction to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.

Since the collapse of the Pillars and the holy war, Nosgoth's oppressed human population has carved out a harsh existence in slavery and exile, largely relegated to life as food in Blood farms. The land's emperor, Kain, and the Council – his six lieutenants – reign over the heartlands with their vampire clans. When Raziel, Kain's first-born lieutenant, betrays his master, Kain condemns him to execution in the Lake of the Dead. Before long, however, Kain himself disappears, abandoning the empire. Using the Chronoplast to travel through time, he departs in search of a means to restore health to the corrupt Pillars of Nosgoth, and the world itself.

Kain's surviving lieutenants remain to shepherd the decadent realm, but quickly succumb to mistrust, infighting, and, ultimately, civil war. Raziel's leaderless progeny, the Razielim, become victims to persecution from their brethren, and, now unrestrained by Kain's leadership, clan falls against clan. Nosgoth's humans capitalize on the escalating state of turmoil and distraction among the vampires to escape the blood farms, rekindling their own civilization.

Rebuilding cities and recovering skills over hundreds of years, the human slaves come to represent an increasingly credible threat to the vampire race. They form an army, and a devastating attack on their enemies' outposts begins. The clans settle their disputes and reunite in an uneasy alliance to quell the insurgency. The new war between both races for domination of Nosgoth ensues.

Keywords

hunting
bloody
medieval
immortality
vampire
dark fantasy
pvp
death
war
online
atmospheric
team-based

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Nosgoth was an asymmetrical online multiplayer action game. Gameplay focuses on melee Vampire characters against the ranged Human characters, and consists of two modes: Deathmatch and Flashpoint. In Deathmatch, the Vampires and Humans fight against each other to get a higher kill-count than the opposing team. If the kill-count reaches a threshold, the team that reached it wins; if time runs out, the team with the higher kills wins.

Flashpoint is an offshoot of traditional Domination modes that tasks Humans with capturing a series of control points on the map. Two points are initially available, chosen at random, and when one point is captured, another appears. Humans have a limited amount of time to complete their mission, but each successful capture adds time to the clock, extending the match. Vampires win if they can prevent captures long enough for the match timer to run out.

Story

After the execution of Raziel in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Kain used the Chronoplast - a time-streaming device - to advance to his return, seemingly abandoning his empire. With the resulting power vacuum, the vampire clans of the empire fell against each other in a bloody civil war that nearly wiped out Raziel's clan. With the vampires occupied by their own internal struggles, humanity slowly became resurgent as escapees and free humans united to rebuild their shattered civilization.

Reconstructing cities and defences, and building themselves into a legitimate fighting force, the humans came to occupy a swath of southern Nosgoth. Attacks on key territories under vampire control eventually alerted the vampires to the danger posed by their former slaves and prompted the co-operation of the vampire clans in the face of the new threat - and a new war began for control of land of Nosgoth.

Development

After the release of Legacy of Kain: Defiance in 2003, it emerged that a sixth Legacy of Kain game had entered development at Ritual Entertainment in 2004, but was canceled before being publicly revealed. In 2013, speculation concerning the existence of another new Legacy of Kain project began with the discovery that series publisher Square Enix had registered the domain name warfornosgoth.com, thereby making reference to Nosgoth, the fictional setting of the series. The Official Xbox Magazine subsequently revealed evidence that Passion Pictures artist Richard Buxton had worked on a Legacy of Kain "animation pitch" in 2011; Buxton responded with the comment, "I'm not allowed to talk about that". In May 2013, an Advanced Micro Devices patch log and a profile on the Steam database were found to contain further references to an upcoming title named "War for Nosgoth" or "Nosgoth". Additionally, the LinkedIn profile of video game composer Kevin Riepl referred to a project named "Nosgoth", citing Square Enix as its publisher and Psyonix Games as its developer.

In early June 2013, Square Enix London Studios community manager George Kelion responded to the leaks and ensuing fan speculation by confirming the existence and ongoing development of the Nosgoth project to VG247 and Eurogamer, saying "it feels weird to have a bunch of info out there and we don't want the community to get the wrong idea". He clarified that Nosgoth was set in the same universe as previous Legacy of Kain titles, but that it was "not a traditional or even single-player LoK experience". and that "it's very much on a separate branch to both the Soul Reaver and Blood Omen series". Kelion further stated that long-time Legacy of Kain developers Crystal Dynamics were not involved in the project, and that Nosgoth would be officially announced, and properly revealed, at a later date, beyond the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013.

Reception

GameSpot's Cameron Woolsey rated the game 6/10, praising its entertaining gameplay and detailed environments, but citing a lack of content, balance concerns, technical problems and discontinuity with the Legacy of Kain series as faults.

The game holds a score of 3.58/5 on MMOs.com. Marc Marasigan highlighted the portrayal of vampires and entertaining action but also mentioned the limited number of game modes and the matchmaking system as weaknesses.