Nosgoth (cancelled game)

Nosgoth's original six playable character classes.

Nosgoth was a cancelled free-to-play multiplayer action game, developed by Psyonix and published by Square Enix Europe for Microsoft Windows. The project began public testing in 2013, entered the open beta stage in 2015, and remained in production until its closure in 2016, prior to formal release.

As the first Legacy of Kain-related title to officially emerge in almost a decade, Nosgoth attracted controversy on its revelation to the public, with criticism focusing on its conceptual departure from the series' narrative-driven formula. Shortly after its announcement, it was discovered that the spinoff had originated as the multiplayer companion to a traditional single-player project by Climax Studios, Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun, cancelled in 2012. However, Square Enix Europe stated that the finished product would be largely independent of Dead Sun.

Though not nominally promoted under the Kain franchise's banner, Nosgoth was to be set in the existing continuity and eponymous setting of past games. The game's backstory would bridge gaps within the opening events of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, involving a war between the vampires of Kain's empire and their human adversaries. Players controlled both races in various team-based gameplay modes, competing to score points, accumulate currency, gain experience, and expand their inventory with each match.

Explaining the cancellation, Nosgoth's team wrote that "it's been a pleasure to build this game with your help, but ultimately its audience hasn’t grown enough to sustain ongoing operations."

Profile

"Hundreds of years of conflict and hatred. Each race pitted against the other. For supremacy, for survival. This is the war for Nosgoth."

―Nosgoth official website

Nosgoth's logo.

Nosgoth Announcement Trailer

The September 2013 announcement trailer.

• Preceded by: Template:Icon-Defiance Legacy of Kain: Defiance (2003)
• Developer: Psyonix
• Publisher: Square Enix Europe
• Directed by:
  • Corey Davis – game director
  • Bill Beacham – design director
• Release date: TBA ("closed beta is now live")
• Formats: Microsoft Windows
• Protagonists:
  • The vampires: Soul Reaver era
  • The humans
• Quick links (categories):
  • Nosgoth characters
  • Nosgoth locations
  • Nosgoth items and equipment
  • Nosgoth abilities
  • Nosgoth terms
  • Nosgoth crew
  • Nosgoth gallery
• Associated media: Template:Icon-DeadSun Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun – precursor project

This article is about the upcoming Legacy of Kain game. For the series' setting, see Nosgoth.

Mythology

Backstory and setting

Concept art of Valeholm.

Nosgoth chronicles a previously-unexplored span of time in the Soul Reaver era: 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.

Scenes of battle in the war for Nosgoth.

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.

Vampires and humans

The vampire and human races' symbols.

to be added

Characters

Established Characters

• Kain
• Raziel
• Turel
• Dumah
• Rahab
• Zephon
• Melchiah
• The Priestess
• Bane
• DeJoule
• Anarcrothe
• Azimuth

New Characters

• Ancellas
• Elustra
• Eskandor
• Gerik
• Jehoel
• Laderic
• Lailah
• Malus
• Roxen
• Sarakiel
• Speyr
• Torstein
• Tychard

Analysis

Overview

to be added

Nosgoth employs a player versus player system in which each match consists of two rounds. Teams comprise characters assigned to one of two races: vampires, designed around hack and slash combat; or humans, whose gameplay is styled after third-person shooters. Between rounds, teams switch to control the opposing race, and the team which accumulates the most points by fighting their counterparts wins the match.

Gameplay modes

Nosgoth featured several different game modes, though usually only two or three were available at any time.

• Team Deathmatch - In team deathmatch, both teams (Vampire and Vampire Hunter) have four combatants and fight each other with a goal of getting more kills than the opposing team (Maximum of 30). The game has two rounds with each team playing both the vampires and the vampire hunters. The game is over when both rounds are finished and the team with the highest overall score is declared the winner.
• New Recruit - The same as Team Deathmatch, but specialised for new and lower-level players. At various times different limits were put in place to keep the mode for newer players.
• Siege Mode - The second active mode, available only when classes pass level 10 is Siege mode, which focuses more on capturing locations. Humans are required to reach certain areas of the map, marked by special 'siege towers' and once occupied, a countdown begins during which the team must defend the area against Vampire attack. Once the timer has run down, the humans are rewarded 5 points for capturing an area. Conversely, to gain points the Vampires must simply kill as many humans as possible.
• Flashpoint - An update of siege mode where instead of killing humans, the vampires are required to prevent the humans capturing a siege point in a set time.
• Capture the Body - A 'capture the flag' variant where the vampire team was tasked with dragging a (heavily weighted) corpse to a set spot on the map while the humans tried to prevent them. Backstory involved a blood curse placed by the prophet class.
• 5v5 - A more intense team deathmatch variant with 5 players on each team.
• Leagues - Competitive team deathmatch play which ranked players and placed them in league ladders after play, raising or lowering their placement depending upon the performance of themselves and their team. Those in the top 100 places (ranked as 'Eternal') were eligible for cash prizes. Several variations were seen, generally with minor rules changes, most noticeably varying the amount of players that could be 'partied'.

Locations and maps

A map of the initial regions in Nosgoth.

Other Locations Mentioned

• Avernus
• Coorhagen
• Dark Eden
• Human Citadel
• Meridian
• Raziel's clan territory
• Ruined City
• Vasserbünde
• Willendorf

Cosmetics

• Banners
• Taunts
• Skins
• Executions

Currencies and Unlocks

• Gold
• Runestones
• Class Unlock Artifacts
• Chests
• Keys
• Boosters

Development

Pre-confirmation

File:DeadSun-Trailer-Storyboard-Buxton.jpg

Richard Buxton's "Legacy of Kain animation pitch" - subsequently revealed to be part of the related Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun project.

A Psyonix Games artist's "vampire creature concept".

In February 2013, several gaming websites, including VG247, reported the discovery that publisher Square Enix's website domain managers had registered the domain "warfornosgoth.com", noting that this name referred to the Legacy of Kain series' established setting, Nosgoth. In the same month, the Official Xbox Magazine's Edwin Evans-Thirlwell posted that a Passion Pictures artist, Richard Buxton, had mentioned working on a Legacy of Kain "animation pitch" in 2011 at his LinkedIn page, and publicized "some highly Kain-ish art" from Buxton's online portfolio. In a telephone call with Evans-Thirlwell, Buxton simply replied, "I'm not allowed to talk about that", and subsequently removed the storyboard, and all references to Legacy of Kain, from his profiles.

In May 2013, it was highlighted that the phrases "War for Nosgoth" and "Nosgoth", and an associated file – "BCMPGame.exe" – had appeared in Advanced Micro Devices' Catalyst application profiles, alongside the titles of various recently-released and upcoming video games. Further, it was found that an entry for a title named Nosgoth had appeared on Valve Corporation's Steam database, attributed to "Psyonix Comp". The entry had been renamed to "Nosgoth" from an earlier codename, "Black Cloth", and featured a logo and icon which both prominently displayed a shape resembling the dais of the Pillars of Nosgoth. Additionally, the LinkedIn profile of composer Kevin Riepl contained an entry reading "Nosgoth (VG) Square Enix/Psyonix". After this was publicized, Riepl, like Buxton, edited the reference: first to read, "Sort of announced Title (?) :-| ? what? (VG) Square Enix/Psyonix", before instead declaring it an unannounced game. Some final potential evidence came in the form of an image from a Psyonix Games artist's portfolio, depicting a "vampire creature concept".

Through an exchange on Twitter, Kain voice actor Simon Templeman stated that he had not been contacted regarding any new Legacy of Kain titles, but expressed enthusiasm about a possible return to the role: "I haven't heard but he'll [sic] yeah...more soul reaving would be fun".

Eventually, on June 8, 2013, Square Enix London community manager George Kelion, concerned that the continuing leaks might generate misguided speculation, reached out to websites to confirm the existence of an upcoming game named Nosgoth. VG247 reported that he stated the following:

Template:Quotebox-Opaque

He issued a different statement to Eurogamer, but with similar details:

Template:Quotebox-Opaque

Both announcements offered the following points of information:

• Nosgoth is in active development.
• Nosgoth is not a traditional action-adventure game, unlike all previous Legacy of Kain titles.
• Nosgoth is a multiplayer game, again unlike all previous Legacy of Kain titles, with no single-player components.
• Nosgoth is not a reboot, and exists within the established Legacy of Kain continuity.
• Crystal Dynamics, who either published or developed all previous Legacy of Kain games, are neither developing nor involved with Nosgoth, nor any other Legacy of Kain titles.
• Nosgoth is envisaged as a new "branch" in the franchise, akin to the Blood Omen and Soul Reaver sub-series.
• Nosgoth has not yet been properly revealed, and will be more formally announced at a later time.

Post-confirmation

The Nosgoth Pillars icon from the Steam database.

Since confirming the existence of Nosgoth, Kelion, under the alias "Monkeythumbz", has divulged several additional details on the project at the Eidos Forums in response to fan questions:

• "Making sure that we respect the series canon is something we take very seriously. I know you'll think I'd say that anyway, but we're devoted fans of the lore established in the previous games, so it's only natural we'd want to ensure Nosgoth both complements them and expands upon them. [...] I'm all up for having a discussion... but all in good time. Right now, we're all heads-down and nose to the grindstone in the preparation phase, getting all the various materials in place etc, and we want to make sure that the game feels right before speaking about it more plainly and openly. [...] As I told VG247, I'm sorry to be so cagey... we just felt it was important to tell you what Nosgoth *isn't* so as to properly manage your expectations. The time to tell you what Nosgoth *is* will be coming soon, but not just yet."
• "On Nosgoth, I'm the game's Community Manager - which as a long-time LoK fanboy is pretty much a dream gig! I look forward to discussing my exact involvement so far in greater detail once we're ready to do so. [...] With regards to genre, all I can say right now is that you really shouldn't be thinking of Nosgoth as a game in terms of a single-player experience."
• "The truth is I don't know about Amy's notes, although I know I personally haven't read them (even though the prospect has me salivating). Even if I did know, I'm not even sure what I'd be allowed to say, especially as Crystal Dynamics aren't involved with Nosgoth and I assume her notes would be their property. So yes, "i don't know" is the only answer I can give right now. [...] Regarding extraneous information, the answer is "yes" and "no". "Yes" in the sense that we've done our very best to absorb all knowledge about LoK's narrative as revealed in the games and elsewhere, and "no" in the sense that it's not really relevant to Nosgoth. As I said in my statement, Nosgoth is very much on a seperate [sic] branch of the LoK mythos to Soul Reaver and Blood Omen (and, by extension, Defiance). It's definitely the same familiar universe, though."
• "Nosgoth is not a mobile game. Also, we're mostly influenced by LoK:SR1... make of that what you will."
• "Nosgoth is not open-world."
• "I can tell you truthfully that Nosgoth has been built as an LoK game from the ground up."
• "Inevitably, due to the nature of this game being multiplayer, story will not be as prominent a factor in moment-to-moment gameplay as with previous LoK games, which hopefully will address your point about newcomers. Nevertheless, as fans of the series, it's our hope that what we are doing within the lore will encourage newcomers to be engaged by the series' rich backstory and convert them into LoK aficionados. [...] Additionally, by having Nosgoth exist on a different branch to SR and BO (but within the same continuity), we're going out of our way to avoid "butchering" the game and, by extension, the IP."

Official Announcement

On September 25, 2013, the official Announcement trailer for Nosgoth was released, showcasing the game as an asymmetrical third-person team-based multiplayer game.

Following the trailer, George Kelion, Community Manager answered some questions regarding the game's placement in the timeline saying that it takes place after Kain casts out Raziel into the Abyss, during a time where he is mostly absent from his empire, and shows what happened to the Razielim during that time period.

Template:Icon-DeadSun Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun

(~ To be added... ~)

Gallery

DeadSun-Trailer-Storyboard-Buxton.jpg

Richard Buxton's 2011 Legacy of Kain storyboard from related project Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun.

Nosgoth logo discovered at the Steam database.

The official Nosgoth icon resembling the Pillars' dais, first discovered in the Steam database

A Psyonix Games "vampire creature concept".

Nosgoth Announcement Trailer

The Nosgoth announcement trailer.

Nosgoth - Live Community Q&A, September 30th 2013

Nosgoth Q&A with George Kelion and Bill Beacham

Nosgoth War is Upon Us Trailer

The "War is upon us" trailer

Nosgoth - Open Beta Announcement Trailer

Credits

• Developer: Psyonix
• Publisher: Square Enix Europe

• Community manager: Cat Karskens
• Composer: Kevin Riepl

See also

• Template:Icon-NosgothOfficial Nosgoth site
• Template:Icon-NosgothOfficial Nosgoth Forums
• Legacy of Kain
• Sixth game
• Nosgoth game category
• Nosgoth namespace
• Template:Icon-DeadSunLegacy of Kain: Dead Sun
• Template:Icon-EidosWar for Nosgoth FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions at the Eidos Forums (by Raina Audron/George Kelion)

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