I'm about to start playing through the legacy of Kain series. And would like to know if this is the order in which i should play them?

1.BO
2.SR
3.SR2
4.Defiance
5.BO2

Either way here is a nice, AND VERY THOROUGH, rundown of the entire story.
http://forums.eidosgames.com/archive/index.php/t-2380.html

I would always recommend playing them in order of realease

SR>SR2>Defiance are apart of the core story. BO2 is more of a standalone game.

I haven't play BO1

The original Blood Omen is WAY different. It's almost a pure top down RPG with a lot of combat. I would liken it to a gloomier and gorier (is that a word) Zelda. It's also LOOOOOOOOOONG!!! I'm talking NWN long,

+1 for playing in release order. Of course tho, this way you risk never getting to play soul reaver... (although i actually remember liking blood omen)

Interesting that's a lot of reading.

ah okay Thanks

You can play either in order you listed or play the games in the order they were released (BO2 before Defiance). The reason to play BO2 last would be that it is a direct result of of events in Defiance and the story makes no sense on it's own. That alternate timeline is the current timeline. BO2 may be a game by a different team but it's still canon.

The order you chose is a good one, and it is a great idea to start out with the original Blood Omen since it is a good introduction to the series. Blood Omen is a fantastic game and is much like the classic Zelda games... except with a vampire, plenty of carnage, and fantastic voice acting (Not kidding there, the voice actor for Kain sounds awesome).

Don't know on this series specifically but I always play in release order. Even if the story order is different the prequels and such are written expecting you to have knowledge of what came later.

Think of it this way: would you show your kid Star Wars with Phantom Menace first? I sure wouldn't.