When you suppose again on the Soul Reaver video games, you consider their environment, their tone, and that always immaculate voice appearing. What you do not essentially take into consideration, is how awkward and clumsy they had been to really play — and finally, those self same ups and downs apply to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered.
To be clear, each Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2 are deserving of the remaster therapy. Even now, they stand out as distinctive journeys by means of a memorable darkish fantasy setting, full with nice characters and a few implausible storytelling.
In explicit, the unique Soul Reaver helped outline a console era. At the time of its launch in 1999, it was intriguing and mature in ways in which few different motion adventures had been.
Player character Raziel is solid down and killed by his grasp, the omnipotent Kain, within the recreation’s opening cutscene. He’s then resurrected tons of of years later, coaxed right into a quest for revenge by means of the honeyed phrases of an ominous energy.
Even by at the moment’s narrative requirements, it is a excellent setup, and as alluded, the storytelling does some very heavy lifting in carrying the whole expertise. Soul Reaver’s script stays elegant and compelling; the writing can seem overly dramatic, but it surely’s delivered to life by some really wonderful performances. The recreation was forward of its time on this division, and it nonetheless holds up exceptionally properly.
Structurally, Soul Reaver consists of largely linear environments that join to at least one one other and loop again upon themselves, not in contrast to the design in a traditional Metroidvania. What’s extra, Raziel unlocks new skills that pave the best way to further areas and secrets and techniques as you progress.
In the unique launch, backtracking could possibly be a supply of frustration — even with the inclusion of places which you could quick journey between. But on this remaster, the introduction of a map display helps you keep a greater sense of route. You’ll nonetheless must make a psychological notice of beforehand inaccessible areas and collectibles — which does really feel like a little bit of a chore as the sport opens up — however the map implies that you will spend quite a bit much less time making an attempt to recollect which locales neighbour one another.
So the remaster provides you a map, however past that, developer Aspyr has determined in opposition to any gameplay changes. Soul Reaver’s mixture of motion fight, puzzle fixing, and platforming nonetheless works as a complete, however particular person elements are actually exhibiting their age.
In explicit, fight is annoyingly unwieldy right here in 2024 — an oddity, given how fundamental the system is at its core.
Many of the foes that Raziel fights are vampiric in nature, and cannot be killed except they’re submerged in water, shoved into daylight, or impaled. As such, battles can really feel extra like puzzles than skirmishes, as you will must utilise your environment so as to obtain victory.
Conceptually, fight is partaking and fascinating, however in observe, jittery controls and stiff animations make fights really feel weightless and imprecise. Soul Reaver is not a tough recreation, however its extra demanding encounters might have you ever cursing Raziel’s stubby slashes, a dodge that does not all the time register correctly, and opponents that hardly telegraph their assaults.
Soul Reaver 2 does enhance upon its predecessor on this regard; fight is a contact extra in-depth, with higher outlined enemy sorts and an expanded collection of weapons for Raziel to experiment with.
But regardless of launching two years later — on a brand new era of {hardware}, no much less — the sequel performs very equally, to the purpose the place it nonetheless feels like a PS1 launch, simply wrapped up in PS2-era visuals.
Soul Reaver 2 can also be a shorter recreation on common, though you may argue that it is because it spends much less time on prolonged puzzle sections. Indeed, the sequel takes what Soul Reaver was praised for — the story, the characters, the environment — and makes an attempt to double down.
The result’s, sadly, a much less impactful narrative on account of how self-indulgent the title turns into. An usually overwrought script slows the story’s momentum — a key power of the primary recreation — and it is all only a bit too intelligent for its personal good.
That mentioned, there’s nonetheless enjoyment to be present in how the sequel elaborates on the encircling lore and motivations of its predominant characters. Soul Reaver 2’s storytelling will not be as tightly constructed, but it surely is a well-meaning escalation — and that is most likely sufficient for gamers who’re already invested within the sequence’ world.
In abstract, then, Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2 hit the identical sorts of professionals and cons that they did over 20 years in the past — it is simply that these cons are much more prevalent when seen by means of the lens of contemporary gaming.
But we would be mendacity if we mentioned that these flaws drag the remasters right down to any disastrous diploma — and that is as a result of, as talked about, the environment and tone of Soul Reaver is nonetheless so robust and distinctive. Those with nostalgia for the sequence — like ourselves — will relish the chance to relive Raziel’s journey, warts and all.
Which brings us to the remaster itself. Both video games have acquired a reasonably vital graphical overhaul, and for essentially the most half, they give the impression of being nice. Assets and textures have clearly been enhanced, however these visible enhancements do not diminish the gothic stylings that made the unique titles so recognisable.
You can swap between the unique and remastered graphics with a click on of R3, too, which is all the time an appreciated function.
However, the remaster does appear to introduce just a few minor graphical bugs. The digicam clips by means of sure fashions in cutscenes, for instance, and we got here throughout some bizarre, out-of-place lighting results in choose environments.
As for extras, Remastered throws a ‘Bonus’ menu into the deal, which homes all types of cool perception into the event of each video games. There’s a gallery filled with artwork, a full soundtrack participant, and even a newly-crafted ‘Lore of Nosgoth’ assortment which recaps key data.
But most impressively, you’ll be able to discover lower Soul Reaver content material by means of the ‘Lost Levels’ possibility. Now, these aren’t totally playable places, however checking them out continues to be nice enjoyable, if solely to unravel the group’s strategy to stage design.
