The blood-soaked jewels within the crown of a storied cult franchise, Soul Reaver and its sequel had been praised on launch for authentic gameplay and stellar visuals. Gorgeous gothic fantasies, co-written and directed by trade luminary Amy Hennig, they adopted the exploits of vampire lord Kain’s fallen lieutenant, Raziel. These video games are simply the strongest entries in a collection that will span twenty years, earlier than sadly ending with 2018’s ill-fated on-line PVP title, Nosgoth.
Now, the corpse is pulled from the Lake Of The Dead and granted new life, due to a trustworthy clutch of remasters from Aspyr (builders of the good Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, additionally initially from Crystal Dynamics).
The centrepiece of the Legacy of Kain story cycle, Soul Reaver follows Raziel’s journey of revenge. A tragic determine, Raz was as soon as a pious nobleman, became an undead warrior by Kain. Making the error of surpassing his lord’s skills, Raziel is betrayed and solid into the abyss. After an extended nap in oblivion, he’s resurrected as a desiccated shadow of his former self. With one foot within the spirit realm, he embarks on a quest to destroy Kain.
In the primary sport, Raziel finds himself misplaced in a bleak apocalypse during which Kain guidelines over all. There he should observe down and kill his fellow lieutenants whereas attending to grips along with his newfound skills.
Soul Reaver 2 continues the pursuit of his former grasp, this time in a restored period of Nosgoth. The sequel additionally builds upon the collection’ lore considerably, delving into Raziel’s previous as a Sarafan demon hunter.
Both titles are semi-open-world puzzle adventures, the place you battle via an enemy-infested panorama. Raziel fights his former vampire brethren, in addition to people decided to eradicate his form. The gameplay additionally options puzzles to resolve and light-weight platforming components. There’s nothing too taxing right here, pushing blocks and hitting switches was all we had again in 1999.
Stripped of his vampiric thirst and skills, our hero should fight the undead hordes with claws, hearth, and sharp implements. Melee fight incorporates primary assaults to weaken enemies, with a barely clunky lock-on to focus down teams of attackers. With the primary sport being set in an apocalyptic wasteland of bloodsuckers, enemies want a bit of extra persuasion earlier than they’re absolutely destroyed. Weapons scattered across the surroundings can be utilized to impale vamps, whereas conveniently positioned spikes are mounted on partitions, prepared so that you can throw a dazed monster at them. Fire can be a helpful weapon, as are the shafts of daylight dotted round ranges.
Later within the first sport and into the second, Raziel will unlock extra offensive skills alongside his journey. New fight and traversal choices will open up via development, chief amongst them the highly effective spectral blade, conveniently named ‘soul reaver’. There’s a Metroidvania facet to the power system, with every defeated boss granting a brand new option to discover or battle.
The sheer number of assault choices was astonishing on the unique launch (the primary sport got here out solely a 12 months after Ocarina Of Time) and nonetheless makes for a enjoyable expertise as we speak. Lobbing enemies onto spikes is especially satisfying.
There is rather more concentrate on bare-bones fight within the sequel, with weapon-wielding enemies thrown at you early and sometimes. The have to weaken enemies, earlier than discovering different means to destroy them, can be much less of a necessity in Soul Reaver 2.
Exploration is pretty linear with some backtracking and divergent paths to get collectibles. The neat factor about Soul Reaver, nonetheless, is that each space has a spectral double.
Raziel’s raison d’être is his skill to shift between the fabric aircraft and the spirit realm. This shifting mechanic varieties the spine of each titles’ puzzle components. The approach ahead usually requires discovering paths in a single realm and persevering with ahead in one other. You shift forwards and backwards at fastened factors, so there’s a component of reminiscence concerned in negotiating inter-reality pathways.
Raziel’s well being coil steadily depletes whereas he stays within the materials aircraft, making common visits to the spectral realm important for progress. Enemies in each realms can have their souls devoured by Raz to replenish his well being, which finally means dying not often turns into a priority – even with the choice to improve well being.
The means of shifting between worlds nonetheless feels nice in spite of everything these years. Watching the surroundings increase and warp through the transition stays a novel and charming impact. The world of Nosgoth is an intoxicating mixture of conventional vampire tropes, medieval fantasy and cosmic horror. There are many causes this collection is so effectively revered, so any form of re-release has to fulfill these expectations.
The remastered visuals have preserved all the pieces in regards to the characters and environments from 1999/2001. Models have been cleaned up and tweaked barely (large fan of Raz’s chunky haircut), however they aren’t considerably altered. A click on of the best stick will seamlessly swap between outdated and new visuals, which highlights the work executed by Aspyr.
Both video games are accessible for contemporary audiences and can simply meet the nostalgic expectations of collection veterans. The easy efficiency, coupled with configurable digital camera sensitivity, offers the motion and fight a refreshing sense of pace. Additionally, controller remapping is a welcome addition. There’s additionally a photograph mode to seize Nosgoth at each angle.
There are some notable visible bugs within the pre-launch model we performed. Texture pop-in through the first sport’s in-engine cinematics had been rife. Other than that, each video games are clear and well-presented. Audio is sharp, these stellar vocal performances from Michael Bell and Simon Templeton sound nice coming from each speaker measurement. The persistent musical rating is a bit jarring, however the compositions, significantly these in Soul Reaver 2, sound nice.
To prime it off, this bundle features a wealth of bonus supplies. Fully playable minimize content material and goofy behind-the-scenes outtakes are probably the most beneficiant extras. Lore supplies supply a bittersweet bonus, permitting you to discover the wealthy world of Nosgoth and lament its passing. Elsewhere, you will discover making-of supplies, fan artwork, and even cosplay snaps – it is a actually heartfelt package deal.
