If you suppose again on the Soul Reaver video games, you concentrate on their ambiance, their tone, and that usually immaculate voice performing. What you do not essentially take into consideration, is how awkward and clumsy they had been to truly play — and in the end, 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 a memorable darkish fantasy setting, full with nice characters and a few implausible storytelling.
Specifically, the unique Soul Reaver helped outline a console era. On the time of its launch in 1999, it was intriguing and mature in ways in which few different motion adventures had been.
Participant character Raziel is forged down and killed by his grasp, the omnipotent Kain, within the recreation’s opening cutscene. He is then resurrected a whole lot of years later, coaxed right into a quest for revenge by the honeyed phrases of an ominous energy.
Even by right this moment’s narrative requirements, it is a very good setup, and as alluded, the storytelling does some very heavy lifting in carrying all the expertise. Soul Reaver’s script stays elegant and compelling; the writing can seem overly dramatic, nevertheless it’s dropped at life by some actually wonderful performances. The sport 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 talents that pave the way in which to further areas and secrets and techniques as you progress.
Within the unique launch, backtracking may very well be a supply of frustration — even with the inclusion of places which you can quick journey between. However on this remaster, the introduction of a map display screen helps you keep a greater sense of route. You will nonetheless have to make a psychological word 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 loads 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 towards any gameplay changes. Soul Reaver’s mixture of motion fight, puzzle fixing, and platforming nonetheless works as an entire, however particular person components are actually exhibiting their age.
Specifically, fight is annoyingly unwieldy right here in 2024 — an oddity, given how fundamental the system is at its core.
Lots of the foes that Raziel fights are vampiric in nature, and cannot be killed until they’re submerged in water, shoved into daylight, or impaled. As such, battles can really feel extra like puzzles than skirmishes, as you will have to utilise your environment so as to obtain victory.
Conceptually, fight is participating and fascinating, however in observe, jittery controls and stiff animations make fights really feel weightless and imprecise. Soul Reaver is not a troublesome recreation, however its extra demanding encounters could 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.
However 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. Certainly, the sequel takes what Soul Reaver was praised for — the story, the characters, the ambiance — and makes an attempt to double down.
The result’s, sadly, a much less impactful narrative because of how self-indulgent the title turns into. An typically overwrought script slows the story’s momentum — a key energy of the primary recreation — and it is all only a bit too intelligent for its personal good.
That stated, there’s nonetheless enjoyment to be present in how the sequel elaborates on the encircling lore and motivations of its primary characters. Soul Reaver 2’s storytelling will not be as tightly constructed, nevertheless it is a well-meaning escalation — and that is most likely sufficient for gamers who’re already invested within the collection’ world.
In abstract, then, Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2 hit the identical sorts of execs and cons that they did over 20 years in the past — it is simply that these cons are much more prevalent when considered by the lens of recent gaming.
However we might be mendacity if we stated that these flaws drag the remasters right down to any disastrous diploma — and that is as a result of, as talked about, the ambiance and tone of Soul Reaver is nonetheless so sturdy and distinctive. These with nostalgia for the collection — like ourselves — will relish the chance to relive Raziel’s journey, warts and all.
Which brings us to the remaster itself. Each video games have acquired a fairly important graphical overhaul, and for probably the most half, they give the impression of being nice. Property and textures have clearly been enhanced, however these visible enhancements do not diminish the gothic stylings that made the unique titles so recognisable.
You possibly can swap between the unique and remastered graphics with a click on of R3, too, which is all the time an appreciated function.
Nonetheless, the remaster does appear to introduce a number of minor graphical bugs. The digital camera clips by 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 is a gallery filled with artwork, a full soundtrack participant, and even a newly-crafted ‘Lore of Nosgoth’ assortment which recaps key info.
However most impressively, you may discover reduce Soul Reaver content material by the ‘Misplaced Ranges’ choice. Now, these aren’t absolutely playable places, however checking them out remains to be nice enjoyable, if solely to unravel the staff’s method to stage design.
