When I was in the peak of my gaming time, a lovely little game captured my imagination and I really, really liked it. That game was Soul Reaver. It played somewhat like Tomb Raider, but had a connection to the action-RPG of Legacy Of Kain: Blood Omen(BO), a cool, edgy vampire story.
Soul Reaver played very differently to BO, but the voice acting of the main characters, was incredible. The main Characters being Raziel (your guy), The Elder God and Kain. Their efforts raised what was a fairly simple premise of betrayal and revenge to something much more epic than it had any right to be.
Development was shaky and the game ended up having a lot of stuff cut from it and a "To Be Continued..." ending. Which is something I always hate. Nevertheless, I did play it on PS1, and then again on Dreamcast. The series did this a bunch of times and the story continues over 5 games and is very convoluted as there is time travel and changing of the future and shenanigans going on all over the place. Even after I finished the final game, I was still fairly unsure of the plot... Who was the main bad guy and what their motivation was to ruin the land of Nosgoth and destroy the Vampire race etc etc.
The games are:
- LOK: Blood Omen
- Soul Reaver
- Soul Reaver 2
- LOK: Blood Omen 2
- LOK: Defiance
I suspect that there was of course a delay between game releases, would have allowed for me to forget parts of the story which would have added to my confusion.
With Soul Reaver, I found the puzzles engaging enough and Raziel's ability to warp between the spirit realm and the real world was cool. In the spirit realm, the background would warp in real time and new paths would open up as pipes shifted or holes in walls appeared. It was quite something at the time!
Now, a remaster has been made, taking Soul Reaver 1 & 2 and slapping them together in a handy bundle, which I got and played through. Where I will talk about them now and eventually I intend to expand to the BO2 and Defiance games later on.
The remaster is just that, a remaster, they have managed to upgrade the original textures.... and that's about it. Gameplay feels exactly as it did before and no quality of life updates have been made. For the first Soul Reaver, this is fine, as the game is pretty easy to get around and you can save anywhere, but when you reload, you start at the same point, conveniently near a warp pad place.
I still managed to enjoy Soul Reaver and the updated graphics make it look pretty nice. Although, switching between them as you can, the original was a pretty damn good looking game. They did add a glow to the Soul Reaver weapon when you have it and a glow to Raziel's eyes. They also upgraded the textures of the graphics and gave Raziel and Kain better character models. I think its a pretty good sign , that when you switch between "old" graphics and "new" graphics, it's pretty hard to tell. Or perhaps a bad sign that the remaster was not all that good. Hrm. Oddly there are a few points where the remaster has sharpened things too much and it looks worse. There are some magic barriers that show up a couple of times, and the low quality of the original hid their flaws. With the sharper new graphics, you can see the clever cheats they made to make them looks good and it ends up looking a bit shit and lazy.
Game play wise, well, the puzzles are the main deal and the world building seems to be the main piece of action. Combat is melee focused with Raz using his claws, or a handy weapon (usually a pole or a lit torch) and eventually the Soul Reaver.
Vampires must be executed with a finisher of some type as they recover quickly, so if you are unarmed, chucking them into water, light, or some handy spikes is required. Weapons allow for a finishing move such as impalement or immolation. What I did like is if you don't consume their soul, you can bring them back to life by removing the pole from their chest. If you burnt them, well they're dead.
You can lock on an enemy and can zip around them for a dodge, and slash at them, but the combat is pretty basic. While I must have enjoyed it when I was younger, this time I found myself just jumping over and running past most enemies as you are rarely forced into fighting them so there is no real need to unless you desperately want some soul energy. If you are running low on energy, a perfectly good tactic is to shift into the spirit realm and fill up on the much easier enemies there.
So combat isn't all that good, but the platforming, puzzles and voice acting is. In fact, the voice acting is top tier.
SR felt pretty much exactly as I remembered it, and that was great.
Except for one thing... The day/night cycle they added in...
Apparently this was originally planned, but dropped from the original release, and the developers being a bunch of fans, decided to add it back in.
I can see why this idea was dropped in the original SR1. The day/night cycle was first implemented in BO where it kind of made sense. During the day, Kain would have constant energy drain and not as strong with his attacks; vampires are weak to the sun you see. However at night time, he would be stronger, because he wouldn't be fending off the sun. The viewing distance didn't drop too badly at night time either.
This mechanic was not in the DC/PS1 original release of SR. Which I think was good for a number of reasons:
- In BO, Kain is a lone vampire vs countless people, so he is at a disadvantage, he would need a boost fo some sort.
- In SR, humans are much weaker than humans, and not as prevelant as vampires, so they are absolutely no threat to Raziel; he does not need the boost.
- In SR, Kain has bonfires burning to block the sun fo make daytime easier for vampires.
- In SR, your most common enemy is other vampires, they too would get the boost from night/ weak from sun; thereby negating the effect.
- Finally, the way it is put in the remaster, it is far too dark to see what is going on. When I first encountered it, I thought it was a bug, but no amount of reloading or rebooting would fix it. Trying to make my way into the Silenced Cathedral was an impossible task because all of a sudden I couldn't see anything.
It adds nothing to the game, except inconvenience. Eventually, once I had worked out it would pass over time, I ended up just letting Raziel stand outside for a while, waiting for the night to pass. Not a good time... There isn't even an option to turn it off.
That part was by far the biggest downer of the game. The rest was pretty good and I was easily able to finish it off.... ha ha, well see the TBC screen at the very least.
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| Walking through the human citadel, better looking humans now. |
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| Just climbing here for the trophy. |
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| The big tease of things to come..... in another couple of games. |
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| Big alien Spider Bro |
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| Plebby spider vamp. |
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| This area is cool. |
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| This swirl on the ground teaches you its a spectral/spirit realm shift area. |
I actually remember SR1 pretty well and was surprised at how well I could conquer it. I was most curious about SR2, which is a continuation of Raziel's chase for Kain.
Soul Reaver 2
I guess... at the time I had much more time to spare, and perhaps...
Lower standards...
SR2 has Raziel chasing Kain, but also realising that all is not as simple as he first thought. Story wise this game is great and is the main thing that keeps you going. Simon Templeton as Kain, Michael Bell (yay, Transformers Swoop!!) as Raziel, Tony Jay as the Elder God all head a surprisingly talented bunch for a video game. It truly is amazing how they chew the scenery and just make the whole story so epic.
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| Kain and Raziel having a little moment. |
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| Sadly the remaster gave Kain a new body, and a derpy eye. Only one of them moves.... |
Gameplay wise though it's a bit of a dog's breakfast. Once again, I think this was put under a lot of pressure and much was cut. It mainly consists of 2 somewhat lacking and 1 decent aspects:
- Exploration
- Combat
- Puzzles
Exploration is fine, I guess, it feels the same as the first, but the biggest issue is you cover the exact same ground, but in different times. The Sarafan Stronghold, a swamp area, a city, and the Pillars of Nosgoth. These are fine, I guess, but since the layout doesn't change, its pretty drab to do it three damn times. 2 of the times look really similar as well, except one is covered in snow. There is a rather long stretch of corridors, so in a way I guess it's not even proper exploration. The traversing of the level requires some jumping and only on rare occasions shifting to the spectral realm to pass by. The shifting aspect is not used as often as SR1.
As you wander along the corridors, you will be forced into gameplay mechanic #2, combat.
Combat is pretty terrible in this game, you have a lock on, quick attack and hard attack. You can use swords, staffs, Raz's claws or the Soul Reaver which get more powerful the more it kills. It consumes souls so you can't recharge health and if it gets overcharged, it'll absorb your life for a bit.
If you die in the real world, your forced into the spectral realm, if you die there, then its reload time. The combat is very bad. Locking onto an enemy makes them face you and they can block (you can too) attacks, as well as slap you with quick and strong attacks. They like to block. Like, a LOT. When you lock on, you can expect a protracted fight that is not fun to do. Finally when they are near death they enter into a stunned state. In SR1 you would use this opportunity to impale them and suck their soul, however, you do not fight vampires in SR2, so you just have to wait and they'll die by themselves. If you DO impale them, you'll have to pick up your weapon again.
After a short time, it will become very tedious and I found myself jumping and avoiding everything, until the terrible moment you are locked in a room. When I was, I just whipped out the Soul Reaver to finish the fight quickly, without locking on and just running around stabbing things idiotically.
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| Axe slapping |
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| Body busting |
One really bad thing about this game is, it wants you to not spend much time in the Spectral realm, but if you mess up a fight and shift, there can be a very long walk to find a portal to shift you back again. I made the mistake of shifting at the Pillars once, as I assumed there'd be a portal nearby (there was a bunch in SR1 in the same area) and I had to back track a LOOOOOONG way to find one.
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| Accidentally shifting, now must find a way out... |
So, the exploration is naff, and the combat sucks.
Puzzles, how are they? Actually pretty good. They often require a nice bit of brain power using Raziel's skills to get what you need and when you've gotten what you need, the game makes you use the upgrade to get out of where you are.
Sadly though, there are no save points within the puzzle areas. You essentially spend your time looking for shrines/temples etc and once you're in, you can't save until you exit. Okay, but often the save points are a fair bit away from the entrance to the puzzle area. I kept an eye on what times I saved and I know one puzzle had me at an hour or so between getting in to the temple and getting out. This must've been fine when I was younger and free, but now, it really pissed me off. I know I started one of them at least 3 times, but I had to stop mid-way through and so I had to start from scratch again.
GOD DAMN ANNOYING.
If you're going to remaster stuff, at least add a few QOL improvements FFS.
The graphics looked pretty good, but I think the remaster was a bit lax for SR2. Switching between the two styles, I found it very had to see what one I was in. The wall textures looked fine either way, and the most obvious clue was the character models. Although, this just could be testament to how good SR2's graphics were originally.
Finally the game ends on yet ANOTHER TBC situation after one of the shittest boss fights I've ever experienced. Raziel ends up killing the elite guard of the Sarafan, however he is armed with the Soul Reaver physical sword, which gives him unlimited energy. So fighting the supposed toughest bad guys in the game is just a long drawn out situation of them blocking and you trying to get past it. They can't kill you... so what's the point of this whole fight? Why make it so long?
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| Raziel vs Raziel |
Probably because they were rushed with production of the game.
Essentially, while I enjoyed the game immensely as a young guy, I think now, they only thing that carries this game is the acting and story, as the actual game play of SR2 is kind of crappy and not very fun.
Nevertheless, I played through SR1 & 2 and have now installed BO2 and Defiance and so the story makes a lot more sense and I am enjoying it (the story). When I finish BO2 and Defiance, I guess I'll have another post. So far, my opinion of defiance is.... it's a good thing the story and graphics are great...
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