“Legacy” goes to be the phrase of the day right here. Soul Reaver, one of many cult-iest of cult classics, revered by many for its forward-thinking mix of narrative and gameplay, and a title that – whereas I didn’t personally play it at launch – is one I’m assured was the speak of the city at launch. 25 years on, Aspyr have launched a contemporary fashionable remaster of the two Soul Reaver video games, with the assist of Crystal Dynamics.
Much like the Tomb Raider I-III Remastered assortment launched earlier in 2024, Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is right here to rejoice the Legacy of Kain collection. Alongside the contemporary updates to gameplay and graphics, you even have a library of fan celebration and developer collaboration, together with idea artwork and fan artwork of Soul Reaver and its characters, the script for each video games, and a litany of minimize content material within the type of misplaced ranges.
Famously developed throughout a tumultuous back-and-forth between Crystal Dynamics, and Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen developer Silicon Knights, Soul Reaver tells the story of Raziel, a vampire previously of Kain’s lieutenants. After he’s seemingly killed by Kain, The Elder God resurrects Raziel, tasking him with the execution of Kain, and the assassination of Raziels former comrades. This finally results in an uneasy alliance with Moebius, the time-manipulating guardian who options prominently within the collection.
It’s a really simple story when it comes right down to brass tacks, particularly since each video games are doing various things with the fabric. In Soul Reaver 1, Raziel’s commentary, together with the final path of the narrative and its groundbreaking cutscenes, is made to determine an arc and vengefully charged story beats. In Soul Reaver 2 nonetheless, the traces blur as a timeline-hopping odyssey instructed virtually fully from Raziel’s perspective, with internalization continually spewing out.
What’s attention-grabbing is how each video games differentiate from one another, and the way each video games make the most of what’s already been established. A part of it comes right down to the expansion of Raziel as a personality, as Soul Reaver 1 is extra about puzzling and adventuring, however one other bigger chunk simply comes from apprehension relating to how the mechanics are carried out. Regardless of the case, the issue largely revolves round fight.
In Soul Reaver 1, fight is an arbitrary gimmick revolving across the “true dying” of your vampire adversaries. It’s not simply that you just slash ‘em to dying, however you additionally must throw them into direct gentle, an open fireplace, or possibly only a stake by means of the center. As soon as that’s accomplished, nonetheless, you even have to soak up their soul so that they merely don’t simply respawn given time. Thoughts you, all of that is absolved when you purchase the titular Soul Reaver.
An power blade with practically limitless easy-killing potential, it will get some tweaks in Soul Reaver 2 by means of the implementation of a threat/reward system. Use it an excessive amount of and it begins to wreck Raziel, which is smart, and forces you to take care of what is well a number of the worst fight ever conceived for a recreation of this sort. There’s no suggestions, there’s no true connection, the hitboxes are method too vast, and Raziel’s motion doesn’t account for a lot survivability, until you merely swing with out locking on. What replaces technique is sheer tomfoolery and button-mashing.
As a remastering effort, Aspyr has gone by means of the standard motions with regards to retaining the supply materials’s power. You’ll be able to change between the unique and remastered graphics on the fly, and the very first thing you’ll uncover is that the remastered constancy will be astonishingly toothless. There are some shining moments, just like the upgraded designs of Melchiah and Zephon, which add much more menace and concern than beforehand enforced by their 1999 counterparts.
Numerous the time, nonetheless, you might be merely simply watching barely refreshed textures, with Soul Reaver 1 benefitting, and Soul Reaver 2 affected by it. Each video games make the most of a dual-world mechanic within the type of Raziel having the ability to change between the Materials World, and the Spectral Aircraft, with extra emphasis positioned on it in Soul Reaver 1. The best way the Spectral Aircraft twists and contorts is proven off brilliantly in its remastered type, because the Eldritch scrawlings are rather more detailed, and intimidating.
The Spectral Aircraft doesn’t get as a lot airtime in Soul Reaver 2, probably attributable to its placeholder as a glorified extra-life depository, given its bigger give attention to hazard. Nonetheless, a number of the graphic upgrades in 2 are likely to muddy up the true path and ambiance of the sport, which remains to be phenomenal. The quantity of instances you’ll merely cease to sink into the fauna, the hearth, the chilly, and the music is ridiculous, a real testomony to how a lot visible design and audio design are as a lot of a recreation because the gameplay itself.
That is the place Soul Reaver shines, not in its gameplay essentially, however within the ease with which Crystal Dynamics have been capable of create a world, simply as true as when it was proclaimed 25 years in the past. That’s why it breaks my coronary heart to search out that Soul Reaver 2 does nothing with it, and that’s largely right down to Raziel as a personality. Whereas in 1, he’s a frightened little imp powered solely by rage and the heartbreak he suffers when venturing by means of the brand new world, 2 turns him right into a cocky counterpart, extra akin to Sonic The Hedgehog than a brooding anti-hero.
Soul Reaver 2 is a uncommon breed of story, the place the principle character has primary character syndrome. The variety of instances Raziel will stroll right into a cutscene together with his chest puffed out, bragging that he’s lastly figured it out, solely to see that considered one of his former handlers or adversaries has to calmly clarify the following step. It’s an enchanting showcase of a simpering fool, who beforehand sought to study the right precautions, and never as soon as is he confirmed to be the architect. Does Raziel know that? No! By no means! However he has a sense!
With nonetheless many points this remaster has brought on to interrupt out of the bottom, I really feel like this was to be anticipated. When conversing with a buddy, I discussed how I used to be taking part in the remaster, and he was stuffed with glee on the reminiscences this information introduced forth, regaling about how he and his mates all fell in love with the sport when it got here out, and the way all of them discovered the puzzles. After I talked about that I wasn’t having enjoyable with it, his response was, verbatim:
“Oh, God yeah, I wouldn’t play it now, it’s clearly not the identical.”
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered | Closing Verdict
Possibly I shouldn’t be shocked that a lot of Soul Reaver’s magic has mockingly been misplaced to time. The fight is a button-mashing mess with no technique, and Soul Reaver 2 tends to give attention to the much less attention-grabbing elements of the world. That being mentioned, for transient moments, Soul Reaver reveals timeless choices within the type of what it was: A world of intricacies, and historical past, and even in its infamously cut-down state, it manages to showcase it greater than lots of its contemporaries, even now, and for that? I am grateful.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered was reviewed on Xbox Collection S utilizing a code supplied by the developer over the course of 21 hours of gameplay – all screenshots have been taken throughout the strategy of overview.
