Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver was forward of its time when it launched in 1999 for the unique PlayStation. From its storytelling and worldbuilding to the technical prowess behind its interconnected world and revolutionary Realm shifting, developer Crystal Dynamics created a near-masterpiece of environmental and narrative design, with concepts and ideas that also resonate to this present day.Now, 25 years later–and 21 years for the reason that final recreation within the series–Legacy of Kain makes its overdue return with Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered, bundling collectively two of the best action-adventure video games of all time. Developed in partnership with Crystal Dynamics and Aspyr–the latter of which not too long ago launched the equally packaged Tomb Raider I-III Remastered–this bundle reintroduces the world to vampire protagonist Raziel and his quest for revenge in opposition to the eponymous Kain. With improved visuals and a contemporary management scheme, it is a strong remaster that, above all, showcases why these video games are so revered.
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Now Playing: Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered – Launch Trailer
Set within the decaying land of Nosgoth–where vampires are apex predators and people cower inside walled cities–the first Soul Reaver begins with Raziel committing the sin of surpassing his grasp, Kain, in evolution. As the self-proclaimed king of Nosgoth, Kain sired and raised Raziel as his eldest lieutenant and son, tasking him and his 4 brothers with besieging the land and decimating humanity to make sure his despotic rule. By rising a set of wings, nonetheless, Raziel is deemed to have threatened Kain’s supremacy and is thrown into the Lake of the Dead to endure for all eternity. After rotting for hundreds of years, Raziel is resurrected by a dormant god and set on a path of vengeance to hunt out his brothers and kill them earlier than doing the identical to Kain.This units up a comparatively simple plot that is enriched and broadened by glorious writing all through. Written and directed by Amy Hennig–who would later go on to pen the primary three Uncharted games–Soul Reaver displays a cinematic aptitude that was unusual on the time of its launch. Inspired partially by John Milton’s iconic poem, Paradise Lost, there’s an ornate type to the sport’s writing, permeating a way of gravitas that is splendidly dropped at life by a forged of skilled stage actors. It’s a wealthy, gothic story of genuine vampire mythology, but Soul Reaver and its sequel additionally confront extra philosophical themes corresponding to free will, predestination, and cyclical violence, supplementing each video games’ incredible worldbuilding and including depth to their characters and their motivations.Part of the rationale why the writing is so efficient is as a result of it is mirrored in Nosgoth itself. In the primary Soul Reaver, what was beforehand a grandiose land is now eternally decayed. “Once a testament to mankind’s defiance of Kain’s empire, this towering cathedral now stood derelict, the humans who worshipped here, centuries dead,” Raziel says upon getting into the Silenced Cathedral. This spiral minaret was constructed as a holy weapon, supposed to blast a lethal hymn that will destroy each vampiric creature in Nosgoth: “a colossal instrument of brass and stone.” Before it may serve its objective, nonetheless, the cathedral was attacked and its weapon disabled–the huge reverberating pipes fell silent.When Raziel arrives, you’ll want to traverse the labyrinthian depths of the Silenced Cathedral, manipulating the airflow of those pipes to ascend the tower and attain the higher spires the place one in all your brothers resides. It’s this marriage between mechanics, story, and worldbuilding that distinguishes Soul Reaver as a triumph in recreation design. Whether you are exploring the murky waters of the Drowned Abbey or unveiling the mysteries of The Tomb of the Sarafan, every a part of Nosgoth is drenched on this identical intertwined excellence.At the time of its launch, it was additionally a technical marvel, using stage streaming to create a seamless, interconnected 3D world with no loading screens. We would possibly take stage streaming as a right now, however Soul Reaver was one of many early pioneers of the know-how. What’s extra spectacular, and nonetheless endures to this present day, is the sport’s formidable Realm shifting. When Raziel awakens from his everlasting torment, he is been stripped of his vampiric glory and is now a wraith, cursed to feed on souls as a substitute of blood. Trapped inside an eroded husk together with his wings now ragged, Raziel can shift between two overlapping Realms: the Material and the Spectral. In the latter, the bodily Realm turns into distorted, warping the geometry of the world round you. Impassible obstacles like water merely dissipate–it has neither heft nor lift–fissures in rocky partitions remodel into open passages, and platforms contort to disclose new pathways.With improved visuals and a contemporary management scheme, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered is a strong remaster that, above all, showcases why these video games are so reveredCompared to different 3D titles out there on the time, the dimensions of Soul Reaver already felt large. Being in a position to shift between two concurrently loaded realms in real-time, basically forcing you to contemplate every room as two separate rooms, was simply the cherry on prime. It’s fascinating and by no means felt like a gimmick, offering a platform for lots of the recreation’s environmental puzzles.These conundrums take up the majority of your time, whether or not you are lining up blocks to finish murals, reactivating antiquated equipment to open the trail ahead, or ringing two bells to smash a glass wall with their thundering soundwaves. For essentially the most half, Soul Reaver’s puzzles are partaking, even when some variation of every one has appeared in different video games since. The frequency of block-pushing puzzles is far too excessive, although, which rapidly turns into tedious. The recreation’s save system can be odd and is one space of the remaster the place issues ought to’ve been altered. You can save your progress at any time, however loading one in all these saves all the time sends you again to the sport’s begin level. Warp Gates can be utilized to teleport again to the place you had been, however this forces you to replay sections over once more, including useless backtracking to a recreation that already requires you to run again via beforehand visited areas on a number of events.Fortunately, Soul Reaver 2 incorporates a extra conventional save system, letting you save and reload at particular checkpoints. This is presumably as a result of the sequel is a leaner, extra streamlined recreation than its predecessor, missing any of the non-compulsory facet areas of the primary recreation. Its puzzles are additionally extra numerous, specializing in the completely different elemental powers Raziel unlocks all through the sport with some complicated riddles. The sequel’s dearth of bosses is disappointing, although, and even with some enhancements to combat–like including a block and extra weapon variety–fighting enemies continues to be secondary to exploration and puzzle-solving.Combat does have its deserves, nonetheless. Vampires cannot be killed by merely hitting them sufficient occasions. Instead, you’ll want to tough them up till they’re weak sufficient to be grabbed, then both burn them in daylight, drown them in water, or impale them on spikes earlier than siphoning their souls. This forces you to watch your environment within the midst of battle; launching a vampire onto a 10-foot-high spike is all the time exhilarating. Combat is essentially the most archaic side of each video games, however there are nonetheless some fascinating concepts right here that deftly merge with different features of every recreation’s design.In phrases of what was modified for this remaster, some of the vital enhancements is that each video games now function full management of the digicam, letting you alter it with the proper stick. Not with the ability to do it is a main barrier to entry when trying to replay the unique video games, so this places them extra consistent with fashionable third-person video games. Raziel’s nonetheless not the smoothest character to regulate, however there are solely a few irritating sections within the first recreation the place exact platforming is required. Figuring out the place to go subsequent is one other occasional difficulty with the unique as a result of recreation’s open nature and non-existent map. The remaster alleviates this considerably by including a compass and world map, together with a little bit of textual content that states the present goal, however neither is especially impactful. The compass is barely useful throughout the few cases when a personality tells you to move in a selected course, whereas the world map basically features as a key for every of the warp gate’s symbols. Although it’s a good contact to incorporate an outline of Nosgoth’s geography for the primary time.The visible improve is the obvious change, with extra detailed character fashions and textures, fashionable lighting results, and dynamic shadows. Some had been nervous previous to launch as a result of each video games seemed too brilliant in early screenshots, shedding their unique darkish and gothic aesthetics, however that is not the case within the remaining launch. You can immediately toggle between the brand new graphics and the outdated, and it maintains the identical gritty temper in each. In truth, the remaster feels prefer it’s slapped a brand new lick of paint on the unique video games greater than something. There’s a definitive enchancment, however it’s underwhelming that just a few notable blemishes nonetheless stay, whether or not it is the Soul Reaver blade often clipping via the ground or the dated fireplace and water results that seem unchanged.Gallery Beyond this, the remaster additionally has a plethora of bonus materials to dive into, together with explorations of the sequence’ lore, tons of art work and renders, outdated demo movies, outtakes from the recording classes, a music participant, and plenty of misplaced ranges now you can play for the primary time. These outdated relics are akin to an interactive museum, letting you discover unfinished areas that had been minimize from the unique recreation because of time restraints, finances points, or inventive choices. It’s an enchanting take a look at the sport’s growth and what may need been if issues had gone in a different way.It can generally be powerful to understand video games from the previous as a result of a lot of recreation design is constructed on iteration. That is not an issue with Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered. There are archaic parts to each video games, but it is stunning simply how effectively they maintain up right now. There’s little doubt that enhancements to the sport’s controls and, to a lesser extent, their visuals contribute to this, however the primary motive they persevere is due to their masterful melding of story, worldbuilding, and mechanics with a handful of revolutionary concepts. Much like Raziel, this is not an ideal revival, however it preserves a pair of basic video games and, in a really perfect world, will entice a brand new viewers to a sequence that has been dormant for a lot too lengthy. Hopefully, that is only the start of its resurgence.