Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Sega Dreamcast
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Release Date: 2000
Rated: M for Mature
When I purchased my Dreamcast in February 2000, one of the first games I picked up was the port of the PlayStation hit Soul Reaver. Having previously owned the original PSX version it was a purchase I made with confidence.
Sure enough, Soul Reaver on the Dreamcast is essentially a gussied up version of the same game on the PlayStation, but my how pretty it looks. The added processing power of Sega's new (at the time) console helped bring the world of Nosgoth to life with stunning architecture, crisp textures, and greatly enhanced character models.
While a graphical bump may not be enough to convince all but the most diehard of Kain fans to purchase it a second time, it's a surprisingly appreciable upgrade for fans, while those just getting into the series are treated to the best version of a fantastic game.
Soul Reaver shifts the series focus away from the vampire Kain, the antihero of the first game Blood Omen, and shines the spotlight on Raziel, the first of Kain's lieutenants. 1,500 years after the events of the first game, Kain and his vampiric brethren now control Nosgoth, but when Raziel has the misfortune of evolving before his master, he is punished for his transgression.
Raziel is cast into the Lake of Souls where water burns his flesh like fire, leaving him horribly disfigured and seething with hatred. His would-be eternal torment eventually subsides, however, and he is greeted by a mysterious being known only as the Elder God, who entreats him into his service with the promise of vengeance.
The Legacy of Kain series as a whole has been critically acclaimed for its outstanding storytelling, complex plot, and voice acting that is practically second to none. Even to this day, the voice work from Michael Bell (Raziel), Simon Templeman (Kain), and the sadly deceased Tony Jay (the Elder God) ranks among some of the best ever heard in a video game. It's true the dialogue and narration can be a little long-winded and melodramatic, but it draws you in at the same time. Soul Reaver's involving story leaves you wanting more each time something new is revealed, and it will help carry players through the game even during the slower moments.
Soul Reaver is equal parts action and adventure. Combat is fairly simplistic, though it can be challenging when facing multiple enemies, and the focus of the game is mostly on exploration and puzzle solving. The game is fairly linear, in order to keep the story progressing along, but the world is so expansive that it feels like you have more freedom than you actually do.
Puzzles are one of the game's strong suits. Many of them require little more than moving a block so you can reach a high-up ledge, but there are a handful of remarkable doozies that require some lateral, logical thinking. Even the boss battles are largely puzzle-based, requiring far more than physical superiority and forcing the player to work out how to best each one.
Another one of Soul Reaver's gimmicks (and I mean that in a nice way) involves switching between two planes. Raziel can shift between the spectral and material planes when his health is full, but once in the material world he must sustain himself by swallowing the souls of his enemies or he'll shift back unwillingly. This mechanic is also used to solve certain puzzles. Things such as water, normally hazardous to a vampire, react differently in the spirit world, allowing Raziel to pass certain obstacles that may otherwise be impossible in the physical plane.
On the PlayStation, Soul Reaver was already an impressive looking game, and it featured a revolutionary data-streaming engine that eliminated loading times between new areas (or carefully masked them with short cutscenes, such as Raziel walking through a doorway). That same streaming technology makes its way to the Dreamcast, but the graphics - and especially the lighting - have received a boost that is noteworthy.
This isn't just a mere texture resolution bump. Character models have been redone to take advantage of the Dreamcast hardware, and the world around Raziel receives an equally impressive treatment, bringing the gothic look to life. Lighting is absolutely breathtaking as ethereal hues glow and luminesce. While fog may be used to help obscure pop-in, it also fits the world very well and looks realitically volumetric, making it feel desolate, dying, and oppressive under Kain's vicious rule. The end result is a game that was visually striking at the time, and still holds up pretty well today, in spite of comparatively blocky character models.
Soul Reaver's audio didn't receive a similar boost, but seeing as how the PlayStation version's music and voice acting were already superb, that's not a knock against it. It's not as though there was any room for improvement when it comes to the voice cast. Bell and Templeman are spectacular in their roles as Raziel and Kain respectively, and Bell provides several other voices in the game equally well. Each one is distinctive, a problem even modern games have trouble avoiding (see: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, where there are five actors voicing hundreds of different NPCs identically).
Control is solid and responsive. The Dreamcast pad handles the action well, though centering the camera behind Raziel can be a tad problematic as it requires you to either hold the shoulder buttons for a moment, or press right on the d-pad, thus taking your thumb off the analog stick for a moment.
If there's one major failing of Soul Reaver, it's the save system. Though you can technically save anywhere via the pause menu, restoring a game always starts you off in the spectral plane and forces you to walk a rather long distance in order to find your way back to where you left off. This becomes very tedious and dampens the desire to play the game in shorter increments, simply to avoid the hassle.
It's a shame that Soul Reaver 2 never made it to the Dreamcast. As the system began to stumble, Crystal Dynamics canceled development and eventually released the game on the PlayStation 2, forcing Dreamcast owners looking for resolution to the cliffhanger ending to switch consoles. It's equally a shame that Soul Reaver itself never saw another "next-gen" port to the PlayStation 2, forcing fans of the series to either play the inferior PlayStation version or purchase a Dreamcast in order to play the best version of the game.
That said, there are plenty of reasons for everyone to own a Dreamcast, and Soul Reaver is definitely among them. Its incredible story with Hollywood-quality voice performances and top-notch graphics create a world of dark gothic intrigue and betrayal that is sure to swallow you up.
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