Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

"A Soul A Day..."

Imagine what it would be like to be forsaken by the one figure you have come to know, truly love, and admire. Imagine what it would be like to have events occur beyond your realm of control that result in your own death sentence from this same figure. That figure is the only father you have come to know and worship. If you can imagine that, then you will begin to understand the tale of woe and misery that continuously beats down upon the young protagonist, Raziel.

Raziel is a vampire in what have become the dark times for humanity. However, Raziel is no mere foot soldier for the vampire clans; he is second in command. His only superior is the infamous Kain, a blood thirty, merciless vampire. Raziel, with his brothers, do Kain’s bidding gaining territory and spreading mayhem using all means necessary. Their power is growing stronger and together they ruled. However, that fellowship was not bound eternally.

Kain, when the time was ripe, would develop a new power for himself. Shortly following such an evolution, one of the Lieutenants of Kain, Raziel and his brothers, would acquire the same gift. One day, Raziel unveiled a power that had originated with him and not with Kain, the power of flight by growing wings. Seen as an act of treachery and defiance to his authority, Kain condemned Raziel to be cast into the abyss, a swirling vortex of water that would endlessly burn the flesh of the doomed. Raziel was flung into the pit and died for what he felt to be an eternity.

Suddenly he awoke. An unknown deity had revived Raziel from his death and commanded him to seek out and destroy his would be murderers to set the world free of Kain’s clutches and quench the fire of revenge within Raziel. He was only too happy to oblige. Only a shadow of his former powerful self, he set out with only one thought on his mind. Kain!

The tale of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver begins. Not to mention, that it is an intriguing one indeed. A tale of revenge is no stranger to a video game, yet the uniqueness that Soul Reaver offers makes up for it. I was thoroughly fascinated with the thought of a dominating vampire force upon the world with no heroic human to defeat the onslaught of death. There is no Buffy: The Vampire Slayer to save humanity, although there is the occasional crossbowman, and I found it enjoyable to not assume the role of one. Though, you actually fight the vampires of Nosgoth, the kingdom of Kain, this doesn’t mean you can’t attack the humans you encounter as well. Ally less, you roam the countryside destroying anything that gets in your path to achieve your goal and I loved every minute of the story, yet I just wish there was a bit more to tell. I liked how the past revealed itself to allow the gamer a more personal knowledge of the vampires and their upbringing. However, this is not exactly an epic story, though I wish it were. The parts that are present are delightful and I was thoroughly entertained by it.

Upon your reawakening you have developed a new kind of craving. To sustain life as a vampire, you must quench the eternal thirst you possess by the drinking of blood. To sustain your new life as a soul revear, you must satisfy the eternal hunger you possess by the reaving of, um, souls. Simple enough, eh? Enemies scatter the land anxious to impede your progress. Defeat these insolent pests to release into the air a glowing green ball of energy, a soul. It is your food source. You must quickly devour this spirit before it disappears into the spectral realm. Failure to feed will result in your ultimate transportation to the spectral realm as well as when your life meter hits zero.

Along with your new hunger, the Elder has bestowed upon you another power. He has given the ability to shift between two realms, the spectral and the material. The material realm is basically your normal atmosphere. You can be hurt, numerous enemies are scattered about, and the backgrounds look correct. However, whether you do it yourself or you are zapped into it due to losing all your health, you can enter the spectral realm, the spirit realm. Here, you will encounter a new atmosphere. There are only two kinds of enemies as opposed to the larger assortment from the material, your health will only drop from injury, contrary to the continuous depletion from not feeding in the material realm, and the world becomes slightly distorted with walls twisting and bars bending. These two parallel worlds will become vital to your survival. Switching between them could be the solution to a puzzle that you have been unable to figure out for a large amount of time, among many things.

I loved the concept of two realms here and how it was applied in this game. The switching between realms and seeing the world turn to a more vague atmosphere was delightful and presented a whole new world of opportunities to explore. What was also enjoyable about this idea is that you can’t die. Whereas you can be zapped from the material to the spectral and if you die there, back to the beginning, you will never see a game over screen. Therefore, you can never undo what you’ve worked so hard to accomplish only to have forgotten to save and be back at the introduction screen.

Going back to the beginning of the game, the Elder’s chamber, may seem like quite a waste anyhow which leads into an explanation of the world as a whole. The world is not broken up but is actually one large land. Each member of Raziel’s former brotherhood, including himself, has been allotted certain lands extending from a central point. Along the way on each leg of your adventure, you will encounter warp gates. Each gate acts as a teleportation device to transport you across the whole world in a split second to avoid tedious re-adventuring. I fully appreciated the implementation of these devices and used them to their full advantage. However, I ran into a bit of trouble when it came to remembering which gate took me where. Every time you activate a gate, it has a symbol to go with it. When you are at another gate and wish to access that land, flip through a series of pictures (from other gates) until you come to that one. The pictures bear no resemblance to the location itself and I wish something a little more obvious could have been added to make the identification of these places a tad easier as opposed to a simple circle with a few lines in it as a marker.

To understand how the puzzles of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver work, think Tomb Raider. Yes, the makers of Tomb Raider, Eidos, bring forth this title in a mildly similar style. The only real similarity, though, is in the puzzle solving of the game. Nearly all puzzles in this game are block puzzles of some type requiring you to flip them and arrange them to make a certain design or push certain pieces into a slot elsewhere. The puzzles may sound moderately boring here (how fun can pushing blocks be?), but they really are enjoyable and they are spread out far enough that they never really become monotonous or tedious.

Of course, not all the puzzles are solved by simple block rearrangement. Many require skilled jumping and climbing, accurate timing, and other various gaming techniques. Each puzzle, though, is lots of fun. I especially enjoyed puzzles where you had to put to use rapid shifting between realms to keep certain things from happening or distort the world to provide a path out. While requiring some real brainpower, the solutions will come to you after a while diminishing threats to be made to the game system. In short, it’s fun.

Naturally, puzzle solving and adventuring can grow tiring if you do it non-stop. What better way to break up the action than to spill the blood of your brothers’ cronies. Vampires pillage the land and they have become your enemy. Using your knowledge learned from the elder at the beginning of the game (and just some common knowledge), you must defeat these cretins to face further challenges. You’ll find no cross flinging here. These demons are tough and require just as harsh tactics for defeat. Using your surroundings, you must kill and feed off their souls. Deaths by water, fire, or just plain impaling are a few devices to choose from to make short work of your foes.

The slashing of your opponents’ thorax is exhilarating and snuffing the final life force from his body is the final insult to extend your lifespan. The fights are plentiful to offer maximum satisfaction, yet spaced out enough to keep them interesting much like the puzzles. These two, in combination, offer a lethal one-two punch of gaming pleasure that will keep you on the edge of your seat into the wee hours of the night. Allow me to offer an alliterative equation to help you fully understand the concept of combat in this game: Fight = Fun.

Don’t think for a moment that the world of Nosgoth will leave you defenseless in your quest to rid the world of Kain. Certain power ups lie hidden around the world. Energy pieces to expand your life bar (or a coil shape as it is here), new spells to defeat enemies, and even new abilities can be gained by exploring the world. This adds an element of treasure hunting to the game that I thoroughly valued. Taking a break from blocks puzzles to find a few more life forces blocks was fun especially when you got to combine elements from other treasure hunting earned skills. Climbing walls in addition to realm switching is only one combination you could use to discover more secret lairs on your road to success. I loved every minute of it.

A dark and gothic tale and time would appropriately have a dark and gothic world and that is exactly was it delivered. During the destruction filled roam of the countryside, jagged, detailed cliffs fill the atmosphere. Cryptic passageways provide the traveler with a morbid sense of death. Ruins dot the world where once mighty kings are long passed and forgotten. Yes, the atmosphere is brilliant with the backgrounds and each one looks brilliant. The shimmering water most impressed me with its accurate representation of realism with its transparency giving a decent view to the bottom and still managing to rise and fall. I fully appreciated when the time called to shift worlds and I got to see the world around me reshape itself a little bit in only a moment or two. Lovely.

The character models themselves stand apart. The clothing the characters wear is particularly noteworthy as it sways, as it properly should. When Raziel takes off running, the cloak he is donning gives a sudden leap to the sky yet it doesn’t stay suspended forever and falls slightly back to its original position just as a real article of clothing would. The hollow face of Kain is also well done, in addition to everything else, but this really lets the gamer know what it is that’s so scary about this man, his fierce and deadly look. The characters’ animations are appropriate and wonderful as well, whether it be slashing a torch about the air or just watching an enemy struggle to hold onto life, everything is stunning.

Further complementing a melancholy atmosphere is a gloomy soundtrack. While nothing leaps out as particularly epic, the heavy and downcast tunes get the job done in collaboration with the visuals throughout Nosgoth. The voice acting in this game is superb from every one of the characters. The Elder’s booming and menacing voice is a perfect match and it really becomes believable that he is a god of some sort. Raziel is great when it comes to eloquently saying soliloquies at various intervals through the game and just simple yells and grunts. Each character’s voice is seemingly authentic and really adds to the atmosphere of Raziel’s misery and the gloom of the world.

Whether it is leaping crevices, stealthily crawling, or simply impaling your brothers’ minions, your button commands will run parallel with your thoughts. Although, this doesn’t mean that everything requiring an order from you will come easily, as many objectives require precision tapping of the old control stick and careful manipulation of the buttons. However, I did find the camera of old Nosgoth a bit irritating at times. In instances where a view could undoubtedly be better, you are forced staring down or into a nearby wall, though it may be quite attractive to admire, that is hardly your purpose. Camera manipulation is possible, but a bit hard to manage and sometimes the camera just reverts back to the original state. During precarious jumps the view can change a little throwing you off your timing resulting in an unwanted decent and, therefore, immediate clamber upwards yet again. Although, these instances are rare and aren’t as troublesome as one may think, but they can become a nuisance in a tight spot.

One more minor issue I had was when I was trying to move blocks around on the floor. Sometimes the character of Raziel just seemed overly persistent in his defiance of my demands. I thought it was rather ridiculous how accurately you had to position yourself to grab hold of the block just so you could shove it over a few feet. Although, these problematic situations were not a common occurrence, they can get irritating in a puzzle when enemies are breathing down your neck.

A moderate challenge to anyone who cares (and they should) to give it a try, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is an excellent game. With over ten hours of fighting, fleeing, and flying (well gliding), Soul Reaver is a superb addition to any Dreamcast game collection. Accompanying these activities lays a work of art in the world of Nosgoth, a gothic and appropriately tuned soundtrack, and just all around fun. To top it all off, the game promises no load times and it certainly delivers easing the burden of long waits while levels load. “Stake out” at a nearby store all night if you have to just to be sure you get Soul Reaver before somebody waltzes in and buys the last copy before you do.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/02, Updated 02/27/03