Soul Reaver 2

"A wonderful legend with only a few flaws"

Yes, it's more of a spoken novel than a game but that in itself can save it... Perhaps. In this review I'll be introducing Rieka, a review tag narrorator. She'll add stuff in italics where necessary. For the role-playing declined, this means there's two people writing this review but I'm writing the main body of it.

Control: 9/10 Thank god it's on PS2.
No problems with control. It's very nice, easy to do what you want and you can even navigate large crowds of enemies without frustration, adding to the combat.

Story: 9.5/10 Solid Snake and Raziel battle for the `Getting jacked around by EVERYBODY award'
It's why I got this game. Continuing off from the last one, some newcomers may feel lost. This is quickly remedied by a few refreshes about the past two stories.

Characters: 8/10 Ugly as all hell but they look so cool you've gotta love them
The characters are mostly non-human and therefor look really cool. The enemies are kind of non-distinct but they're not the game's focus. The animation, especially the face tracking is absolutely superior in this game. I was amazed to see how well the mouth movements synched up with the dialogue. Well... Raziel doesn't have a mouth per say but you get the idea. They are all exceptionally well-written, designed and animated.

BGM: 3/10 I'd give it at least a 5/10 but I'm not writing the review
This is one of the few points this game looses out. I found the BGM very hard to listen to. The music seemed `broken'. Some say this really fit the atmosphere but I disagree. I think if they would've kept the same instrument sets but just made it more `together' it would've added more of a feel to the gameplay part of the game.

Sound Effects: 8/10 Those poor screaming sloth guys! It sent shivers up my spine
The sound effects in this game are beautiful. The subtle swish and hum of the Soul Reaver is excellent. As you move from one terrain type to another, say from rock to grass, the footstep sound changes accordingly which is a very nice touch. It looses points from poor enemy sound effects in their dialogue. How many times must a guard say ''Taste my blade, Vampire!'' in one fight? I usually count seven or eight. Then again, I took a non-combat policy to most of the game.

Graphics: 8/10 Again, he's too harsh. It deserves a 9/10. Look at the water and the glow in Raziel's eyes!
Nothing spectacular. The water doesn't look nearly as good as in Silent Hill 2, Dark Cloud, Ico and such. They should have just used the PS2's built-in water effects. However, there being nothing awe-striking about the graphics is actually a good thing. The world is dreary and ancient and this graphic style suits it quite well. It looks like a modernized version of Soul Reaver 1's graphics.

Fun Factor: 7/10 How many times did you drop that damn plate?
First off, the game's lack of significant bosses gives it a sort of full ongoing feel. It makes it feel as though you needn't save your game at all. I consider this a drawback. Combat as a whole is pretty much senseless. It's nothing more than a tool to refill your heath meter which acts sort of like a time limit later in this game. The puzzles are nothing major, just pretty much the same as the first one. Bring object A to point B. Turn thing at point B towards object and progress on route C. All in all it's nothing really any more special than the last Soul Reaver.

One thing that got on my nerves was the `Xenogears' crisis it had. You run through an area for ten minutes and then sit through a really long dialogue. This isn't so bad if you like the story. However it can be very bad if you don't. `I know Kain defiled your Serapham past. Now shut the hell up and let me save my damned game! I've gotta go! My cab's waiting!' was said quite often by local players of this game. `It's just a DAMNED painting! We don't need an essay, Blueboy!' was another popular one. Just when you think you're in the clear and can save your game and take a break, BOOM! There's another long cutscene. I lost alot of gameplay time just having to reset this one because I couldn't play it any longer.

Difficulty: 3/10 If you die in this game there's something seriously wrong with you
NOTE: The closer to 5 this rating gets, the better it is.
Due to the gameplay mechanics you cannot die. Well, if you can it never happened to anyone I know. The puzzles aren't overly difficult but it can be alot of running around, which can get annoying.

Feel: 9/10
This game has feel. You want to finish it from the second you pick it up. I can't shake the feeling that it would make a much better movie trilogy. It's also fun at the start, in the big room to lur about 9 enemies to chase you. It gives me Tenchu 2 flashbacks and it's fun, in a morbid way to turn around, say ''You asked for it!'' And then rip them all apart. Mostly though it's all about the awesome, although lengthy cinematics.

Another added bonus, by my count you start out with all your powers from the previous game. I think this is absolutely great because it voids the chance that you'd just work hard to re-acquire your old powers like in most games. Where I live, we call that problem the `Megaman runs on AA batteries problem.'

Instruction book/packaging: 9/10
No problems here. B&W instructions but that's not out of the ordinary and doesn't hurt it any. It gives you obvious gameplay instructions mid-game anyway.

Overall: 7/10
Definitely worth picking up just for the story. I always advise you to rent it first however.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/04/01, Updated 11/04/01