Soul Reaver 2

"Play it!! But don't buy it!!"

I was expecting a whole lot more from the sequel to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver on the PS1! The first game was one of the best PS1 ever released. It had good puzzles, great boss fights, wonderful voice acting, an interesting story, a huge world with a great atmosphere and an original, fun battle system. It sequel however has almost none of the above. It seems as if they rushed this game out much too soon; It could of been so much more! But, as it stands here is what I think of the Sequel to Soul Reaver:

Graphics 8/10-

The graphics are fairly good. It's environments are huge and most of the ruins and castles look wonderful with murals and statues almost everywhere you look. The characters don't look too much more detailed than in the previous Soul Reaver though, but they work well and look nice anyway. Overall, the graphics are nice, but don't push the power of the PS2 like they did on the PS1.

Sound 8/10-

Great Voice Acting, Decent Music, and Average sound effects give this game an 8 in the sound category. After your finished with the game though you will probably not remember the game for anything but the voice acting and story though.

Control 6/10-

The control sucks!! I tried to give it a chance, but you can only sidestep an enemy to still get hit by the spinning of the spear a few times before you start to get annoyed. With this control system sword enemies are nothing, but the spear guys and fire demons are just too hard to dodge. But, you probably won't be fighting anyway because it is too repetitive and boring.

Gameplay 5/10-

Yeah, it that bad!! Everything that made Soul Reaver so great is missing from the sequel except for a few slight things. For example, the puzzles have been improved and consist of more than just block puzzles and pushing objects. But, there are also a lot less puzzles because dungeons consists of about 2 large rooms! But, everything else in the game is just boring. Boss fights! Gone! Huge world! Gone! Now you have a castle and a mountain area that you pass through about 5 times in the game to make an illusion of a longer game. Fun battle system! Gone! Now you just run around fighting hordes of annoying enemies that hit you when you should be able to dodge them. But, the game doesn't care because you just switch back to the spectral realm where you just come back and fight them again. The game is also very short and if they didn't have the same world you tread through time and again you could probably finish it in about an hour and a half.

Replay Value 3/10-

NONE! You play through it and you unlock extras like voice sessions and bloopers. You may look at those once and then put the game into a dark corner until hell freezes over. The gameplay is too boring to suggest a second playthrough. Especially, because you would know the solutions to all the puzzles-the only fun part in the game.

Overall 6/10-

I enjoyed the story for the few hours it lasted, but I will never be coming back to it. I suggest that you rent it or borrow it from a friend, but DO NOT BUY IT. It is a waste of 50 dollars because you will never come back to it again. I was a fan of the series, but now am quickly losing interest. I was expecting a lot more from Soul Reaver 2 than this boring piece of trash.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/23/01, Updated 11/23/01