Soul Reaver 2

"Nosgoth's dirty little secrets..."

Raziel returns in the 3rd installment of the Legacy of Kain series. Eidos finally released Soul Reaver 2 after months of delays. Get ready for a wild ride, cause if you’re about to accompany Raziel on a massive journey that will uncover many of Nosgoth’s dark secrets.

Game Info-
1 player
122KB on your Memory Card
DVD-Rom

Story- The story for Soul Reaver 2 is, by far, the best I’ve ever come across. You play as Raziel, a former vampire turned ghoul, who is searching for the one that damned him to his current form, Kain. Raziel will travel to different parts of Nosgoth’s history in his mad search. I’m afraid Soul Reaver 2 might be a tad bit confusing to someone who hasn’t played Soul Reaver 1. To fully understand the story, I suggest you play the first one.

Gameplay- Soul Reaver 2 is a 3rd person adventure game, as are most Eidos games. You’ll be running around in various environments, ranging from icy plains to dirty swamplands. Battle takes place in glorious real time battles. You target your opponent, and punch, kick, and slash your way to victory, ending your foes life with a finishing move. You can find various weapons on the ground, or take them from fallen enemies. Unfortunately, there isn’t very much variety in weapons, it either a sword or a spear type weapon.

When you sustain damage, you’ll find it easy to recover your life. Just kill an enemy, and suck up the soul.

You’re also PERMANTLY bonded with the Soul Reaver, a sword that will absorb life from the foes it kills. There is a drawback to this… The sword absorbs the souls so you can’t heal yourself if you’re using the sword. Also… another drawback to the sword, is if you use it to kill too many enemies, it will become uhh “aroused” (yes… they use that word in the game) and start to suck out YOUR life. While this may keep you from using this amazing weapon, it does get you out of trouble when you’re surrounded.

Along the way you can “forge” the Soul Reaver with an Elemental Font. This will help you solve certain puzzles. That brings us to another topic, the puzzles… (Oh yes! Forging the Soul Reaver also gives you an extended lifebar)

Eidos seems to love puzzles, seeming most of their games are filled with them. The puzzles you’ll encounter in Soul Reaver 2 range from moving blocks around to running around for nearly an hour trying to put certain items in a certain place to open up a new section. Sounds like a lot of work? It ain’t. The time will pass really fast, at least, it should. Sometimes a good walkthrough will help if you get stuck, and you probably will at least once in the game.

You can save your game when you come across what looks like a shrine. You just simply step up to it and press the X button. The save points can seem sparse at time, and I think Eidos should have stuck with the save system from Soul Reaver 1, as in, save anywhere.

You might notice the glyphs from the first one are missing. This means there aren’t any more sidequests anymore.

Graphics and Sound- The graphics in Soul Reaver 2 are truly amazing. You can actually make out expressions of emotion on the characters faces. On close-ups on Raziel’s face, you’ll actually see the change on his face. They really cleaned up the graphics. One problem is graphic distortion. On more than one occasion I’ve sent enemies flying into rock formations. This can be annoying when you’re low on life, and now the enemy has just… disappeared.

The background and scenery is just as fine as the characters, maybe even better. When you gaze upon the Castle in the past, it looks incredible. If you jump into the water to get to a certain point, you can notice fish swimming around, and various types of water plants.

Sound is as much to this game as the story is. Returning as Raziel is the talented Michael Bell (doing voices in Soul Reaver 1, Eternal Darkness, and Warcraft 3, and more). He does an amazing job displaying Raziel’s emotions. Other voice actors familiar to the Legacy of Kain games return, such as Simon Templeman (as Kain) and Tony Jay (the Elder God).

The music is sort of boring at times, mainly when you’re running around. If it wasn’t for the voice-overs, I’d turn the volume all the way down and listen to a CD.

Replay Value- I’m afraid there isn’t very much replay to this game. You’ll only replay this game if you’re a fan of the Legacy of Kain series, such as myself. The talking scenes can turn you off from playing it over again, as there is no way to skip them, and some can run for what may seem an eternity your second time through.

Bonus Features- After you finish the game, you’ll be given a code. Input the code at the start menu and you’ll have some new bonus features to play with, including some hilarious outtakes (the voice actor messing up or playing around), as well as some other things, but you can find out for yourself, so I don’t spoil anything.

Oh, something new I’ve never seen in a game before, is when you pause the game, you can read the script from any talking scene there was.

Rent or Buy- Well, I would have to say buy it if you’re a fan of the series. It is pretty cheap, but it may be hard to find (around here it is)… But if you aren’t a fan of the series, you could easily finish it as a rental, that is, if you’ve got a guide to help you.

My final score - 9/10

I came for the story, and stayed for the gameplay. The massive amount of puzzles kept the game from achieving a perfect score. But hey, if it has the title Legacy of Kain, I’ll buy it no matter what.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/24/02, Updated 09/24/02