Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered Assessment – Cult of Character

“Legacy” goes to be the phrase of the day right here. Soul Reaver, one of many cult-iest of cult classics, revered by many for its forward-thinking mix of narrative and gameplay, and a title that – whereas I didn’t personally play it at launch – is one I’m assured was the discuss of the city at launch. 25 years on, Aspyr have launched a contemporary fashionable remaster of the two Soul Reaver video games, with the help of Crystal Dynamics.

Just like the Tomb Raider I-III Remastered assortment launched earlier in 2024, Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is right here to have a good time the Legacy of Kain collection. Alongside the contemporary updates to gameplay and graphics, you even have a library of fan celebration and developer collaboration, together with idea artwork and fan artwork of Soul Reaver and its characters, the script for each video games, and a litany of minimize content material within the type of misplaced ranges.

Famously developed throughout a tumultuous back-and-forth between Crystal Dynamics, and Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen developer Silicon Knights, Soul Reaver tells the story of Raziel, a vampire previously of Kain’s lieutenants. After he’s seemingly killed by Kain, The Elder God resurrects Raziel, tasking him with the execution of Kain, and the assassination of Raziels former comrades. This ultimately results in an uneasy alliance with Moebius, the time-manipulating guardian who options prominently within the collection.

It’s a really easy story when it comes all the way down to brass tacks, particularly since each video games are doing various things with the fabric. In Soul Reaver 1, Raziel’s commentary, together with the overall path of the narrative and its groundbreaking cutscenes, is made to determine an arc and vengefully charged story beats. In Soul Reaver 2 nevertheless, the traces blur as a timeline-hopping odyssey instructed nearly completely from Raziel’s perspective, with internalization continuously spewing out.

What’s attention-grabbing is how each video games differentiate from one another, and the way each video games make the most of what’s already been established. A part of it comes all the way down to the expansion of Raziel as a personality, as Soul Reaver 1 is extra about puzzling and adventuring, however one other bigger chunk simply comes from apprehension relating to how the mechanics are applied. Regardless of the case, the issue largely revolves round fight.

In Soul Reaver 1, fight is an arbitrary gimmick revolving across the “true dying” of your vampire adversaries. It’s not simply that you simply slash ‘em to dying, however you additionally must throw them into direct gentle, an open fireplace, or perhaps only a stake via the center. As soon as that’s achieved, nevertheless, you even have to soak up their soul in order that they merely don’t simply respawn given time. Thoughts you, all of that is absolved when you purchase the titular Soul Reaver.

An vitality blade with practically limitless easy-killing potential, it will get some tweaks in Soul Reaver 2 via the implementation of a danger/reward system. Use it an excessive amount of and it begins to break Raziel, which is smart, and forces you to take care of what is well a few of the worst fight ever conceived for a recreation of this sort. There’s no suggestions, there’s no true connection, the hitboxes are method too large, and Raziel’s motion doesn’t account for a lot survivability, until you merely swing with out locking on. What replaces technique is sheer tomfoolery and button-mashing.

As a remastering effort, Aspyr has gone via the same old motions in relation to retaining the supply materials’s vitality. You’ll be able to swap between the unique and remastered graphics on the fly, and the very first thing you’ll uncover is that the remastered constancy may be astonishingly toothless. There are some shining moments, just like the upgraded designs of Melchiah and Zephon, which add much more menace and worry than beforehand enforced by their 1999 counterparts.

A number of the time, nevertheless, you might be merely simply watching barely refreshed textures, with Soul Reaver 1 benefitting, and Soul Reaver 2 affected by it. Each video games make the most of a dual-world mechanic within the type of Raziel having the ability to swap between the Materials World, and the Spectral Airplane, with extra emphasis positioned on it in Soul Reaver 1. The way in which the Spectral Airplane twists and contorts is proven off brilliantly in its remastered kind, because the Eldritch scrawlings are way more detailed, and intimidating.

The Spectral Airplane doesn’t get as a lot airtime in Soul Reaver 2, doubtlessly attributable to its placeholder as a glorified extra-life depository, given its bigger deal with hazard. Nonetheless, a number of the graphic upgrades in 2 are inclined to muddy up the true path and ambiance of the sport, which continues to be phenomenal. The quantity of occasions you’ll merely cease to sink into the fauna, the hearth, the chilly, and the tune is ridiculous, a real testomony to how a lot visible design and audio design are as a lot of a recreation because the gameplay itself.

That is the place Soul Reaver shines, not in its gameplay essentially, however within the ease with which Crystal Dynamics have been in a position to create a world, simply as true as when it was proclaimed 25 years in the past. That’s why it breaks my coronary heart to search out that Soul Reaver 2 does nothing with it, and that’s largely all the way down to Raziel as a personality. Whereas in 1, he’s a frightened little imp powered solely by rage and the heartbreak he suffers when venturing via the brand new world, 2 turns him right into a cocky counterpart, extra akin to Sonic The Hedgehog than a brooding anti-hero.

Soul Reaver 2 is a uncommon breed of story, the place the primary character has important character syndrome. The variety of occasions Raziel will stroll right into a cutscene together with his chest puffed out, bragging that he’s lastly figured it out, solely to see that one among his former handlers or adversaries has to calmly clarify the following step. It’s a captivating showcase of a simpering fool, who beforehand sought to study the correct precautions, and never as soon as is he confirmed to be the architect. Does Raziel know that? No! By no means! However he has a sense!

With nevertheless many points this remaster has precipitated to interrupt out of the bottom, I really feel like this was to be anticipated. When conversing with a buddy, I discussed how I used to be enjoying the remaster, and he was full of glee on the recollections this information introduced forth, regaling about how he and his associates all fell in love with the sport when it got here out, and the way all of them discovered the puzzles. After I talked about that I wasn’t having enjoyable with it, his response was, verbatim:

“Oh, God yeah, I wouldn’t play it now, it’s clearly not the identical.”

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered | Closing Verdict

Possibly I shouldn’t be stunned that a lot of Soul Reaver’s magic has satirically been misplaced to time. The fight is a button-mashing mess with no technique, and Soul Reaver 2 tends to deal with the much less attention-grabbing elements of the world. That being mentioned, for temporary moments, Soul Reaver reveals timeless choices within the type of what it was: A world of intricacies, and historical past, and even in its infamously cut-down state, it manages to showcase it greater than lots of its contemporaries, even now, and for that? I am grateful.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered was reviewed on Xbox Collection S utilizing a code offered by the developer over the course of 21 hours of gameplay – all screenshots have been taken in the course of the technique of evaluate.