Because Kain's arrogance is large enough to contain yet another game.
Remember that old chap, Kain? Y'know, that guy who got killer, then turned into a vampire, and then had to decide either to sacrifice himself, and the vampire race, for the good of Nosgoth, or damn them all and, well, live? Well, he chose the
latter. And he wasted no time, he made himself quite the army, with Raziel being his right hand. And then Raziel had to go and evolve before Kain, which made Kain a bit angry and offed Raziel... Or so he thought. Kinda. Turns out Raziel spent 500 years in pain, but a strange voice claims to have helped him. Sure, he lost some weight. And his
jaw. As a matter of fact, he lost his physical form, but thanks to this new benefactor, Raziel is now a Wraith. He can consume souls to will himself into the material world if he so chooses you. Raziel is pissed, and now makes it his quest to end his killer, Kain, and the
rest of his brethren.
Soul Reaver is a third person adventure game not unlike Zelda. Y'know how Zelda loves the 'two worlds' mechanics? Well, Raziel gets to travel between the Material world and the Spectral world. As a matter of fact, you can go into the Spectral World at
any time, and you are forced into it if you lose all your health. The only way to enter the Material world, however, requires Raziel's 'stamina' to be full, which is done by consuming the souls of the denizens of the Spectral world, and then you must find a blue portal. The dynamic between both worlds is quite
interesting, since Raziel has no matter, he can't interact with anything on the Spectral world(Besides ledges and the such), however, the Spectral world is twisted,
literally, so a previously unreachable ledge might be easier to get onto through the Spectral world. Sometimes you'll have to move a block, pull a lever or the such in the Material world, so as to be able to reach someplace else in the Spectral world.
And then comes my
first problem with the exploration, which is the lack of directions. The world of Soul Reaver is kinda large, but there's no map or compass to help you guide your way. Whenever you are given hints of where to go, the voice will say 'Go West of X', which would be helpful if
only I knew where West was! Speaking of the voice, there are no real 'checkpoints' in the game besides the 'Gates'(
More on these later), and while you can save your game at any time, every time you continue your file, you'll start from the voice's abode. This can translate into a lot of walking, and maybe even solving some platforming puzzles
again. Then we have the 'Gates' that teleport you to other 'Gates', but the only way to distinguish these gates is from their symbols. So you better remember that the symbol that looks like a 3 takes you to the Swamp. Was it so
hard to just write the name of the area below the gate? It's
needlessly complicated!
There were also a couple of kinks with the overall gameplay that are a bit hard to
ignore. The camera is a bit wonky, every now and then, it's gonna stick way too close to Raziel's back, luckily you are given manual input over it with the shoulder buttons(
Why not the right analog stick?), and you're going to need to use them to get the most out of the camera. The game also has some very noticeable framerate issues, sometimes they can get in the way of your inputs, making you miss actions like jumps. It
can get a bit annoying. The game also tried to make away with loading screens, which was a
noble endeavor, but you can tell that the game will sometimes slow down in order to allow it to load, and if it gets coupled with the framerate issues... well, you are in for a bad time! And lastly we've got the jumping... some of the jumps demand a bit too much precision, and Raziel's movement really isn't up to snuff.
Combat is a very simple, one-button affair, but there's some
nuance to it. Your enemies in the Material World are different forms of devolved vampires, and vampires just can't be killed by normal means. You must find weapons to
impale them with, water or fire to throw them on, heck, even sunlight will do the trick. You'll also need to consume their soul if you don't want them coming back to life! Early through the game you'll
earn the Spectral Soul Reaver, which only manifests on the Material World if your health is full, the Soul Reaver makes your enemies
explode, so that even if you don't consume their souls, they can't come back, so it
encourages you to do well in battle, keep your health and thus keep the
powerful Reaver.
As you defeat the Vampire Generals you'll earn different skills, which can be used for puzzling, battling or both. As a matter of fact, it's a good idea to backtrack whenever you get new skills, as there's a lot of goodies to be found. There's items to extend your health bar in the Material World, and there's 5 hidden 'Glyphs', which are powerful spells to deal with enemies. All of these are optional, and many of them are hidden in
optional dungeons! There really is a lot of stuff to see and do in Soul Reaver. Even if some of it is a bit...
cryptic. Some of the puzzles I admit where a bit too complex to finish without a guide, there's this one puzzle in particular, a boss actually, that you need to realize,
somehow, that you can lure it outside his arena, and then,
somehow, figure out to bring him back to a previous room in the dungeon, in which you
already solved the puzzle, and activate the mechanism to destroy him. I'd really love to know how are you supposed to realize all of this by
yourself.
The game looks fantastic, no two questions about it. There's not a whole lot of different enemies, but each 'sub-race' looks different enough. Bosses are large and menacing(As menacing as the PS1 can make them look anyways), and then there's Raziel... Raziel's design is incredibly
unique, and the in-game model does it justice. While the Spectral World can be a bit dull in all its
blues, Nosgoth is a pleasure to explore, and each area is unique enough so that you can easily
identify them. If one thing is consistently top-notch in the LoK series, it's the voice acting, and this game is no exception. Kain's Voice Actor is as phenomenal as always, and the newcomer's Raziel's voice actor matches him in quality. The music can be a bit forgettable, there are many different tunes, but I'd be hard pressed to remember any of them.
I
criticized the game a lot, but the fact is, the game is excellent. There are issues, there are flaws and it has a couple of problems, but the game manages to pull through. Exploring Nosgoth and finding all of its secrets was a blast, most of the puzzles were fun to figure out, even if a few can get a bit
too complex.
8.0 out of 10
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