Now Playing: Soul Reaver 2

 Huh, so we are abandoning the 'Legacy of Kain' moniker?

 I-I'm amazed. From the moment you fire up the game, the improvements are huge and notorious. The first thing you are treated to is a reimagining of  Soul Reaver 1's ending, and then... let's see... The camera, that used to be tied to R2 and L2, is now turned with the right analog stick. Genius. I remember whining about how little information it gave you to orient yourself, not anymore. Not only do you get a compass, which I suggested, but you also get a map, which I also suggested. And the framerate? Silky smooth. With new technology, also comes better graphics, and Nosgoth has never looked better(Well, maybe Blood Omen 2 looks slightly better, but it came after this one), it's very colorful, and the draw distance? You can see EVERYTHING. Remember in Soul Reaver 1 how short the draw distance was? That's a thing of the past.

 If I had one thing to complain about... it'd be that they change how the Reaver works. The previous game rewarded you with it if you did good in combat... now you can use it at any time, but you need to put it in 'cooldown' unless you want it to zap your HP constantly, plus, now the Reaver doesn't sustain your material form, so back to constantly feeding off souls. I dunno, it worked so well on the previous game, why fix what ain't broken? Also, and this is a nitpick, the graphics reek of early PS2, with slightly ugly models, and some wonky animations. The environments fare much, much better though.

 As a side-note, I know for sure that I never got out of the Sarafan Stronghold when I was younger, how do I know that? I don't remember ever getting out of it! I'm pretty sure it has to do with me not knowing how to save the game, probably, since that puzzled me at first. Turns out you can't save the game after well 30-40 minutes into the game. I'm not kidding. Which reminds me, they also changed how you save your game, instead of 'save anywhere', it uses save points, and they seem to be slightly too far apart from each other, but then again, I only came across two of them, so I might be wrong.

 What else can I say? I am completely enthralled by the game. I love the script, love the dialogue and love the delivery. I'm fully hooked by the lore of the series, and can't wait to see how it unfolds... barring the fact that I did finish Defiance back in the day that is.