Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Moby ID: 1525
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One thousand five hundred years after the events of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the vampire Kain's decision at the end of that game has finally defeated the human kingdoms and brought the world of Nosgoth under his control. Ruling from a castle built on the Pillars of Nosgoth, Kain has established an empire of six vampire clans, each ruled by a lieutenant, the sons of Kain. Raziel was one such lieutenant but lost his position through the insolence of receiving a new evolutionary "dark gift", the growth of feathery wings before his master had acquired it. Fearing that Raziel might one day surpass him, Kain tears off Raziel's wings in a fit of rage and banishes him into the Abyss. There, Raziel is lost in time, dead and his body consumed. The Elder God recovers Raziel's soul and rebuilds the broken body, not as a living vampire, but as a strange new creature of the underworld. Swearing revenge on Kain, Raziel now phases seamlessly between Nosgoth and its underworld, using his new powers to become a terrible reaver of souls...

Soul Reaver is a third-person perspective action game with puzzle-solving and some platforming elements. The game follows Raziel on his quest to purge the land of vampires and take revenge on Kain and his brothers, leaders of the six clans. The player views the environment from behind Raziel's shoulder, moving him in any direction, climbing, attacking, jumping, and using specific abilities. Raziel can grip onto the edge of ledges and his torn wings allow him to glide gently downwards. He can also shift through the material world into the spectral realm at will but must find specific locations in order to shift back. The two realms mirror one another, with distortions which give access to new areas and platforms. Existing in the material world drains Raziel's life energy at a constant rate.

Throughout the game, energy is recovered by consuming the souls of defeated enemies. If Raziel is able to defeat one of his brothers, he will additionally gain a new ability ("dark gift") upon drinking his soul. Examples include: the ability to swim, file telekinetic projectiles, or the ability to phase through locked gates. Raziel can arm himself with a variety of weapons including spears, daggers, swords, axes, as well as attacking enemies barehanded. Eventually, he will also come across Kain's personal sword (named the Soul Reaver) and will use it to create a powerful energy blade weapon.

The world is left open to Raziel, he can return to areas previously completed and explore the world of Nosgoth at will. Access to certain areas however sometimes requires the use of gained specific abilities. Many of the puzzles the player will need to solve in this quest are block puzzles, requiring the placement of certain large structures (usually square blocks), either to activate switches or to build access to out-of-reach areas.

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Credits (Windows version)

116 People (90 developers, 26 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 60 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 130 ratings with 5 reviews)

What An Epic!

The Good
Well folks you are in for one hell of a ride. If you are a fan of vampires or if you're just looking for a great story with plenty of action and original ideas this your game. Oh, and you need a tolerance for Playstation 1 graphics if you're going to get through this one.

STORY

The game is actually a sort of follow up to Silicon Knight's excellent Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Set many years after the end of Blood Omen (I'm not calling it B.O. so bear with me :P) the enigmatic vampire Kain has forged an empire for himself and basically exterminated the humans of Nosgoth. With his empire being so large and all Kain creates 5 lieutenants to command his vampire forces. One of those lieutenants is Raziel, our protagonist. The story opens with a stunning CG (for it's time) explaining how Raziel sprouted wings and received death for his "transgression." Kain, being the evil jealous vampire lord that he is, decides that if he doesn't evolve first - nobody does. And with that he casts Raziel into the Abyss where he lays burned and very much dead until....

A few centuries later the mysterious "Elder God" revives Raziel and gives him a chance for vengeance...but for what price. And I'll leave it at that. The story, while an unoriginal vengeance theme, is excellent and provides a couple of "jump out of your seat" twists and many turns as Raziel seeks to hunt Kain down for killing him.

PRESENTATION

I must say, and many gamers out there agree with me, that the LoK series has some of the best voice acting done in ANY video game - period. Simon Templeman returns to revise his role of Kain from Blood Omen and his powerful voice acting is superbly done and he steals the show. But Michael Bell as Raziel was one great casting decision and the banter between these two especially later on is fantastic. All the supporting cast is creepy and vampiric and very well done. The music is absolutely fantastic. Kurt Harland and his Ozar Midrashim song seem like they were made for this game. Powerful. All the area themes are very well done and the combat effects are top notch. A lot of today's designers could learn a lot from the presentation of Soul Reaver. The game's best aspect by far.

GAMEPLAY

Controlling Raziel is very easy and responsive. Even the windows version is quite good with the keyboard and all. There are 2 different types of jumps and you can glide with your ruined wings which is very cool. You can attack with your claws and in groundbreaking style (for it's time...) you can grab torches off walls, use sharp lances and spears and basically just destroy your vampire opponents with whatever your sick imagination brings up. Once your vampire foes are dazed which happens after you hit them successively and hard, you can pick them up and throw them in sunlight, water and on spikes to finish them off. Once this happens their soul appears and Raziel, being the "Soul Reaver" can eat the foes' souls and recover health. Very cool and this forces you to feed to keep alive in the material world. Ah yes, there are 2 worlds. Raziel can switch between the Spirit Realm and the Material Realm at certain "portals". This is helpful in certain puzzles where the spirit realm makes places much more accessible. You also gain special abilities such as telekenesis by acquiring glyphs scattered across Nosgoth in shrines that really add to the game. And when you acquire a certain legendary weapon - the fun really starts!

FUNCTION

Saving is a breeze you can save anytime, anywhere. Not to mention there are warp gates all around Nosgoth that teleport you from place to place so there's no repetitive walking around. The boss fights will make you replay them again they are so fun and the rewards for them help access new areas such as the aforementioned glyphs. Your enemies are never repetitive as you go up against hordes of vampires from your former brother's legions. If killing humans is your thang then stroll on over to the human citadel and start sucking souls - if you can find it!



The Bad
Well the graphics are a bit dated and it does detract I am afraid but it's not too much to worry about.

Some of the puzzles are pretty dumb and they appear at the most inappropriate times. For example you wade through hordes of vampires as you try and get to the boss and just before his lair the game throws a block puzzle at you. This is just a waste of momentum.

As for the ending: Well it may leave you screaming at your screen... There is a reason for Soul Reaver 2 folks and this game is it.



The Bottom Line
If you are looking for an excellent cinematic adventure with plenty of action and drama along with awesome weapons and vampires sprinkled in then look no further. Grab Soul Reaver from a bargain bin now and go on an epic ride. Just make sure you leave space on that hard disk (sorry PS owners :P) for Soul Reaver 2 and LoK: Defiance if you want to see the story of Kain and Raziel through.

PlayStation · by Zsolt Pardi (19) · 2004

" A chapter in a series of Masterpieces... "

The Good
This game's storyline is great...It leaves you wanting to know what the rest of the chapters of The Legacy of Kain series holds...It's quite worth finding out....trust me...

The game isn't cheesy at all....The storyline isn't expected....Tha'ts more than I can say for most games in this Day and Age....

The Boss fights are sorta challenging....

Gameplay is Great....I've always enjoyed Impaling my victims with a Spear ;)

The Bad
Raziel got to fight Kain just a little too early in the storyline...(though there is still more of the game left....lots more)

The Bottom Line
Playing as Raziel (A Former Noble Vampire of the Warlord Kain), you seek revenge against Kain (Your former Master)...Your memory is totally wiped out with your death so as you embark on your journey you uncover things of your past and learn great useful skills and solve TONS of puzzles.....

PlayStation · by Decrepify (1) · 2003

The butcherized and bastardized sequel to Silicon Knights' classic, but it actually ain't that bad.

The Good
Soul Reaver is a sequel of sorts to Blood Omen: The Legacy of Kain but aside from the partially trademarked names it's really hard to notice the "family resemblance".

The first thing you'll notice in Soul Reaver is the amazing introductory FMV which is further enhanced by the game's simply breathtaking graphics. The 3d engine loads objects on the fly, or rather as you're walking through doors, and is somewhat more reminiscent of a 3rd person Unreal game than that of Blood Omen's. It features high-poly models, a ton of colored lighting effects and huge outdoor areas but it's most impressive aspect is the "double-dimension" effect. As Raziel, the game's protagonist, switches between the real and the ghost world his surroundings literarly morph. The walls twist and bend, the ledges raise and extend, enemies disappear to be replaced by new ones and all of this is accompanied by great lighting effects and done right in front of the player's eyes with no loading time whatsoever. Also, the PSX to PC conversion allowed for 3D acceleration to be used as well as an incease in the resolution which enhances the graphics tremendously, and due to essentially being a game for an iferior console Soul Reaver will run fast on almost all machines using the highest settings possible.

The music and sounds are also phenomenal with the aural tracks done by the Information Society which fit the incredibly gothic mood perfectly. Voice acting in Soul Reaver is also topnotch and idealy complements the great dialogues. The gameplay is often very satisfying combining various aspects of action and adventure genres but unfortunately ignores the previous game's emphasis on spells, equipment and vampire abilites. As Raziel you're able to shift between the two aforemention dimension to solve Tomb Raider esque puzzles, take advantage of the environment to kill the undead and immortal vampires, suck down souls to remain in the real world and use various abilites learned by defeating your undead brethren.

Finally, despite relatively ignoring Nosgoth's setting Soul Reaver introduces it's own world of a post-apocalyptic setting combined with a gothic dark-fantasy feel that in the end is more original than that of Blood Omen but not quite as vibrant or detailed.

The Bad
Soul Reaver's most obvious flaw is almost completely ignoring the original game's plot. Silicon Knights was involved in a lawsuit with Crystal Dynamics and consecutively had nothing to do with the sequel to their game. Despite this setback Soul Reaver could have still closely followed it's predecessor but declined to do so. The gameplay changes could be explained by the change of the title's hero and engine, but various story elements have been thoroughly ruined or ignored. The Elder was introduced without any real purpose or explenation while Hash’ak’gik wasn't mentioned once and has basically been overlooked by the developers. Various fans have tied in the Elder to the Unspoken but even if their theories are true this motive was never explored or even hinted at in the actual game. Even one of Blood Omen's main villans, whose death was one of the most memorable and concluding acts in the game, makes an unconvincing return.

Despite all of this, Soul Reaver's largest setback would have to be the fact that the game was basically cut in half and released nowhere close to being complete. Eidos finally got tired of waiting for Crystal Dynamics to finish the game and in turn made them put out a title that simply is not done. This doesn't mean that Soul Reaver is plagued by bugs and unfinished gameplay features, infact the game's practically "spotless", but instead it simply comes with roughly half of the levels and storyline that it was originally intended to contain.

The Bottom Line
The bottom is line is that Soul Reaver: The Legacy of Kain remains one of the most enjoyable and worthwhile experiences in all of gaming but makes you wish it would have achieved all of it's goals before being released.

Windows · by Radoslaw Koncewicz (6) · 2001

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Saving problem??.. Unicorn Lynx (181780) Jul 19, 2010
What if.. Donatello (466) Jan 28, 2009
PC version sound bug/problem Donatello (466) Aug 11, 2008

Trivia

Alternate ending (Spoiler)

The cut alternate ending, as rumoured:

You may remember the corridor with the strange visions. One of these was the one where Raziel strikes Ariel with his wraith blade, resulting in her being absorbed by it. In the Alternate cut, this happens in the game. With the enhanced Reaver, Raziel kills Kain in the Moebuis's Retreat. Afterwards, Raziel would have journeyed to the Silent Cathedral and made all of its bells ring a certain frequency fatal to vampires, thus deleting every single living vampire in Nosgoth, himself included.

Comic

There was a graphic novel based on the game. It was published by Top Cow.

Cover

The front cover of the UK Playstation version features a hologram, which if you twist in the light shows Raziel in the spirit world with the twisted pillars found in the game. If you twist the other way, it shows him in the mortal plane with the pillars straight. Naturally, holograms don't scan well but you can see the cover in the cover art section with both planes dimly featured.

Cut content

Large parts of this game were cut or changed from the original conception. While this is not important in and of itself (almost every game goes through a period of change during development), it's notable the sheer quantity of what was altered or overlooked. Without spoiling the plot too much, let me just say that there was an alternate ending planned, at least two more bosses, expanded areas, a lot more power-ups to the Soul Reaver and one of Raziel's brothers, Turel is missing completely. Word is that Eidos thought the game was taking too long and tightened the deadline.

One boss that was left out of the final cut was the Priestess. She was supposed to be the leader of a human cult that worshiped vampires. When she is defeated, Raziel receives some sort of possession/control ability.(In fact the first three words said in the game are "Kain is deified". They're said at the start of the intro, so that's not really a spoiler.) Whilst she didn't show up in the game, she did appear in the graphic novel.

Cutscene

In the Windows version of the game, there is a small cutscene that does not work properly. This cutscene occurs in the lair of Zephon (aka "The Silenced Cathedral") when Raziel opens up three of the Organ pipes. The resulting hymn destroys the two vampires in the room. It is believed that this cutscene was originally part of something larger, and perhaps an alternate ending to the game.

Development

Here's an interesting fact: When the game concept was originally conceived, it was a stand-alone game called Shifter, according to Dennis Dyack of Silicon Knights. The title was obviously a reference to the realm-shifting gameplay mechanic.it was changed into a Blood Omen sequel before any work was begun on the project.

However, the Shifter influences made into the game: Namely, the story of the vengeful servant hunting down his former master and brothers, and the incorporation of Angelic and Biblical imagery and motifs.(Raziel and his brothers are named after angels, not to mention Raziel's design.Also, on a side note, Kain is something of both a God and Devil figure in Nosgoth, in this game at least. Though that may not have been intentional on the developer's part.)

Dyack has disclosed separately that Silicon Knights intended to produce a Blood Omen sequel, but has not elaborated on the details other than to comment that it would have been very different than the direction Crystal Dynamics took the series in. Given that "Legacy of Kain" is actually the suffix of the first Blood Omen, it is entirely possible that their plan was for a sequel (or sequels) with a different (anti-) hero altogether, and that the result would have been something more like the next game they created - Eternal Darkness.

Duman

You find your brother Dumah (5th boss fight) lying immobile on his throne, his body pierced by the spears of vampire hunters. As you learned earlier with other vampires, the way to get him to revive in order to take proper vengeance with your own hands is to remove said spears. However, if you switch into spectral realm before reviving him, you'll have the opportunity to chit-chat a little with his wandering ghost.

German version

All red blood outside cutscenes was coloured green in the German version.

Glyphs

Glyphs are the magical artifacts that give Raziel elemental based powers.

Every time you kill a boss you gain a new physical ability which lets you access places you were previously unable to, not only to proceed with the game, but also to find 'secret sub-worlds' in which the Glyphs lie. These side-searches are really worthy because of the beautifully designed environment that these 'secret sub-worlds' are.

One of them is specially interesting for fans of Blood Omen: the place in which the Stone Glyph (for reaching which you need Zephon's walk-climbing ability) is hidden is no other place than Nupraptor's retreat. The giant skull-shaped castle on the side of a mountain in which Kain's very first target used to live. Words can't begin to describe what it means for a fan of the series the view of this familiar place in all its 3D glory, but with the weight of 1000 years on it.

Humans

Throughout your journey you'll encounter a few human survivors whose primary reaction will be to attack you.

If you just run away without harming them, later in the game you'll notice that, every time you run into a human, not only he won't attack you, but he will fall to his knees and bow to you!

Looks like the rumor of the kind-hearted blue demon spreaded quite fast.

Music

Soul Reaver's main theme song, "Ozar Midrashim 1.1", was composed by Kurt Harland from Information Society, and it is featured on their 1997's album "Don't Be Afraid".

Ratings

Soul Reaver was initially rated T by the ESRB for Windows and PlayStation, but the Dreamcast version was rated M. The original two versions were later rerated to M as well.

Raziel

The name Raziel means "God's secret" in Hebrew. The protagonist of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is named after an angel in Jewish mythology, who is particularly prominent in the occult Jewish teaching Kabbalah: according to it, Raziel possessed secret knowledge of the Divine and wanted to share it with Adam and Eve after their expulsion from Eden. Apparently, God didn't take this lightly, further punishing the first human couple; however, Raziel was spared and is said still to be out there, with all his knowledge intact...

References to the game

  • Speech samples from this game were used by the industrial band Velvet Acid Christ in their songs Dial8 and Mindphlux (Trip Zone Mix) on the album Twisted Thought Generator.
  • The intro from this game was partially used on the beginning of doom metal band Tristitia's third album, The Last Grief.

Information also contributed by Ace of Sevens, chirinea, Dr. M. "Schadenfreude" Von Katze, haynor, Mark Ennis, phlux, Unicorn Lynx and WildKard

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MAT.

PlayStation 3, PSP added by Charly2.0. PS Vita added by GTramp. PlayStation, Dreamcast added by Grant McLellan.

Additional contributors: Macintrash, Casualty, Shoddyan, Halleck, Patrick Bregger.

Game added May 31, 2000. Last modified January 22, 2024.