Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2

When I first bought Soul Reaver 2 I was worried because it didn’t come with a manual. Because I got it used from Game Stop they didn’t seem to have a manual with the game. I would have more than happily played full price for this game but because it’s old I’m not sure how I would get my hands on it new. And all of my experiences with the Legacy of Kain games before had taught me that I was going to need that manual. However Soul Reaver 2 is a much better game.  Like any modern game it teaches you everything about the game with examples. Giving you button prompts and simplistic examples of what the button is used for.   This is the first legacy of Kain game to be on the PlayStation 2. This alone helped my experience with this game greatly. Having two thumb sticks so that I could control the camera was a huge relief then using R2 and L2 to simply look around. Soul Reaver 2 takes off at the very spot the last game stopped. Which really makes this whole thing feel like a constant adventure. You keep all of the abilities you gained in the previous game like swimming and climbing.  Between each chapter the game Raziel really feels to gets better and stronger. I quickly learned to love this game and couldn’t put it down.

I was very sad to see that you still loose the Soul Reaver if you get hit once. But the game quickly addresses this issue in a great way. No longer than 5 minutes of gameplay and you can wield the Soul Reaver whenever you choose. However the more you use it a bar fills around your health. The longer it gets the stronger the Soul Reaver becomes. But you have to be careful because if the bar wraps all the way around your health bar it will do a huge amount of damage to Raziel.  So you really have to learn to respect the Soul Reaver and not abuse its strength and let it cool down before it kills you. When it is peaking at its power it can easily kill any opponent with one swipe.  However the Soul Reaver consumes the souls of who is slays. So because Raziel lives off the souls he kills he doesn’t gain back health per kill like normally. So when your health is getting low you have to resort back to killing your enemies with your claws and weapons you find. As soon as you put the Soul Reaver away battle become completely different and it will take several blows to kill an enemy. It’s worth it because you will be able to regain some health back after you kill them. All of this creates a great mechanic where you have to make the choice of when to unleash the Soul Reaver and when to hold back.

                The combat in the game feels marvelous. In the last Soul Reaver game I found myself wanting to use the dodge button a lot but it just wasn’t responsive enough. So I would end up running around in circles swinging my weapon wildly. Although I found this silly strategy still helpful at time it was much more efficient to lock on and focus this time around. The enemies are good at telegraphing their attacks with broad movements and glowing slightly before doing more damaging attacks. But just because their attacks are wide doesn’t mean they are slow. I never felt like the game was moving slower for me giving me an unrealistic handicap. The controls are much more responsive and the dodging moves at just the right speed and distance for it to function as a game and look realistic as well. I always felt like I was getting the upper hand and counter attacking. Each strike felt like you really were hitting them. It is an extremely satisfying feeling when you dodge every attack a group of enemies throw at you. And with each dodge you strike back creating a quick chain of attacks each time the Soul Reaver is getting stronger and at the end you finish off the last few enemies in a single swipe. The enemies will also do their part at dodging your attacks and blocking. At times it can feel almost like cheating when they dodge your last five attacks. But it just means you should get on the defensive because they never can dodge when you counter attack. And with a fully charged Reaver your attacks go right through their block. When you do have to resort to not using the Reaver you have to use either Razial’s claws or the swords and spears of your fallen foes. Unlike the last game everyone you fight isn’t a twisted form of a vampire. So you no longer have to resort to using fire, water, or impalement to finish off your opponents.  In general you feel a lot stronger this time around. Not having to resort to the environment to kill and having the Soul Reaver whenever you please makes the combat much more satisfying. Every weapon has a quick attack and strong attack this time around. Yet another reason this game feels much more modern and enjoyable. The strong attacks often will push enemies across the room and smash them into a wall. And when you get hit with a lot of attacks Raziel often finches and grabs his wound showing weakness for only a second and then he quickly is back in battle. This gives the fighting a very good cinematic feeling. It’s very visually appealing to watch how your fights play out. The projectile attacks are still in the game. But this time you have to aim before you shoot them. The cross hair also seems to be off slightly. I wonder if they did this on purpose however because every time I had to use the projectile in a puzzle I was fine with missing the first couple shots. But trying it in combat was frustrating. So projectiles felt useless in a fight which is good because I would much rather rely on the great melee combat they designed so well.

Besides the combat looking great the entire game looks far better than its original PlayStation predecessor. The Spectral Realm twist and morphs in more dramatic ways. Although you spend even less time this time around in the Spectral Realm it still looks great every time you go into it. The Soul Reaver series always seemed to have a great use of pallet and the colors in this game. It really looks amazing and really sets the mood of the environments. The design of the environment and character is still very artistic and dark. I have never been more interested in looking at concept art in a game.

Like the first Blood Omen there is a lot of narrative that drives the game. The dialog is very well written with a wide vocabulary of words. When two characters have a conversation it is almost as if seeing two actors on stage of a play. The way they conflict with each other in just simple dialog really brings them alive and draws you deep into the story. It feels so much like two actors on a stage that the game lets you go back and read the script of the scenes in the “Dark Chronicles”. The fiction really feels like it’s all tying itself together. I had a lot of fan boy moments of just thinking to myself things like “OO! That’s from the first game!” The story progresses at a very quick pace. This game story could have easily taken over the course of 3 different games. But instead of filling half of it with lengthy random dungeons the game moves on from one event to the next quickly. They really seemed to design this game with the story as its primary importance. Something I feel a lot of game designers should consider more. Although it is a video game and it should be fun to play, if there is no story to drive you to finish it you often get bored and never come close to finishing the game.

                Raziel is a very loveable character. He is constantly being told what to do and being manipulated to the point where he just stop listening to everyone. He decides to dictate his own path and figure everything out for himself. When he does decide this it felt like great timing because as soon as I noticed everyone was telling him what to do he did as well. At first it’s easy to blame his motives to do what everyone says as simple gameplay. Often we play games where the main character is willing to help anyone out that ask him for it. And it has been so burrowed into our brain that in video games we should do what everyone tells us to do. But Raziel doesn’t do this, and it’s a great refreshment from a story telling perspective. He becomes a very relatable character as he seems to make similar choices as you would. It even shows through in his animations. Simple things like using his foot to pivot and open the other half of a giant gate. Another great example is when you have to do a puzzle in the wind forge. You have to get several “keys” (I’ll call them for the sake of the story) to open up the next area. The first time you find one and put it in its proper place the “key” gets sucked up into a giant statue’s mouth. In the processes Raziel is almost pulled in as well. He barely escapes the stone lips by franticly gripping on the edge of a platform. When you find the next 2 “keys” instead of showing the same animation of Raziel holding onto the ledge for his life, he quickly takes cover hiding from the gust of wind in fear. I literally laughed out loud seeing him nervously flee as I would.

                There are a lot less puzzles this time around. They are less difficult but still challenging and fun. There are sections of the game where you can’t progress any further unless you find the next elemental upgrade for the Soul Reaver. These upgrades change the Soul Reaver and help you access new areas. I didn’t notice much of a change in damage or effectiveness in combat however. They seemed mostly to be used as keys for puzzles. But to get these Elemental powers you first have to go through its forge. This is where most of the puzzling within the game is done. However they can be very lengthy and a save point would be nice somewhere within them. Soul Reaver 2 is good about giving you hints on some of the harder puzzles. The block puzzles are nowhere to be found sadly. These puzzles were easily my favorite part of the last game but I’m glad they are gone because I’m sure I would have gotten tired of them at some point. One thing that bugged me about the first Soul Reaver was that it never gave you any prompt of when the Spectral Realm is needed to compete a puzzle. This time around there is symbols that resemble the spell you use to change between realms. So you always know when you need to shift between realms to progress in the game.

It is so much easier to progress in this installment. In the last game I found myself wondering where to go next and would resort to a walk through very often. I’m proud to say that I didn’t use the walkthrough once for Soul Reaver 2. The puzzles were never too difficult for me and Raziel does a great job at narrating where you should go next. And if you really forget where to go you have a world map this time around with a red dot telling you where to head to next. Another great improvement is they took out the platform jumping. Although the jumping is much easier to control now, I’m extremely happy to see I didn’t have to do any more trivial jumping around. Plat forming was just an awkward time for video games. It rarely felt justified from a story perspective and gameplay. The camera this time around is much better at showing you what you did and where to go. It will swing around and show you when a lever open’s and door for example. Or help you with puzzles by showing you what your ultimate goal is. I found myself wondering what the compass is used for. In the top left of the screen is a simple compass telling the directions. However I never once found it helpful to navigate so it could have easily been left out. Soul Reaver 2 keeps its momentum from start to finish. I never found myself bored and just wanting to get to the next section of the game. Strangely enough there is not a single boss fight in this game. They could have realized how meaningless these fights were in the first game when Raziel can’t really die. Because there is no game over screen and if you die you just go to the spectral realm. And if you somehow manage to get killed in the spectral realm you just revert back to a check point and lose no progress. When you make your way back to where you died you’re enemies are still damaged just as much as it was before. I was forced back to a check point once. Although I almost died in the spectral realm a few times I was able to somehow survive when the game really ramps up the difficulty. There are very strong enemies that may feel like a boss fights the first time you fight them. But once you figure them out you can take on more than one at the same time. And that’s just what the game does. After you fight one of the hardest enemies and almost die, a few steps away and you fight the same demon three times at once.   Although you mostly play the game in the same environments it still makes sense within the story, and the game is good at changing things up so things are always different and never boring.

In the end this is one of the best games I have played in a very long time. I have enjoyed myself greatly and was entertained from start to finish. I have often heard that this game needs a remake but I think Soul Reaver 2 is still a great game and doesn’t need a remake. Often games need remakes because they visually or mechanically have aged and wouldn’t make sense to a modern gamer. But this entire franchise isn’t for the average trigger happy gamer. So I would recommend people pick this up because it hasn’t aged a day.

 The next game in the list is Blood Omen 2. Soul Reaver is nice enough to put a trailer for Blood Omen 2 inside of the game. The brief trailer looks like it will be a prequel. I am very excited to see how the story played out between the events of Blood Omen and Soul Reaver. Sadly blood Omen 2 looks a lot worse. The combat looks janky and the graphics seem very poor and awkward. None the less I am very excited to see how this franchise plays out and I can’t wait to start playing.