Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a video game that consists of 0 releases

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The start of something new, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver drops the isometric view of the original in favor or a 3rd person perspective with plenty of action and puzzles.

Overview

Released in 1999, Soul Reaver was released as a sequel to 1996's Blood Omen. The game was developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive.Soul Reaver tells the tale of Kain's first lieutenant, Raziel, as he seeks revenge on his master.The game drops the static top-down camera from the first game for a third person view. The gameplay focuses mainly on puzzles and action adventure. In a twist from the last game, Kain is now the antagonist.

Raziel

Plot

Many centuries have passed since Kain had to make the fateful decision at the end of Blood Omen. The game starts on the premise that Kain refused the sacrifice and chose to rule a decaying Nosgoth. He has raised six vampire lieutenants and they have created multiple clans and established an empire over Nosgoth. Over the course of time, Kain and his lieutenants have evolved and have become less human and more divine in nature. Kain was always the first one to evolve and his lieutenants would soon follow. Until Raziel, his first lieutenent, developed a pair of wings before him. In his jealous whim, Kain tears down Raziel's wings and condemns him to an eternity of pain and suffering by casting him into the waters of Lake of the Dead.

But somehow, Raziel survived. He has been transformed into a wraith who hungers for souls, not blood. We follow his tale as he seeks vengence on his brethren and Kain.

Full Synopsis

As Raziel wakes up in the spectral realm, he is greeted by the Elder God. He claims he saved Raziel from absolute destruction under the Abyss and transformed him into a soul devouring entity. The Elder God is a giant squid like creature who hungers for souls himself and is only concerned with his "Wheel of Fate" - an endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth - to which all creatures are bound. The Elder despises vampires and Kain in particular as his empire as starved him from all the souls trapped inside the vampire bodies. He wants Raziel to become his angel of death and cleanse the land of this vampire plague. Driven by his hatred, Raziel accepts.

On emerging from the spectral realm, Raziel discovers that centuries have passed since he was thrown into the Abyss. Nosgoth has decayed and is now a dying world whose once great monuments have now become ruins. The Elder God guides Raziel throughout the course of this game as he seeks revenge on his brothers. Raziel also comes to terms with his existence as a wraith in both the spirit and physical realm, his weaknesses and his strengths. He realizes that his bloodthirst has been replaced by a much darker hunger for souls.

Wraith Blade

While searching for his clan, Raziel comes across the ruins of the city they once populated. It is later implied that Kain had all of them killed. He is next led to the weakest and youngest of Kain's lieutenants, Melchiah, who has horribly devolved into a primitive animal. Raziel kills him and on absorbing his soul, Raziel gains the ability to pass through small obstructions in the spectral realm. Next, he has a fateful meeting with Kain at the ruins of the Pillars of Nosgoth. Raziel questions Kain's conscience which infuriates the vampire. Kain tries to strike him down with the Reaver, which destroys the physical form of the blade. Kain's cackle at the end of their confrontation indicates that he knew the blade would be shattered when he tried to strike Raziel. Slipping into the spectral realm, Raziel finds the wraith version of the Reaver. The blade quickly binds itself around Raziel's right arm, to become his symbiotic weapon. Soon after, Raziel encounters the ghost of Ariel at the Pillars; she then leads him to the locations of Kain's lieutenants.

Raziel goes on to face Zephon, Rahab, and Dumah as he continues his revenge against his former brethren. He gains the power to climb walls by killing Zephon, a resistance to water by absorbing Rahab's soul, and the power of telekinesis from Dumah. Mysteriously, Turel could not be found. Underneath the Sarafan stronghold, he comes across the tombs where he and his brothers were once buried. Enraged by the revelation that he was once a Sarafan priest, Raziel longs to make Kain pay for his betrayal. As he pursues Kain into the chronoplast chamber, Raziel finds the vampire flipping switches in preparation for his escape. He stops Kain and questions his conscience when turning a Sarafan priest into a vampire. Kain in return tells him how the Sarafan crusaders were no different from the vampires. He goes on, hinting at their intertwining destinies, before escaping through a time portal. Raziel follows him in spite of the Elder God's warning. As Raziel arrives on the other side of the portal, he is greeted unexpectedly by Moebius, the Timestreamer.

Gameplay

Soul Reaver's gameplay was drastically different from Blood Omen. While the game still has the same morbid atmosphere, the camera has been changed to a dynamic third person view. Players can now stop and look around at their surroundings. The game features an abundance of puzzles, though most of them are simplistic and require little effort to complete. The game actually got some criticism for its numerous block puzzles, which started to feel repetitive towards the end of the game.

Raziel cleaving his way through

The action and combat in the game followed the traditional hack and slash method, where players can use a standard primary and secondary attack to beat down their opponents. Raziel can pick up any weapon from his surrounding to dispose his enemies. He can kill his vampire foes by impaling them, drowning them in water, exposing them to sunlight or setting them on fire. Some of the boss fights require a bit of puzzle solving as Raziel has to use the environment to deal with them. Combat changes quite a bit once Raziel gets a hold of his wraith blade - the Soul Reaver. The blade sustains him in the material realm and you don't need to go looking for vampires to satisfy your hunger.

A major aspect of the game revolved around Raziel shifting in and out of the spirit realm. Since he can't die, Raziel just goes back into the Spirit Realm when weakened. He can also willingly shift in and out using planar portals spread throughout Nosgoth. These play an important part in all the puzzles as Raziel can pass through certain obstacles in the spectral realm but he can only open doors in the material realm. Players have to think their way through some puzzles to avoid excessive backtracking.

Environment

The games environment has a steampunk feel to it as the vampires have created huge factories to black out the skies. Nosgoth is a state of decay as Kain's empire has corrupted the world to its core. The age of the vampires seem to be on the decline as most of their monuments are falling apart. The overall atmosphere of the game is very dark and morbid.

General Information Edit

Game Name	Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Platform(s)	PlayStation Dreamcast PC
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive
Developer(s)	Crystal Dynamics, Inc.
Genres	Add a new genre Action Adventure
Themes	Add a new theme Horror Fantasy Post-Apocalyptic
Original US Release	Aug. 16, 1999 need a fuzzy date?
Original US Release	know the real date?
Aliases