GameSpot Review
One of the best 3D PlayStation adventure games from last year has now arrived on the Dreamcast. In fact, it's an exact port, with graphics that are as impressive on this platform as they were on the original, and with control that's almost as tight. But to back up a bit, Crystal Dynamics' sequel to the first Kain game, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, is a far different animal from its predecessor. Instead of being a top-down RPG, Soul Reaver is a 3D adventure game similar to Eidos' Tomb Raider. And Kain? This time he's the main antagonist. The game begins hundreds of years after Blood Omen and works on the premise that when you, as Kain, were given the choice of sacrificing yourself to save the world of Nosgoth or ruling it, you chose the latter, plunging the world into darkness. Over the millennia, Kain and his vampiric lieutenants evolved new abilities, with Kain always developing them first and the others soon following. When Raziel, the "hero" of the new game, grew wings before his leader did, Kain saw it as blasphemy, tore them from Raziel's back, and cast him into a giant, swirling, watery grave. But the long-winded story doesn't end there. After his features have been almost completely eaten away by the water, Raziel is saved by a being known as the Elder God, who sets him on a quest to free the world from the parasitic influence of the vampire clans and to destroy Kain. Raziel finds himself transformed so that he no longer drinks blood but devours souls (luckily, since he no longer has a jaw). Also, he can no longer die; instead, he is transported to the Spirit Realm - a shadowy distorted version of the Material World - after sustaining heavy damage. And surprisingly, his wings still work after a fashion, at least letting him glide for short distances. These are the tools you start the game with. You can also move and stack large stone blocks and switch over to the Spirit Realm whenever you like. You can only transport yourself back to the Material World at select locations and only once you've filled up on souls. This ability comes in handy, since the netherworld often bends platforms and structures out of shape so that you can climb them more easily and then flip back to the Material World and continue on. Why not just stay in the Spirit Realm? Because you can't open doors or move objects there. You can now begin to see the shape of many of the game's inventive 3D puzzles. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your skills. Kain's other lieutenants have evolved in different ways throughout the last few hundred years, and each of them acts as a stage boss in the game. One has a spidery form, another has grown a tolerance for water, and so on. After destroying each one, you gain his special ability, which then opens up new areas in the environment for you to access. Beyond that, there are bonus areas (which you don't need to complete to beat Soul Reaver). In these areas, you can acquire elemental glyphs, which grant you new powers that work well against the game's standard stock of vampires. Speaking of which, there are many different ways to exterminate the vampires of Soul Reaver. You can set them on fire, throw them into water, impale them with stakes, and toss them onto spikes. Destroying vampires regularly is necessary early on in the game because you'll eventually revert to the Spirit Realm if you don't eat enough souls. That is, until the Soul Reaver itself comes into play. The Soul Reaver is a blade that appears as a thin blue energy trail that curls around your right arm from the shoulder and extends a few feet down past your hand. Swallowing enough souls summons it to the Material World, where it sustains you, keeping you from having to constantly hunt down vampires to feed on. Once you gain the Soul Reaver, you'll shatter enemies with an explosive punch that mixes Psylocke's psi-dagger (from Marvel Comics' X-Men) with a Jedi lightsaber. While poking vampires with stakes can get a bit tired after awhile, this never gets old. As this extensive description may suggest, Soul Reaver is a deep game possessed of myriad impressive little touches. The graphics are among the best we've seen on the Dreamcast, taking as much advantage of the power of the system as the original version did of the PlayStation. While it was stunning before, the environments and characters possess a level of clarity and definition far beyond what we saw on the PlayStation Soul Reaver. As before, the game has subtle lighting effects that color each scene just a little differently to the scale and the overall jaw-dropping look of its polygonal 3D world. The Drowned Abbey stage is an excellent example of both elements. Standing midlevel in a half-flooded church, you'll look down at water pulsing gently above a tiled floor. When you gaze upward, you'll see the reflection of the water shimmering across an ornate gothic ceiling. Meanwhile, Raziel himself is modeled so well that you'll find yourself turning the camera around to get a good view of him posing with the Soul Reaver or pulling down his scarf to expose the gaping maw where his mouth used to be. The storyline is presented through a gorgeous introductory CG cinema (which runs even smoother on the Dreamcast), which is then followed by well-crafted events using the in-game engine and superb voice work. It's all wonderful high drama, with much less of the overstated breathy gothness found in Blood Omen. An excellent, albeit looping, soundtrack only adds to this and picks up whenever things get intense.
--Joe Fielder --
Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.
Product Description
In the sequel to BLOOD OMEN: Legacy of Kain, you jump into the world of Raziel, a member of Kain's vampire army. After defying Kain's authority, you were sentenced to damnation in the Lake of the Dead. Your body has been torn apart by water that acts like acid on vampires; you are merely a shell of your former self. As a member of the undead ranks, you have the ability to pass between the Spectral Plane and the Material Plane as you seek revenge on your former master. But you'll notice that the two realms are vastly different, as are your abilities in each, which you'll have to use to your advantage on your quest for vengeance. On both planes you'll find plenty of puzzles to solve, platforms to jump, and enemies to fight as you traverse through the two planes and hunt down Kain.
