Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered

Genre: Compilation / Action-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

The Legacy of Kain franchise span numerous titles, but it is generally agreed among series fans that the Soul Reaver duology is the greatest highlight of the series. The original Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver released on PC and PlayStation in 1999 with a port to Dreamcast in 2000, while its sequel Soul Reaver 2 was released on PC and PlayStation 2 in 2001. This Compilation remasters these two games and adds some new features and bonus content, with its release coming in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Set in a dark gothic medieval fantasy world, the Soul Reaver games take place at a time when series namesake, the vampire Kain, has taken over the world and his bloodsucking servants scour the land for hapless victims. The Soul Reaver games are told from the perspective of Raziel, Kain’s former lieutenant, betrayed by Kain and by Raziel’s “brothers” when Raziel’s powers began to surpass his master’s. Cast down into a vortex of suffering, Raziel is revived centuries later by a being seeking to end Kain’s reign and giving Raziel a chance at revenge. And after centuries of decay, Raziel is both weaker and stronger – he can now devour the souls of his enemies rather than subsisting on blood, but he also must do so frequently or be cast back into the spirit realm.

For fans of the series, the dark story and lore of these games are one of the main selling points, and they’re certainly helped by veteran voice actors like Michael Bell and the late, great Tony Jay, who are pitch perfect in lending this game an ominous and even somewhat sinister tone… and these two voice the good guys.

This release does a marvelous job brushing up the visuals of the original games, improving the framerate and resolution, and giving players the option of seeing the game with the original 3D models and textures, or a remade version with updated character models and much higher-resolution textures, and even the cutscenes have been improved here. Not only is this some really impressive work that shows a lot of love and care went into this release, but much like Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, this release lets you instantly switch back and forth between them at any time, here by pressing in the right analog stick.

Beyond the quality of the remasters themselves, I think that otherwise these games haven’t aged quite as well as one would hope. The game’s dark imagery does an excellent job setting the mood, but far too often it looks samey, making it easy to get lost and to miss details within the scenery you need to look for, and the “map” the game gives players is just about worthless. What’s more, the camera is kinda’ a mess here, acting jittery, needing babysitting, and becoming outright terrible when you’re in close quarters. Also, the need to constantly feed on enemies’ souls is an irritation that slows down the pacing, and the way that refusing to do so can often lead to them simply coming right back again can be particularly annoying.

The sequel addresses a lot of the problems in the original Legacy of Kain. While this game’s map is still useless, the game is overall brighter with more noteworthy landmarks, with more open areas that make camera issues far less frequent. Raziel’s need to feed on enemies’ souls is also much less-pronounced, and because many of the enemies he fights are humans, doing so isn’t necessary to keep them from reviving once slain.

However, both games suffer from pretty mediocre combat and 3D platforming, which seems especially clunky compared to more modern games that have refined combat in a 3D space. That said, this isn’t to say they aren’t worth playing – the interesting story and complex characters within these games make it compelling to continue on to see more of the story unfold, even if the minute-to-minute gameplay is somewhat lacking.

This is in addition to an absolute wealth of extra content, including a gallery with behind-the-scenes production art, promotional renders, a collection of fan art and a few photos of cosplayers, a full music player for both games, fully-playable areas cut from the games (though without any enemies to fight), a 1998 pre-release E3 demo of the first Soul Reaver, behind-the-scenes outtake videos of the voice cast recording sessions, and “Dark Chronicle”, a full-game script for both games. Save for the lack of box art, instruction manuals and advertisements, this is about as comprehensive a collection of content for these two games as you could ever hope for.

At $30, this is a pretty generous package. I suppose I could nitpick and say it could be even better if the other three games in the Legacy of Kain series were here too (Blood Omen, Blood Omen 2, and Defiance), but at that point I think that would just be getting greedy. Likewise, I could wish that these games revamped the combat and platforming, fixed the first game’s camera, and added a more useful map, but at that point it would turn into a full-on re-imagining rather than a simple remake/remaster.

Without going to that ridiculous length, I think Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered is an absolute best-case scenario for a return to this franchise’s most-celebrated games. The games themselves may have aged a bit poorly, but their world, story, and characters are every bit as fascinating now as they were 25 years ago, and this re-release is one of the most loving remasters I have ever seen. If you’re a fan of this franchise, you should consider this package an absolute must-have. And if you’ve never played these games, you may find these two games aren’t quite as deserving of adoration as they’ve received, but they’re still well worth a look, and you’re not likely to ever find a better way to play them.

tl;dr – Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered is a Compilation of remastered versions of the two named games, both Action-RPGs that have aged a bit poorly, but still have a truly excellent world, characters, and story to explore. And it’s hard to think of a better way to explore them than one of the most loving remasters I have ever encountered, full of bonus content. The games themselves may not be for everyone, but this is absolutely the best way to play them.

Grade: B-

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