Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999)

Не осилил.

Разиэль эволюционировал раньше Каина, за это его скинули в Бездну. Спустя много времени какой-то Старший Бог его оживил, чтобы тот выпилил своих братьев и Каина. Пока Разиэль был в отключке в мире наступил пиздец: вампиры деграднули, людей осталось мало. По ходу игры Разиэль выпиливает всех своих братьев, узнаёт, что раньше они все (и Разиэль тоже) были сарафанцами-людьми-паладинами и боролись с вампирами, а обратил их Каин. Найдя Каина Разиэль слушает какую-то пафосную херню от него и прыгает за ним в прошлое. Конец.

Клёвый дизайн персонажей, хорошая пафосная озвучка, шикарный саундтрек и... невыносимый геймплей. Игра адово устарела. Вроде бы типичная метроидвания, но из-за тугой камеры (стиков на Плэйстэйшн ещё не завезли) играть в это тяжко. И безумно скучно, потому что боёвка тут буквально однокнопочная, а головоломки — перемещение кубов. Игра в принципе короткая (если знать что делать — часов 6 со всеми секретами), а сюжета — минут на 40. И заканчивается всё клиффхенгером.

Играть в это скучно, больно и не нужно. Лучше просто глянуть прохождение или вообще только игрофильм.

I will admit I didn't have any expectations coming in that I would enjoy this, because I find the general aesthetic of this game to not be very appealing to me.

I trudged through the almost completely awful gameplay for a solid hour before dropping it. It's some seriously tedious shit, with spam x combat and a uselessly easy impaling system and block puzzles and platforming puzzles galore that only pad out the content to a ridiculous amount. That's fine though, people do not think even slightly positive thoughts of this game in terms of gameplay, so I did myself a favor and watched the cutscenes.

Of which, left a rather goodish story impression for me. It's actually a rather light read overall, which makes the game's length and padded out content so retroactively worse considering that the story here could be told in less than an hour quite cleanly. But what is played around here are some interesting themes and perspectives of one's own fate, with two characters giving completely different sides of how they consider the knowledge of everything being predestined.

It doesn't develop anywhere in a super interesting fashion unfortunately as far as the first game is concerned. Kain and Raziel are entirely set in what they think of their fate being determined off the bat, and there isn't much added development other than the histories of their lives being grey and riddled in blood. It leaves a very unsatisfying impression overall, clear setup for a sequel that I might play (but will most likely watch instead).

That's as far as it goes in terms of positives though, because other than I guess the decentish music there's very little here. The game almost brutally breaks off any sense of emotional attachment, and the aesthetic while very decently set in gothic horror has not aged very well at all.

If you can tolerate the garbage gameplay you will find a rather alright story to consume that is very clearly setup for a greater sequel, but overall I'd just read the script or watch the cutscenes like I if you are even slightly interested. Limit your suffering. (4.5/10)

While playing this game, i've noticed lots of things and elements that i really love in games, the abilities you get that help you progress further, like a metroidvania or a legend of zelda title, the sense of exploration. Raziel's visual is pretty badass, and the plot, just like it's predecessor, is great as hell.

The problem is that playing it in 2020, you realize that so much things in this game doesn't work so good nowadays, the platforming are so inaccurate, 'cause the controls are very unpredictable and the combat is really bad and boring even for that days.

If you don't matter these "problems", you should play it, it's a really great game, it's just that, obviously, it was so much greater when it was released, but didn't aged very well.

Just one more thing: the controls of the PC version can be even worse, keyboard sucks in this game and to configure a gamepad is hell of a headache.

When this game came out, I remember being intrigued by Raziel's Todd McFarlane-esque design, but I thought the game would probably be too scary for me. My curiosity persisted into adulthood, when I attempted to play on Steam but gave up when I couldn't configure its controls to my liking.

So now that I've finally completed the game on my trusty Dreamcast, did it live up to 18 years of hype?

The Good

• The voice-acting is pretty incredible for the time. Each character speaks their florid dialogue in a dramatic and convincing way.
• The world is very ambitious (again, for the time). The lack of "loading" screens makes every environment feel truly connected. The warp room design is pretty brilliant. Enemies, bosses and environments almost always feel thematically consistent with each other.
• Unlocking new abilities is rewarding. While the main ones act mostly like keys, the "climb walls" ability gave me retroactive Breath of the Wild vibes. And the optional glyphs can feel really awesome if you use them in the right situation.
• Raziel's design is super cool. I love the way the Soul Reaver looks. I like how Raziel tilts his face toward off-screen enemies.

The "Meh"

• The controls feel very, very 32-bit. Platforming is plentiful and clunky. The camera needs a lot of help, and on Dreamcast in particular having to manage it with the D-pad is aggravating.
• I want to like the combat, but I just don't. Despite having terrifyingly huge claws, you can't kill anything without a weapon, and you lose your main one in a single hit.
• It's not that I mind block puzzles, but I wasn't expecting them to make up such a large percentage of the game.
• I wish more of the game happened in the Spectral Plane, because its twisted architecture and black-light color palette are way more visually interesting than the dusty gray tones of the Material Plane.
• The cliffhanger ending was kind of a bummer.

My Takeaways

I'm glad I played Soul Reaver. It's easy to see why it impressed so many when it was released. It was fun to recognize ideas introduced here that clearly influenced the rest of the industry.

But the years haven't been kind to the compromises made during the game's troubled production. Players today should keep that in mind going in.

If you're interested in a deep-dive look at the game and the differences between its ports, I highly recommend this video: