- Explore the vast 3D world of Nosgoth.
Product description
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Cast down to the material world, the mysterious entity 'Raziel'
seeks vengeance for betrayal by his master: Kain. Cursed to stalk
the dark realms of Nosgoth, he must slay his undead brethren;
only then can he absorb their souls for the energy he craves.
Moving between the spectral and material plane, Raziel must
negotiate puzzles, overcome traps and defy blood-chilling enemies
to reach his goal - the final battle with Kain!
Review
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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
f 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. -- GameSpot Review
