The Legacy of Kain series spans five titles, and in this collection, we’re getting the 2nd and 3rd entries. Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is a graphical remaster with several quality-of-life updates. Originally released when dual joysticks weren’t a thing, you can now control the camera. Every character model has been updated and looks fantastic. That’s about where the positives end for me, though. If you’ve played Aspyr’s previous remaster work, you know not to expect much else. The games work, but they are slightly improved in a few minor ways, and that’s about it.
The Games
Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 have aged poorly in the important ways. Gameplay wise neither title holds up well to almost any modern era 3rd person game, and it makes sense. Crystal Dynamics is a legendary developer, but this title was made in the infancy of 3D adoption. Soul Reaver was groundbreaking in its setup, looks, and especially its voice acting. DVDs as a medium for play meant you could fit hundreds of lines of dialogue into a game in a way unheard of before. The voice acting holds up better than any other returning part of these cult classics.
There are gameplay improvements, like a rudimentary map for Soul Reaver 1 and the ability to control the camera in both titles, but it’s not enough. The gameplay hasn’t aged well. Soul Reaver 1 especially suffers from stilted movement, boring/repetitive combat, and mediocre level design. The combat wore thin after a few minutes, which made my 20+ hours of gameplay for this review that much more painful.
The story in both games is still great. You’re a vampire lieutenant who is betrayed and killed by Kain, your creator. This time-traveling, determinism vs. free-will romp across five titles is still one of my favorite older game stories. It is a bit odd to jump in the middle of it, though I understand why with how different a game the first title was. Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen was nothing like the four titles that followed it. Soul Reaver 1 does a good enough job of setting things up for anyone who can vibe with the gameplay. You’ll still have 30 to 40 hours between the two titles if you try to do everything without any guides.
What is New
The main area that Soul Reaver 1 & 2 have been graphically remastered are the character models. They look amazing compared to the original games, which you can access by clicking in the right joystick at any time. It’s fun to see what some of the low polygon models have turned into now with our modern abilities and tech. Part of the remaster is letting you control the camera with the right stick, which means you can finally look up. The original game had no skyboxes because you were always looking straight ahead, and the devs have created new skyboxes that match the overall vibe of the remastered graphics.
While the character models and weaponry were given solid upgrades the game world itself received a minor facelift. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was using AI to up the resolution of the original textures. Often nothing changes when you swap between graphics modes on the higher-quality models from the original. In Soul Reaver 2 there are some beautiful stained glass windows and they look the same no matter which graphical mode you’re in. I played on PC as the Xbox version wasn’t ready until launch. It ran at a bajillion FPS and I’d be shocked if this struggles to maintain a consistent framerate on the console. The store listing doesn’t show 120fps in the features menu, which is a bit worrying. You’ll want to check that out in post-launch coverage for yourself, though.
Barebones
As a beloved cult classic that got a spot in a recent State of Play, I am highly disappointed at how barebones everything else is. The UI is as basic as it comes, with no music playing while in the launcher. The main screen is a flat JPEG, and lifeless. You can choose between Soul Reaver 1, 2, and a bonus menu. This bonus section has all the game’s music and a series of pictures featuring behind-the-scenes items. There is art, team photos, and more and it’s fun to go through for a few minutes.
Soul Reaver 1 allows you to save whenever you want, while Soul Reaver 2 uses a checkpoint/save system. There are no save state, rewind, fast-forward, or any other tools. This package is simply a launcher, each game with graphical upgrades, a few quality-of-life tweaks, and bonus content. At $30 it feels so lifeless compared to so many of the recent remasters or collections of older titles that have launched. The Marvel vs Capcom Fight Collection has a slick UI and numerous useful new features. Compared to that or any of Digital Eclipse’s content, it’s immediately apparent how low-quality the UI is.
Wrapping Things Up
The Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered feels barebones. You get these titles with a few new bells & whistles and not much else. It is thoroughly disappointing for a game that was in more need of a full gameplay remake than just a graphical uplift. With so many great remaster/collection packages hitting, I wish this one had been given a little more love.
Legacy of Kain Soul Reavier I & II Remastered
Played on
PC (Steam)
PROS
- New Character and Weapon models look great
- The few QoL improvements included are solidly implemented
CONS
- Incredibly barebones package
- World textures changes are sometimes barely noticeable
- Base games needed a remake, not remaster
“While the character models and weaponry were given solid upgrades the game world itself received a minor facelift. I wouldn’t be shocked if it was using AI to up the resolution of the original textures.”
Where was this energy when you reviewed COD, a game full of AI generated slop? Is this the price of not releasing on gamepass?
The CoD campaign I reviewed was not full of “ai generated slop”.
Seriously? Why does everything have to live up to modern day “I want this and that”? As you’ve mentioned your love for the original 5, how can you not appreciate the simple, “This is the same game but works on modern hardware and simple updates” that so many of us wish for, but get so very dissapointed when the devs insert new crap all over the place? They’re supposed to be barebones. They’re PS1 & 2 games for expletives sake.
Why should they be modernised? I lustfully payed for a remastered classic, not a re-imagined one.
I agree 100%!
This! ALL of this. There aren’t many older games out there that need a complete overhaul; just a polished up remaster is good enough and that’s all the Soul Reaver games needed. The emphasis was indeed never on the combat; it was the story, and figuring out the puzzles in order to progress was the challenge. I am honestly over the moon that these games are now available on modern consoles with a bit of a facelift, especially considering that the series has been dormant so long many of us (myself included) had all but given up hope. Now we have easy access to these games again, and not only that, there’s the graphic novel project in the works. We should be wholeheartedly grateful that we’ve got these titles back at all, not complaining about what they don’t do by today’s overly entitled standards.
Can’t agree with this review at all. Most modern remakes are worse versions of games so a Remaster is all I ever wanted. Sure it’s aged in ways but that doesn’t make it BAD. Considering it’s $25 for BOTH games together, what I want and expect is a game that plays like the original but looks and runs better on modern hardware. And that’s what this is. 10/10 for the REMASTER that it is. You’re trying to review it as something it’s not, as something that you WANT it to be. That’s not professional, honestly.
It’s exactly what I thought, it’s not an objective review, the guy is speaking only from his expectations and not from what the games actually are. What kind of comments are these?
Hmmm how dare people pine after games that were interesting and had great character development. and not just point shoot and regurgitate. The game was and still is a masterpiece. You dont here anyone talking about COD 1 anymore. Just what one should expect from a modern day journalist. The same journalists that say wukong is bad and stellar blade bad . What a joke. Combat wasnt the main emphasis on these game the story was. Something most of this modern woke garbage lacks.