From what I’m guessing, you’ve either played the second game or none of them. That’s a very big likelihood seeing won’t be reading a review of a game you have…would you? Well maybe, but it wouldn’t be one of mine.

Now Soul Reaver, the original. Well theirs plenty good and plenty bad, so this review should jump about a bit. I’ll start by describing the general gist of the story, for those who have played Blood Omen you will know of Kain. Kain is portrayed in this game as the villain, its set some time after Blood Omen 2 and Kain now has a vampire army, with a band of elites. One of these chosen brothers is Raziel. Raziel Is Kain’s favourite until Raziel evolves (he grows wings), Kain is either Jealous or threatened by this so casts Raziel into the vortex known as the Abyss and kills him.

You awaken as what is probably the coolest character in a video game, by appearance. Yet he in years to come he could become somewhat an emo icon, he is cool for now though.

Raziel has been revived as a Reaver of Souls for an entity known as the Elder God who looks like a massive octopus and yet no questions are asked, fair enough. He has awoken you in years past your death and allows you to seek revenge by slaying your brothers and ultimately Kain.  

Okay, seems a bit farfetched and unexplained… why would he suddenly grow wings? But nothing goes with out explanation and this point is explained further in the game as you find your “brothers” in the Kain’s close circle have also evolved.

And why would the Elder God give a damn about your mishap? Again this is explained in the sequels. From this pattern you can see this game is very well thought out, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had thought up all the Legacy of Kain games at the same time as the plot throughout the game and its sequels seems to flow and finish, a good ending to a good series.

The story is well told throughout the game experience but you do find that Raziel talks a bit too much, if you find this annoying, don’t leap for Soul Reaver 2.

However this slightly complex story doesn’t unfold until its sequel, this game is all about action, you have to basically kill your brothers, on doing so you will obtain their soul and be granted a new power. This reminds me very much of a classic platform genre game, for example Rayman.

The game play is simple and complex at the same time You focus around a central point of the map with many paths leading of it, yet most need powers to get to, so you head down the available paths to get the powers to progress, to get to more available paths to get new powers to progress, to get down new available paths… You get the point. Other than this main story structure, you can go off the decided route and go for a wander. This will result in you finding new temples and power-ups called glyphs, this are for combat and usually kill everything in the room, or damage a create or what have you. Truth to be told, I completed the game with out any Glyphs and didn’t once find combat to hard. Also I couldn’t find any of these temples which is a good thing, it is not spelled out to you, you have to actually hunt for them which gives you a sense of a achievement at the end.

The main combat of the game pits you against vampire offspring of your brothers and like them have their own unique “gift”. So you got wall crawlers, things that spit at you, swimmers, and a few others. There is one slight annoyance, they are vampires so can not die by merely hitting them; they must be impaled, or thrown into water or set on fire. This is fine when you have a weapon (these are mainly spears) but when you are unarmed and are stuck in a puzzle room it can get a bit tedious. Once you have killed the enemy you can devour their soul and regain some of your life.

The game reminds me very much of the last temple in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where you have to switch between young and adult link to solve puzzles and progress. In Soul Reaver it’s very much the same concept except regarding the fact Raziel is essentially dead. You can phase in and out of the spirit world, this could help by bending the environment or using powers that only work in one realm. However it isn’t just a switch on, switch off process. It is simple enough to go from the real world or the “Material Realm” to the Spirit World or “Spiritual Realm”. But getting back again is a pain. You have to find a portal and you have to be at full health, this provides even more puzzle material as it makes you need to use something in the material realm but you need to be in the spirit realm to progress and there’s no portal… You can probably tell how frustrating and confusing this is but then again the main puzzle element relies on it.

The rest of the puzzles in the game usually revolve around blocks, moving blocks into holes, flipping blocks so they’re the right way up, once you’ve grasped the idea it becomes very tedious.

 Through the course of the game you obtain a weapon called the “Soul Reaver”, this is related strongly to the plot but you guessed it…not in this game. The sequels rely on it but not this one, in this game it is a weapon that you can use freely in the spirit world and when you are at full health in the material world yet not much becomes of it except it can open a few doors.

Graphically this game is good for its era but then again maybe it tried to hard as you get the classic walls that move and the walls you can see through, the area is very buggy which is to be expected from a PS1 game, the character models are brilliant, good movement and good variety.

A few more annoyances were, unskippable cutscenes (I know it’s a sin to skip cutscenes but on a second play through all the talking does get a bit too much), Death, when you die in the material world you simply go to the spirit world, this means you have to back track for a portal, a respawn point would have been nicer but then again this method does make the game more seamless.

To get the plots full potential you must play Soul Reaver one and two and Legacy of Kain Defiance. The Blood Omen games don’t factor as much onto the Soul Reaver story but do aid as some background on the origins of the tale.

In conclusion this is a combat game with puzzles. With a well polished story that you only catch a glimpse off and a slightly free roaming element. I enjoyed the game but I had played the others in the series first and used it as a history lesson. If old games aren’t your bag check out Defiance.