Raziel, a brooding blue-skinned half-demon, half-vampire armed with a soul-sucking energy blade, is the memorable antihero of Soul Reaver 2 and its predecessor. He was first introduced in 1999's Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, which itself was a follow-up to the 1996 PlayStation game Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. All three games in the Legacy of Kain series were originally developed for video game consoles, but all three were subsequently ported to the PC. Like the previous installments in the series, Soul Reaver 2 is a third-person action-adventure that shows its roots as a console game, both for better and for worse. Those players familiar with the original Soul Reaver should have a good idea of what to expect from the sequel and its innovative blend of action and puzzle-solving.

As Raziel, you'll explore the world of Nosgoth during various points in time.

On the other hand, those who aren't already acquainted with the series will have some catching up to do. Soul Reaver 2 assumes that you're familiar with the events of the previous game. If you aren't, then you might wonder what exactly is going on when Soul Reaver 2 begins--incidentally, at more or less exactly the point that the original Soul Reaver concluded. There's some exposition in the game's manual, but not a whole lot in the game itself.

Gameplay is basically similar to that of the first Soul Reaver. Raziel will travel across a number of vast-looking environments in search of answers to his many questions about his origins and about his enemies, but the game is actually almost completely linear. One of two key innovations behind both Soul Reaver and its sequel is that Raziel is immortal. When his physical body is destroyed, he shifts to a ghostly spiritual plane, where he can revive himself back to corporeal form. The geography of the spiritual plane is a twisted version of the material plane, so sometimes you'll have to switch between planes to reach areas otherwise inaccessible. Raziel has several other unique abilities. In the spiritual plane, he can phase through gates; in the material plane, he can climb walls and swim underwater indefinitely; and he can use his tattered wings to glide across chasms. To replenish his strength, Raziel swallows the souls of his slain enemies.

Here, Raziel confronts Kain in one of many impressive cutscenes.

In the first Soul Reaver, Raziel had to earn most of his special abilities over the course of the game. Here, he starts with all of them, and he even gains some new ones later. He also starts with the soul reaver itself, a wraithlike symbiotic sword extending from Raziel's arm. In the first game, the reaver could be used only if Raziel were at full health. During most of the sequel, he can summon the blade at will. It's a powerful weapon, but the souls of foes killed by the reaver are automatically ingested by the blade, preventing Raziel from using them to sustain himself. Combat is frequent in Soul Reaver 2 and is relatively easy to control--there's an auto-face key that keeps Raziel focused on a single foe at a time. He can then use quick and strong attacks, blocks, and dodging moves to defeat his opponents. Some of the later opponents can be tough, but none of them are particularly smart or interesting to fight. Overall, combat is rather simpler than in the previous game, partly because the reaver is powerful, but also because you can kill your foes outright, either with the reaver or just bare-handed. In the first game, you needed to dispose of your vampiric foes using traditional antivampire techniques, like fire or impaling.

The second of Soul Reaver's innovations is also carried over to the sequel. That is, there are absolutely no loading screens to be found anywhere in the game--the entire game is completely seamless. Though Soul Reaver did this two years ago, it's still an impressive feat. Since you'll travel through a number of diverse locations--imposing strongholds, fetid swamps, ancient shrines, underground passageways, and more--being able to move from one area to the next without interruption helps bring the fiction of the game to life. Raziel's own immortality works in just the same way. You're probably very familiar with having to restart levels or load saved games in most other games you've ever played. In Soul Reaver 2, this trial-and-error approach is fully intact--the challenge is there--because Raziel can get forced back to the spiritual realm if he's defeated in battle. This novel approach proves that conventions of things such as "lives," "saves," and "continues" need not have to exist in gaming.