Legacy of KainSoul Reaver 2 Preview

Raziel continues his pursuit of Kain in Soul Reaver 2.

Those who played through the original Soul Reaver probably found the game's conclusion less than satisfactory, as the game's main villain, the vampire Kain, ran through a time portal after his confrontation with the undead hero known as Raziel. Of course, with his quest for vengeance left unsatisfied, Raziel pursued Kain through the portal, and the game essentially ended. Eidos and Crystal Dynamics quickly announced a sequel in which most, if not all, of the story's loose ends would be tied up and other avenues of the storyline would be expanded upon. We recently received a build of Soul Reaver 2 for the PC, and it looks as though the wait for the PC incarnation of Raziel's adventures will be well worth it.

The environments are much more complex and detailed in the sequel.

The storyline surrounding the Soul Reaver series is a rich one. The series' hero, Raziel, was a loyal follower of Kain, but jealously would eventually consume Kain and cause him to throw Raziel into the abyss, where he would burn for an eternity. Fortunately for Raziel, the Elder God of Nosgoth pulled him from the abyss for the purpose of tracking down and defeating Kain. But a few things have changed since the initiation of Raziel's punishment--he's no longer a proud vampiric warrior, but rather a decaying shell of a being bent on seeing the blood of Kain on his hands. Indeed, as Raziel finds out, even Nosgoth has dramatically changed, as Kain's armies have swept over the land, draining the life out of a once magnificent civilization.

As Raziel chases Kain through the time portal, he's once again diverted from his ultimate destiny by Moebius, a human who's capable of manipulating time. Moebius also tells Raziel to hunt Kain down and kill him in order to prevent a catastrophic event from occurring in the past--an age in which humans walked freely through the cities and hills of Nosgoth and vampires were killed by the hundreds.

As you might expect, the Nosgoth of Soul Reaver has received a significant visual upgrade. When you walk out of Moebius' stronghold in the early portion of Soul Reaver 2, you're immediately greeted by a young and vibrant Nosgoth, with rich green trees and bushes filling out the landscape and a grand multitiered waterfall just a short distance away. It's quite an amazing sight, and it more than adequately demonstrates the leap in quality from the original Soul Reaver to Soul Reaver 2. Indoor structures are generally much larger than they were in the first game, and many of them use special effects, such as ground fog, to give the environments a more dynamic and interesting look. Even the character models, especially Raziel's, have benefited from an increase in polygonal detail.

Soul Reaver 2 features more than just visual upgrades. In fact, Crystal Dynamics has refined certain gameplay mechanics and completely eliminated others.