Soul Reaver 2 Q&A

Few sequels have been more anticipated than the original Soul Reaver's. Similarly, few games have endured as many changes during their development than its eventual sequel. With not only a platform change, but also a Dreamcast-cancellation under its belt, the developers found themselves on square one more than once during the game's cycle. All of these hurdles contributed to a long wait indeed for the series' fans. And they've been quite vocal about it.

Much of this has to do, no doubt, with the original's cliffhanger ending. However, the fact that its fans invested so much into the series' unfolding narrative in the first place is evidence that there is some good stuff going on at Crystal Dynamics. The wait, in any event, will soon be over--Eidos surprised us all with an October 31 release date, recently, which brought Raziel into our minds sooner than we had anticipated. In light of this, we sought out Amy Hennig, the Crystal D's Director on Soul Reaver 2, and talked to her at length about the project's final phases. What she said will definitely shed some light on this exciting project's long awaited result.

GameSpot: First of all, how does it feel to have finished this enormous and anticipated project?

Amy Hennig: Very odd. I don't think the team can quite believe it yet. It's like running a marathon and then suddenly you've crossed the finish line--you're done, but reflexively you feel like you're still supposed to be sprinting. It'll take a little while for it to settle in.

A host of demons will attack Raziel throughout his quest...

Finishing the game has been very satisfying, much more so than last time. We've all been so focused on the tasks at hand that there were times we not only lost the forest for the trees, but also lost the trees for the bark. When you're working insane hours just trying to get through all the discrete tasks that need to get done, you sometimes forget to look up and see how the whole thing is coming together.

It becomes a matter of faith, like working on a jigsaw puzzle upside down--you can see that the individual pieces fit together, but not necessarily the picture that is forming. For most of us, I think, it was a revelatory moment to stop, get a little distance, and finally see the "gestalt" of the game as the final pieces came together.

GS: The game has definitely been in the works for a long time. What can you say to fans of the game who felt they were perhaps forced to wait too long?

AH: I'm glad to address this. Soul Reaver 2 hasn't been in development as long as people think--it's basically been two years since we finished up Soul Reaver (including the PC and Dreamcast ports, and all the foreign versions that had to be completed following the US release of Soul Reaver on the PlayStation). A two-year development cycle is pretty normal or even aggressive by today's standards--if you look at some of the other big sequels coming out this season, for most, it's been almost three years since the previous installment.

But the Soul Reaver 2 team also had an extra handicap, which I don't think most people realize--the game was originally slated to be a PlayStation title, and we didn't get the go-ahead to switch to the PS2 until May of '00. This was after a three-week effort where we put together a proof-of-concept/technology demo for E3. Based on this demo, we got Eidos' approval to drop the PlayStation development and move to the PS2.

So here we were, with our little cobbled-together, behind-the-scenes demo, at the same E3 where MGS2 stole the show with its video premiere, and not only did we feel like Soul Reaver 2 needed to compete with MGS2, but we were expected to be out months earlier.

...each corresponding to a specific color.

We came back from E3 2000 full of enthusiasm, but wondering how in hell we were going to pull this off. We had to scrap all the work we had done on the PlayStation version and start from square one. And with only a four-man programming team, we had to write a PS2 game engine basically from scratch, while still incorporating the more ambitious technical elements at the core of the Soul Reaver engine's design--most specifically, the continuous-data-streaming and terrain-morphing technologies that made Soul Reaver so unique.

To make a long story short(er), we created Soul Reaver 2, from the ground up, in just 17 months. This required a heroic effort, remarkable dedication, and sickening hours from the team. I am so proud of my teammates, and I'm blown away by what they've been able to accomplish in this short amount of time. I believe we've succeeded at creating a deep, compelling, technologically ambitious product, more than capable of competing with the big-budget multiyear titles coming out at the same time.

Now, this doesn't mean I'm writing off the complaints and frustrations of the fans. I believe it's the responsibility of the developer and publisher to not announce release dates until they're solid--otherwise you're just toying with the hopes and expectations of your fan base. For this, I think we owe our fans an apology and gratitude for their loyalty and patience.