Souls: A nutritious part of a complete breakfast. Review

Souls: A nutritious part of a complete breakfast.

Raziel’s pain is neverending. He was once a noble, part of the vampire elite ruling

the world of Nosgoth. Then he had the misfortune of growing wings. His “father”

Kain, jealous that one of his progeny had evolved beyond him, threw Raziel into

the Lake of the Dead to wallow in torment forever. Or so Kain thought . . .

After

a millenium had passed, an ancient being known only as the Elder pulled Raziel

from the Lake of the Dead and breathed new “life” into him. No longer a vampire,

Raziel must feed on the souls of his former brethren to survive. His goal: Revenge

. . . oh, and he might happen to save Nosgoth along the way.

That is, of course, if this game was actually finished.

It’s been a few months since the Playstation

version of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver was released. Now out for

the Dreamcast with graphics superior than even the PC

version, the world of Nosgoth has never looked better. However, the problems

with the game were never due to the graphics.

But first, the good. Few games are as amoral as Soul Reaver. Taking

a cue from the original (See Blood Omen: Legacy

of Kain), this game is not for people who like clear lines of good and evil.

Raziel sees humans as little more than cattle. He’s not out to save them, and

couldn’t care less about their fate. Humans: The Other Red Meat.

As I said before, the graphics are great. With the Dreamcast version, you

can really see the world of Nosgoth in all its glory. Though I would’ve liked

to see them up the detail a bit more on Raziel himself, the movement is smooth

and clean. Of course, the Playstation version was amazing as well (given the

older system), so it’s not surprising that the Dreamcast version looks as it

does.

The sound, for the most part, is excellent. The voice acting is some of the

best I’ve heard. (Sega, please listen to this game. This is how voice acting

should be.) My only major gripe is that the humans, if you’re nice to them,

don’t make a single sound. They just watch you silently and fall to their knees

if you get close to them. I know they’re supposed to only be livestock, but

even cows "moo."

The

levels themselves are fairly big and well designed. Thanks to the sharper graphics

on the Dreamcast, it’s now easier to see that high ledge or climbing wall, making

the level design that much better.

While I’m happy that a game developer actually took a little time creating

their Dreamcast port instead of just throwing it together, they still didn’t

fix the main problem with the game.

Basically, the game is unfinished, and not even the Dreamcast’s eye candy

can hide that. In order to get this game to market quicker, someone decided

to just stop where they were in the game, remove one of Raziel’s brothers, remove

many of the upgrades to your sword (which are actually still in the game – see

codes), disable

anything that didn’t work fully, and slap a “To be Continued” sign where the

ending should be. (Note: Technically, I didn’t just ruin the ending of the game

for you since it doesn’t end!) There’s no fight to the death with Kain, no returning

the world to balance . . . Nothing!

After writing the Playstation review, some readers didn’t believe me and

claimed that “To be Continued” was the planned ending all along. Well, for those

of you who want to know the truth, click

here to download the original ending (410 KB Sound file).

Another casualty of the rushed release was the magic. The magic in Soul

Reaver is well-hidden. You have to perform a series of complex puzzles to

get any of the spells. This would be fine, if the spells actually did anything.

They’re completely and totally useless. It is a complete waste of time to search

for them. Talk about anti-climactic.

Once again, it pains me to grade this game. What could have been one of the

best third-person games ever is reduced to mediocrity because of the almighty

dollar. Since they couldn’t change the whole game only for the Dreamcast port,

we’re still stuck with an unfinished game. Given another 6 to 12 months of development,

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver would have been a classic. As it stands,

it’s just okay.