Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

[Throughout this project, I will be handing over to the viewpoints of others for guest posts. For this one I once again welcome Shaun Musgrave, who previously wrote about Apocalypse. Shaun posts at Post Game Content and on twitter as @ShaunMusgrave]

If nothing else, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is an extremely ambitious game. A follow-up to the 1996 sleeper success story Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver is the work of an entirely different team from that first game and it shows. While the original is a top-down action-RPG with sprite-based visuals, Soul Reaver is a fully 3D action-adventure game that is more comparable to the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Tomb Raider. It’s one of those games that feels like a generational leap within a single console’s lifespan, and the Sony PlayStation version certainly seems to be pushing the boundaries of the system’s capabilities in a number of ways.

Soul Reaver is the story of a vampire named Raziel who angers his master Kain by daring to surpass him in power. Raziel’s splendid wings are ripped to shreds by Kain, and he’s cast to his death in the Lake of the Dead. For those who played the first game, seeing Kain and the world of Nosgoth in the form it is in may well be striking. When we play games with multiple endings, many will assume the more noble ending is the one that will be canonized. Kain had the chance to sacrifice himself to save Nosgoth at the end of Blood Omen. His other option was to fully embrace his vampiric curse and stand atop a ruined world as its ruler. Within seconds, Soul Reaver shows us what Kain decided and who he has become.

Kain’s ambitions have led to him being the king of nothing worth reigning over. Raziel’s drive to surpass his own limits leaves him broken, dead, and forgotten at the bottom of a cliff. One might think the developer is trying to suggest something here. Soul Reaver itself was nearly the victim of its own lofty goals, and the scars of its high hopes are visible in the final game just as surely as they are on its protagonist’s ghoulish frame. Originally intended for release in October of 1998, the game eventually made its way to stores in August of 1999. There seem to be a number of reasons for the delay, including a rather ugly legal dispute between Crystal Dynamics and the developer of the original game, Silicon Knights.

In the end, the original concept for Soul Reaver had to be trimmed back considerably. These cuts manifest in the game in a number of ways, some quite small and at least one very big. Right from the start, you can feel the scope that the developer was aiming at. The story starts off with a bang, giving the player a clear target and a motivation for reaching it. Raziel has been murdered, and he’ll have to avenge himself. For all of the other things the player will do, that goal towers above all else.

Generally, there’s little that the dead can do to seek justice. Raziel gains his means to do so through an enigmatic entity, who resurrects him as a wraith. While Raziel retains many of his vampiric qualities, his thirst for blood has become a thirst for souls instead. After getting his bearings, Raziel steps out into the world and finds that a considerable amount of time has passed since his death. The world has become even further twisted, and his brethren have changed in some major ways. This only strengthens his resolve.

I’m spending a lot of time on the story here, and there’s a good reason for that. The world of Legacy of Kain is compelling and rich with story-telling potential, and Soul Reaver isn’t shy about centering that quality. Though they may seem quaint now, the story scenes and their direction were incredibly cinematic for the time. The cast includes some of the finest voice actors of the era. The world itself is designed to tell a tale, and even the boss battles tend to be as much story-telling exercises as anything else. A lot of work goes into placing the pieces of the narrative on the board, giving these rather humble polygonal constructs a surprising amount of life.

The gameplay too makes a great initial impression. Many of the foes you’ll encounter are undead, and simply beating them down is not sufficient. Instead, you’ll have to take advantage of the environment and the vampiric weaknesses of the enemy. You can throw them into a sunbeam, knock them into water or fire, or pierce their hearts with some kind of pointy object. It’s a fascinating idea that forces you to pay attention to your surroundings, giving each battle its own slightly distinct flavor.

Being a wraith, Raziel can occupy two different planes of existence. By default, he lives in the spirit world. Here, his power naturally regenerates and his enemies tend to be a lot easier to dispatch. The drawback is that he can’t interact with physical objects, making doors and switches inoperable. Raziel can’t go too far without entering the physical plane, where he can freely grab, push, and pull things. Maintaining his physical form is draining, however, and his spirit ticks down all the time. To stay in this world, Raziel must feast on the souls of his enemies periodically.

While the game has a fair bit of combat, you’ll spend as much time solving puzzles of some sort or another. Most of these involve manipulating boxes in a variety of ways, a resource Nosgoth thankfully appears to be rich in. You’ll also need to take advantage of the differences between the spirit realm and the physical realm, switching back and forth as needed to make progress. As you progress, Raziel’s set of abilities expands, opening up new twists for future areas and extra collectibles to find in past sections. The puzzle elements come off like a mix of The Legend of Zelda and Tomb Raider. Quite appropriate given that developer Crystal Dynamics would eventually become the steward of the latter franchise.

It’s about halfway through the game that things start to come unraveled. After Raziel acquires the titular Soul Reaver, which is essentially the Legacy of Kain version of the Master Sword, many of the myriad gameplay systems no longer matter. The Soul Reaver is always the best weapon for defeating the undead, so you don’t need to use the environment. It keeps Raziel’s spirit from draining in the physical world so long as you avoid taking damage, eliminating much of the tension that drives your soul consumption. The box puzzles keep on piling up, to the point that you wonder why Kain hasn’t outlawed cube-shaped objects by now, given how badly they unravel his defenses.

Worst of all is that the story itself ends up failing to deliver on its biggest promise. One of the consequences of the game’s scope and development difficulties was that a lot of ideas had to be left out. Another is that the story had to be cut off, with the intention to complete it in a follow-up. Thus, after the player spends the entire course of the game chasing down Kain, their battle is left unresolved. Kain takes off into a portal, and the player is left hanging. The story is continued in 2001’s Soul Reaver 2, but back in the summer of 1999 this complete lack of resolution was a very cold cup of coffee indeed.

Overly ambitious creative ventures often stumble in some significant ways. Even the relatively short history of video games is littered with games that dreamed too big and fell flat on their faces. To its credit, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver still managed to be an excellent game in spite of the troubles that arose from its wild ideas and difficult incubation. It was successful enough to buoy the series for several further installments, and set its director Amy Hennig on a legendary path of her own. Its wings may have burned up by flying too close to the sun, but Soul Reaver proves that you don’t need wings to fly.

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Top of the charts for week ending 25 September 1999:

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