If I had to pick my favorite games of the first PlayStation’s generation – which just turned 30 recently, so happy birthday! – among the top 3 would be Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Raziel’s quest for revenge gripped me at the time thanks to its surprisingly mature and developed story, incredible voice acting, tight gameplay, and, for the time, great graphics. And now, after years of waiting for any news for the franchise, we got Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered.
Released by Aspyr, the same folks who put out the excellent Tomb Raider I-III Remastered earlier this year among others, as the title suggests, this collection includes the first two games in the Soul Reaver series, which was originally a spin-off of Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, a top view Diablo-like RPG with an equally excellent story.
With this, we get virtually the same treatment as Tomb Raider, as in bumped up resolution, framerate, better character models and lighting, with the added benefit of having lots and lots of bonus material. Both games can be toggled back to the original graphics with the touch of a button, but even so, they aren’t exactly as they were on PlayStation 1 and 2. The first Soul Reaver, especially, does not suffer from the same texture warping as it did on original hardware, for instance, and the framerate does not drop to 30.
These “issues” aside, it’s incredible how well these two play nearly 30 years later. Sure, the lock-on post-Ocarina of Time combat might take a little while to get used to, but everything that it set out to do back then is still as gripping as it was back when it was new. This includes the voice acting, which included the late and great Tony Jay, whose powerful performance breathes life into one of the first Soul Reaver’s most pivotal characters, and he’s just one of a host of others, who helped propel the series to set a new bar in quality.
That is also true for the story. Penned by games industry veteran Amy Hennig, who after working on these games went on to Naughty Dog to develop the Uncharted series, the tale of conflict between undead and perpetually tormented Raziel and his eternal foe Kain is one of many layers, which are developed between both Soul Reaver 1 and 2, and later in Soul Reaver 3: Defiance, which has not been included in this package. But knowing that Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Blood Omen 2 will also be getting the remastered treatment next year, the latter Soul Reaver is bound to be included!
The same can also be said about all the bonus material included in Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered. Going leaps and bounds above what was done for Tomb Raider, this collection includes key art for characters and levels, as well as a music player for the two original soundtracks, blooper videos featuring the original voice actors, a glossary and map detailing all the locations and lore details, as well as the scripts for these games. And if those weren’t enough, there are even playable chunks of cut levels that up until now had not been seen by the public.
Aspyr has gone the extra mile in making this a special pickup for collections and newcomers alike with these bonuses, which coupled with the careful treatment to graphics and performance make this one easily the best way to play these chapters of the franchise. While not revolutionary in terms of reworking both titles, what was done was enough to preserve the feel one would remember having played them back then for sure, something that a lot of remasters and remakes tend to overlook.
In a packed year for these sorts of releases, Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered stands among the very best I’ve seen so far. It gives me hope for similar compilations that will be put out by Aspyr especially will be as good as or even better, a bright outlook for Legacy of Kain as a whole but to other fan favorite series that have gone long forgotten by license holders. I’m looking at you, No One Lives Forever!
