For millennia, philosophers have theorized about the soul. What is
it? What does it look like? How does it taste? Unfortunately for those philosophers
who toiled for the truth of the soul, it appears that Crystal Dynamics and Eidos
Interactive beat them to it in a new action-adventure, Legacy of Kain: Soul
Reaver. Would Nietzsche, Socrates, or Descartes approve? Probably not, unless
famous philosophers are partial towards half-baked jumping puzzles (lots of jumping
puzzles), threadbare plot, and an absolutely horrible save system.

Apparently,
after the big vampire boss Kain set his new capital in the ruins of the Pillars
of Nosgoth, he set out to the underworld to get six souls for his lieutenants
(one of which is your main character, Raziel.) With his band of merry undead men,
Kain left to conquer the world, killing off scores of those pesky humans. And
he succeeded. Once the world was thoroughly tamed, he and his lieutenants played
a little game that would drive Darwin made–“Let’s See Who Can Win in Spontaneous
Evolution!” Of course, Kain would always win this–every decade or so (vampires
are immortal), he would evolve a little to become better than his cadre of lieutenants.
In another decade they would then evolve. Unfortunately for Raziel, he soon won
this game, growing wings. Kain, being a sore loser, ordered Raziel to be cast
into the Lake of the Dead. While getting thrown in a pool of water means little
to a human, water is the equivalent of hydrochloric acid to vampires. Coupled
with the fact that vampires can’t die, Raziel was damned to eternal agony. Or
so he dreaded … After about 1,000 years of decomposing at the bottom of the
lake, a mysterious voice known only as “The Elder” rescued Raziel and
gave the vampire a way to repay him for his kindness–kill as many vampires as
possible. Ah … Soul Reaver’s plot is little more than an excuse to jump
over big gaps and impale monsters with pole-arms. I give the story a C+.

If
you like jumping puzzles and block-pushing/arranging puzzles, you’ll love Soul
Reaver. Why? That’s practically all there is in this game. However, jumping
is made a little more interesting … Raziel has wings. Though they are decomposed
(that’s what happens to flesh when it lies dormant in a pool of water for a thousand
years), they are still useful for gliding. With a tap of the spacebar, Raziel
can glide about the room. This may be interesting for a while, but the novelty
of flying dies off fast. The other type of puzzle that can be found throughout
the game is the notorious block arranger. I don’t know about the rest of the world,
but pushing and flipping blocks around just ain’t my cup of tea. Raziel also can
exist in two realms, the spiritual and material. While in the material realm (the
place where most people live), Raziel’s health continually drops. The only way
to regain health is to drink souls, which can be acquired after killing a monster.
In the spiritual realm, Raziel continually gains health. The spiritual realm is
a twisted and freakish rendition of the material world, and when Raziel dies in
the material world, he returns to the spiritual. This brings up the most unique
feature of Soul Reaver–death. Raziel is immortal. When he dies, he returns to
the spiritual realm. If he dies in the spiritual realm, he returns to “The
Elder.” Far eclipsing the annoying puzzles is the save system. Falling down
wouldn’t be so annoying if you could save before the jump and return to that exact
place. Is that too much to ask for? Apparently so, because after restoring a game,
Raziel always starts back at “The Elder.” All progress is saved, but
every single freakin’ jumping puzzle has to be redone. In Soul Reaver, the
cons of the gameplay outweigh the pros, so I give the gameplay a C-.

Graphics
can’t make up for bad gameplay, but they can certainly try. Soul Reaver has
some of the most beautiful and provocative graphics of any game I have seen. Instead
of following a standard European gothic architecture, the game has a certain Middle
Eastern feel to it. Large, spacious building are made out of stucco and clad with
haunting arabesques. Hallways are meticulously crafted. Even dark passageways
crawling with monsters have a mystical feel to them. All rendered in 3D, the graphics
are stunning, so I give them an A.

Sound is the other high point.
Though music is merely satisfactory, sound effects really fit the mood, with the
cawing of crows and trickle of water through an abandoned cathedral. Don’t play
this game with the volume too high–the suspense might cause you to soil yourself.
Sound is wonderful; I give it an A+.

If you absolutely must have
jumping puzzles, Soul Reaver is for you. If you don’t, there are better
ways to spend your gaming dollar. Oh, and by the way, souls taste slightly like
lime Jell-O.

Final Grade: C

PC System Requirements:
Pentium 133 MHz
4 MB 3D card
Windows 95/98

32 MB RAM