Soul Reaver 2

Being the continuation of the tragic epic of Raziel, the jawless blue anti-hero of Nosgoth and cruel destiny?s favorite son.

The original Soul Reaver (PS) has been officially registered in the annals of history as a brilliant game with some tragically fatal flaws. Its boons were an insanely likeable anti-hero (in the form of Raziel, a jawless demon/vampire with a mystical sword grafted to his arm), the equally likeable notion of being able to feed off your fallen enemies? souls, and an absolutely inspired puzzle device that let you shift into another realm at will, watching as the landscape bent, twisted, and reshaped itself to open up new paths and options. Soul Reaver?s banes were its tedious combat, a way-off-kilter walking-to-action ratio, an annoying lack of checkpoints, an overabundance of box-pushing puzzles, and the sad fact that if you shut the game off for more than three days and tried to come back to it again?good freakin? luck remembering what you were trying to do, much less which way you should go to do it.

And so The Balance comes to pose a question: Do a great story, a host of cool things to look at, and the undeniable cool factor of an undead anti-hero with a spirit-sword grafted to his arm make up for wonky combat, lots of retreading, and missed opportunities? Steel your resolve, dear reader, and listen to the tale of jawless Raziel.

O, This Sanguine Illusion Called Freedom
While the first game was pretty linear in nature, it did a good job of hiding it, and a fantastic job of giving you a feeling your destiny was in your putrid, misshapen talons. In Soul Reaver 2, there?s a much more palpable sense of being led along, and it?s the game?s biggest disappointment that it somehow feels a little smaller, more restricted, and less epic than the original. Realm-shifting doesn?t play as big a role in the gameplay as it did in the original, and the much-touted time travel doesn't play any role at all?except for a few key plot-driven moments. If you were hoping that time, space, and the spirit realm would all be yours to bend to your puzzle-solvin? will, abandon ye hope, all that enter here?it?s Soul Reaver 2?s most gravely missed opportunity.

At least the countless box-pushing puzzles that plagued the original have been eliminated. Most of SR2?s puzzles are complex localized phenomenon in grand Indiana Jones fashion, as you arrange light reflectors and generate magic shadows and carry strange artifacts to stranger receptacles in the hope that some mystical thingamabob will light up and show you the way. They?re all wickedly difficult, extremely time-consuming, and involve a whole lot of covering and re-covering the same ground?but they?re still a helluva lot better than playing Warehouse Wage-Slave Reaver.

Ah, How I Do Adore Crushed Velvet
The PlayStation 2 version of Nosgoth is a graphically striking realm. The game boasts some awesome architecture and breathtakingly complex chambers, decorated by gorgeous textures that show real artists? skill. There?s a vast lake not too far from the game?s start that?s a beautiful sight to behold, with nearly a dozen cascading waterfalls, flocks of birds, all moving in harmony at a fluid 60 FPS. However, in order to make room for all its scope and speed, the game is forced to cheat pretty severely in the lighting, shadows, and reflections departments. Polygon glitches and loose seams occasionally show up to mar the landscape. As beautiful as Soul Reaver 2 can be, the game isn?t nearly as polished as Ico, for example, or as eerily striking as Silent Hill 2. It?s pretty obvious that the game was initially developed with the Dreamcast in mind.

Soul Reaver 2 never skimps on the sound, however. Great mood music sets the tone, though it?s the sound effects that really shine?Raziel?s footsteps echo convincingly on glass and crunch through the snow. You can almost hear goodness and light being sucked from the world as Raziel swings of his Dark Reaver, and the countless weird noises accompanying the game?s profusion of supernatural theatrics are full, loud, and cinematic. And while the dialogue is ridiculously overblown?and would be pretentious if the twisting story weren?t so extraordinarily entertaining?Soul Reaver 2 scores a video game coup with a great voice-over cast that actually seems to at least have graduated from the Royal Academy of Affecting British Accents.

At the Crux of Crimson Ambition
In a wise decision on Crystal Dynamics? part, Raziel isn?t artificially stripped of the combat powers he acquired in the original Soul Reaver; instead, his superpowers are tempered with a Reaver Meter that leeches his strength if he relies on it too much, forcing you to pick up a regular ol? melee weapon every once in a while to give your Reaver a break. Raziel is more agile this time around, too, and he seems to have acquired a nice auto-targeting feature that keeps foes you?re not currently engaging at bay, so battling is more fun that in previous one?though it?s still kinda awkward, and the characters move as if they?re only pretending to obey the law of gravity. Fighting?s definitely got a longer half-life than it did in the original?though it still isn?t varied enough, or deep enough, to prevent wearing out its welcome, and by the game?s final act you?ll find yourself just running by as many foes as inhumanly possible.

The Fulfillment of Fate's Dark Plan
Soul Reaver 2 takes as many steps back as it does forward, and ends up teetering precariously over the brink of being a disappointment. Perhaps next time we meet our vampire anti-hero, he?ll be ready to fully assume his grand role in destiny?s dark design?for now, however, the Wheel of Raziel?s Fate rests sadly out of alignment.

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment