Question about The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

[the_great_cessation]

I've never played the game before but I've always wanted to. I grew up with a N64 so I missed out on a lot of great Playstation One games and I wouldn't mind trying some of them out. I've been thinking of buying it and maybe MediEvil from the PS Store but was fairly hesitant considering their age. So basically, do you think these games have held up well enough that a modern player could still get enjoyment out of them or were they mainly just really good for their time?

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I liked Medievil and its sequel well enough.

Soul Reaver is the best game in the LoK series to me, and it still looks ok. But more importantly it still SOUNDS amazing.

 

[DoPo]

The gameplay in Soul Reaver is probably the best in the series. Well, I'd rate it just below Blood Omen, but whatever - they are sort of different games anyway - SR is more compact, so to say - there is less to do and less to wander around but it keeps it tight, which is good. Essentially, the game gives you limited exploration, in that abilities you get in the game would allow you to visit new areas. Some of these are to advance further, others to just get bonuses from. It's really similar to Darksiders gameplay-wise, if that helps. The other two games from the Soul Reaver arc (SR1, SR2 and Defiance) are simply not as good - while SR2 is my favourite game in the series, it's still essentially a single corridor and you go through it, like, 5 times (blandly) fighting slightly different enemies and unlocking new abilities. Still, the puzzles are nice. Defiance is better than SR2 in gameplay but still not as good as SR1 - the fighting is definitely better but still bland-ish (you have a total of 5 combos, or rather 3 - 2 of those are just "do the same but in the air. And the combos are mirrored across the two characters you play as) and the puzzles are slightly worse than SR2 (well, IMO).

The story is still great across the game, at least.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

True story, I own like 3 copies of Soul Reaver and haven't beaten one of them. A friend got me Soul Reaver on disk for ps1 a few years ago. Then another friend got me the Legacy of Cain collection off Steam which also came with it

Soul Reaver is definitely still a great game to play, but I would recommend you get it on PC if you can as the graphics will look much better on the monitor because it was made for higher resolutions. The PS1 emulation is 480i and will not look the greatest on an HDTV.

Which leads me to my next point which is that I couldn't get pc version of Soul Reaver working my computer (hurr durr, pc has all the backwards compatibility). Steam's forum seemed to indicate it worked on Windows 7 32 bit but I had 64 bit. The read me in games files indicated the last patch for it was released in 1997. I think there was a fan patch maybe, but why fix games when I could be playing them? Which leads me to my third copy which I got on psn so I could transfer and play it on my psvita (I wasn't home very often at the time).

So why haven't I beat it? I've been really busy this semester for one thing, but it takes a bit of getting used to that type of game again. Its kind of vague and confusing and I'm not really into the third person, adventure, platformer genre anymore. I mostly want to play the series cause I think it's lore and characters are interesting (the voice acting in those games is amazing). I think I just need to play it more to get used to it but I'm always finding other games I want to play

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Do you know a good place to get a working copy of Blood Omen that doesn't require me to pirate it? I used to own the game long ago, but I can't find anywhere online (Steam/GoG) that sells it.

You could potentially buy a ps1 copy of it online or from a used game store and run the disk on a pc using a ps1 emulator. And you could potentially rip that disk to get a digital copy

 

[the_great_cessation]

Blood Omen is on the PS Store as well if that is an option.

 

[Genocidicles]

Ummmm. http://www.gog.com/game/legacy_of_kain_soul_reaver its $5.99 on GOG
http://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/224920/ its $6.99 on Steam

That's Soul Reaver. Blood Omen is the first game in the series. GOG only has the second Blood Omen, and I'm not sure about Steam.

On topic:

Yeah OP, if you can get Soul Reaver then by all means give it a go. I only finished it a couple of years ago, despite owning it since release.

MediEvil is good too. Apart from the annoying platforming sections.

 

[Vandenberg1]

I've never played the game before but I've always wanted to. I grew up with a N64 so I missed out on a lot of great Playstation One games and I wouldn't mind trying some of them out. I've been thinking of buying it and maybe MediEvil from the PS Store but was fairly hesitant considering their age. So basically, do you think these games have held up well enough that a modern player could still get enjoyment out of them or were they mainly just really good for their time?

yes! Both games hold up really well. Last fight in Medieval is not as epic as when I was 12 but still cool. It is a hard game towards the end with a very confusing last pirate ship level and Alice in Wonderland like level. Soul Reaver was a game I regret never beating back in ps1 era so I may get it now.

 

[Mr C]

I played the whole series and loved them. Soul Reaver is probably the best, such a great universe, this needs a reboot! The PS1 version is the poorest behind the DC and PC though, it will be dated somewhat, but if you are prepared for that you'll get an enjoyable title

 

[DoPo]

Do you know a good place to get a working copy of Blood Omen that doesn't require me to pirate it? I used to own the game long ago, but I can't find anywhere online (Steam/GoG) that sells it.

It's on the PSN store while as for PC, it's on abandonware webiste(s?).

 

[Hazy]

They're all really good. Blood Omen 2 is probably the weakest of the series, but even that is playable.

Be ready for a slow start though, these games are very methodical in introducing the rich lore of Nosgoth.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

They're all really good. Blood Omen 2 is probably the weakest of the series, but even that is playable.

Be ready for a slow start though, these games are very methodical in introducing the rich lore of Nosgoth.

It would have been much much better if it had stayed Chakan 2.

Blood Omen I find.... unpleasant. Easier to skip it and wiki what you need to know from it. Kain never really hit his peak until the sequel anyway.

Soul Reaver is a definite must. Gameplay is a little clunky by today's standards but still good. Lots of puzzles and exploration. One of my favorite titles of the era, and started my love of the series.

 

[EHKOS]

Medevil looks really bad nowadays. While LoK is a good game, it wasn't for me, but I can see it's merits and recommend it. If you like it you could try Shadowman, another PS1 game, that reminded me of Soul Reaver.

 

[Frankster]

Medievil is one of my favorite nostalgic games so of course I'd say it's still worth checking out if you fancy a ps1 platformer with a gothic theme. Some jumping sections can be tricky due to camera angle but other then that I reckon its gameplay still holds up really well, its sequel even more so.
There's a remake on psp if you got that which is fairly faithful if graphics are a problem.

Soul Reaver though... Eugh I'll be honest, I followed the Legacy of Kain games for their story, my favorite gameplay wise has always been the 1st (blood omen) which was very different to its sequels, so Soul Reaver is a game I wouldn't be interested in replaying, would rather just watch the cutscenes/movie version on youtube. Still if you haven't experienced it before, could be worth it.
Starting with blood omen if you can would be ideal though, so you get context for the game and the rest of the story.
The series has time travel elements so all games will have references or setup to story bits in other games, it really helps if you play/watch all the LoK games in order.