This review contains spoilers
Have you ever experienced the feeling when encountering a new piece of media, might that be a book, movie, music, game... that you feel from the very beggining that it was made for you? That you realize from square one that this is going to be something that caters to your tastes all the way through? Something that impacts you deeply for a long time or even the rest of your life? There have been many games for me that had done this, the top five you can see on my profile, but Soul Reaver is probably one of the more special and personal ones to me and the only reason is not there is because I can't decide which of the other five should I exchange it with.
God there's just... so many things that I want to say about this game and it'll still feel like it whouldn't be enough.
I still remember vividly the first time many years ago booting up the game and seeing the intro cutscene, which I highly recommend the person reading this to do on YouTube, and being completely enamoured with everything. The music that scales up as the cutscene goes, the character design that is just SO late 90's/early 2000's horror-esque, the narration which is just so epic and catched my full attention immediately, the scenery that has these warm hues that contrast with the tension of the entire thing, the moment Raziel is thrown to the lake of the dead bein during a warm orange sunset, it ending with the tentacle mass that is the room of the Elder God, and the Elder God itself claiming that "you are worthy" after experiencing centuries of torture. Nothing compares to me.
Since we are talking about "worthy", Raziel is such an interesting character to me. If you don't know the full extent of the lore it doesn't impact you as much but the game makes a great job on being very clear that Raziel has a very important role on the bigger scale of Nosgoth's destiny, the imagery of him being a doomed messiah, how when he falls at the beggining or glides his model reminds me of an angel (the credits have art that reflect this as well), his mission of saving the land tie him with destroying his previous master but at the same time discovering the truth of himself and his brothers only to kill them, and how in a way he is mirroring what Kain did and suffered centuries ago. Is so tragic, so compelling, so well written.
And the writting, man the writting. Not just on the intro but throught all the game, something made by people who know how to write and WANT to write a story, want to write the dialogues of these characters like an epic tale unfolding in front of you. Don't want to sound like an old person being all "back in my day things were better", but I don't like how something like this is not as common anymore, maybe because in current times it whould be seen as too edgy or
pretentious? I don't like the way how current writting is full of ironic banter towards the craft, stuff like this feels so cool and genuine and rich. I mean, even the tutorial is narrated that way, and I adore the way the characters talk.
Quick mention here for the music, which I think is stellar and that every single track is amazing and very unique, who whould've thought that an indie electro pop band could do such a banger OST for such a grimmy looking game?
The world of Nosgoth might be dying, but it also feels like it was lived in. The entire map is so full of details that enhance this, mural paintings, decorations, exquisite architecture, all of it inspired by multiple cultures but implemented so masterfully that it feels like something new, a unique set of lands with their own customs and beliefs. All of this with a strong gothic influence of the time, plus the nice color palletes it has, it does feel very vampiric to me.
And speaking of the enviroments, they are fantastic for platforming, not sure what it is but even when climbable places can be kind of obvious sometimes, the architecture of certain buildings makes it feel like it was not intentional. I mean this as like, the programmers saw real life buldings and modeled the in game ones based on how climbable they looked, like it was natural. And the gliding ability opens the space so much, exploring can be so fun.
And speaking of exploring, some people claim this to be the first "3D Metroidvania" but it doesn't have the RPG elements that truly defines those games (leveling up, different equipments, stats, etc), so I feel like this is more closer to "the first 3D Metroid like", and what an exceptionally good game it is at that, the use of 3D spaces is phenomenal for exploring, puzzles, platforming, and so on.
And the main mechanic, the biggest thing for when it comes to playability. Changing between the spirit and material realm not only serves the narrative cohesively, but is basically having two maps on one. The already massive world map can be re explored at any time on a twisted and cold new look and to explore a new geometry with new platforms or places that open up to explore or solve puzzles, AND which also serves as a way to replenish your health or to catch up with souls that might've escaped you on the physical realm.
Ah, also the soul mechanic is so cool? If you don't feed on an enemy soul it can fade into the spirit realm and turn into a stronger enemy? Or if you didn't destroy the body of the defeated enemy it can turn it back to life? Genius.
This is a game that I've noticed, is not very talked about despite being so innovating on many aspects for it's time, in so many things that even with this long ass review I barely scratched the surface of it, the few people that know and finished this game will tell you how good it is, how many new things it did right, then why isn't it remembered as much as the other classics?
This is where the few hiccups Soul Reaver has pop up, you start to notice areas way too big being used only to guard a single glyph. Glyphs whose power is not really that useful once you unlock the fire or light one, how at the end of the game it feels like a rushed series of puzzles, how the human citadel has no bigger purpose, how it seems like there's a brother missing, how the ending (which looks super cool I love that last cutscene) is a cliffhanger. And then if you look into it you find out that massive parts of the game had to be cut. Areas that connected everything together further, characters completely scrapped with story and mechanics so unique as well, deleted from existence so late in development that their lines were even translated into every language the game was avaliable at, how the glyphs were going to serve to solve more complex puzzles, how there was supposed to be an ending.
I feel it is a bit unfair thinking of what it coul've have been, when the game as it is is amazing and I love it, but I can't help but wonder had the vision been fulfilled could Soul Reaver be remembered as the innovative classic that I feel it deserves to be remembered as? I think that there are some rumors about a possible remake or reboot but idk, it is a good chance to implement everything back but I feel part of the game's essence was due to the time it came out in, but who knows, it still has a lot of stuff going for that I haven't seen other games try...
Back then when I played this on my Dreamcast (which is the port I recommend the most, it runs better and looks better, I think the PC version is based off this one too) I never could go that far, the console was an used gift and lacked a memory card, so no saving for me. And yet every day I whould repeat the same cutscene and the same tutorial with the same joy, and every day I whould try to go a bit further, which was hard since I liked the maps so much that I whould explore the same places over and over. With the years I lost the console and the game, but it remained a fond memory of my childhood. Untill now, when I could finish it for the first time (only lacking the 100% because I missed a heath upgrade somewhere...), and I don't know if you could call this nostalgia, sometimes you like something as a kid and when you grow up not anymore or you experience it further and the magic wears off. But for me, for this game, it was that feeling of wonder the entire time, with every new thing that I avoyded spoilers of for years I loved it all the way, every aspect still caters to my tastes and for what I tend to look for in media.
Please give this game a chance.
Somehow it feels like it was made for me, and that it was waiting for me all these years, is such a feeling of satisfaction to finally give this story (some sort of) closure and truly give it the title of one of my favorite games of all time.
God there's just... so many things that I want to say about this game and it'll still feel like it whouldn't be enough.
I still remember vividly the first time many years ago booting up the game and seeing the intro cutscene, which I highly recommend the person reading this to do on YouTube, and being completely enamoured with everything. The music that scales up as the cutscene goes, the character design that is just SO late 90's/early 2000's horror-esque, the narration which is just so epic and catched my full attention immediately, the scenery that has these warm hues that contrast with the tension of the entire thing, the moment Raziel is thrown to the lake of the dead bein during a warm orange sunset, it ending with the tentacle mass that is the room of the Elder God, and the Elder God itself claiming that "you are worthy" after experiencing centuries of torture. Nothing compares to me.
Since we are talking about "worthy", Raziel is such an interesting character to me. If you don't know the full extent of the lore it doesn't impact you as much but the game makes a great job on being very clear that Raziel has a very important role on the bigger scale of Nosgoth's destiny, the imagery of him being a doomed messiah, how when he falls at the beggining or glides his model reminds me of an angel (the credits have art that reflect this as well), his mission of saving the land tie him with destroying his previous master but at the same time discovering the truth of himself and his brothers only to kill them, and how in a way he is mirroring what Kain did and suffered centuries ago. Is so tragic, so compelling, so well written.
And the writting, man the writting. Not just on the intro but throught all the game, something made by people who know how to write and WANT to write a story, want to write the dialogues of these characters like an epic tale unfolding in front of you. Don't want to sound like an old person being all "back in my day things were better", but I don't like how something like this is not as common anymore, maybe because in current times it whould be seen as too edgy or
pretentious? I don't like the way how current writting is full of ironic banter towards the craft, stuff like this feels so cool and genuine and rich. I mean, even the tutorial is narrated that way, and I adore the way the characters talk.
Quick mention here for the music, which I think is stellar and that every single track is amazing and very unique, who whould've thought that an indie electro pop band could do such a banger OST for such a grimmy looking game?
The world of Nosgoth might be dying, but it also feels like it was lived in. The entire map is so full of details that enhance this, mural paintings, decorations, exquisite architecture, all of it inspired by multiple cultures but implemented so masterfully that it feels like something new, a unique set of lands with their own customs and beliefs. All of this with a strong gothic influence of the time, plus the nice color palletes it has, it does feel very vampiric to me.
And speaking of the enviroments, they are fantastic for platforming, not sure what it is but even when climbable places can be kind of obvious sometimes, the architecture of certain buildings makes it feel like it was not intentional. I mean this as like, the programmers saw real life buldings and modeled the in game ones based on how climbable they looked, like it was natural. And the gliding ability opens the space so much, exploring can be so fun.
And speaking of exploring, some people claim this to be the first "3D Metroidvania" but it doesn't have the RPG elements that truly defines those games (leveling up, different equipments, stats, etc), so I feel like this is more closer to "the first 3D Metroid like", and what an exceptionally good game it is at that, the use of 3D spaces is phenomenal for exploring, puzzles, platforming, and so on.
And the main mechanic, the biggest thing for when it comes to playability. Changing between the spirit and material realm not only serves the narrative cohesively, but is basically having two maps on one. The already massive world map can be re explored at any time on a twisted and cold new look and to explore a new geometry with new platforms or places that open up to explore or solve puzzles, AND which also serves as a way to replenish your health or to catch up with souls that might've escaped you on the physical realm.
Ah, also the soul mechanic is so cool? If you don't feed on an enemy soul it can fade into the spirit realm and turn into a stronger enemy? Or if you didn't destroy the body of the defeated enemy it can turn it back to life? Genius.
This is a game that I've noticed, is not very talked about despite being so innovating on many aspects for it's time, in so many things that even with this long ass review I barely scratched the surface of it, the few people that know and finished this game will tell you how good it is, how many new things it did right, then why isn't it remembered as much as the other classics?
This is where the few hiccups Soul Reaver has pop up, you start to notice areas way too big being used only to guard a single glyph. Glyphs whose power is not really that useful once you unlock the fire or light one, how at the end of the game it feels like a rushed series of puzzles, how the human citadel has no bigger purpose, how it seems like there's a brother missing, how the ending (which looks super cool I love that last cutscene) is a cliffhanger. And then if you look into it you find out that massive parts of the game had to be cut. Areas that connected everything together further, characters completely scrapped with story and mechanics so unique as well, deleted from existence so late in development that their lines were even translated into every language the game was avaliable at, how the glyphs were going to serve to solve more complex puzzles, how there was supposed to be an ending.
I feel it is a bit unfair thinking of what it coul've have been, when the game as it is is amazing and I love it, but I can't help but wonder had the vision been fulfilled could Soul Reaver be remembered as the innovative classic that I feel it deserves to be remembered as? I think that there are some rumors about a possible remake or reboot but idk, it is a good chance to implement everything back but I feel part of the game's essence was due to the time it came out in, but who knows, it still has a lot of stuff going for that I haven't seen other games try...
Back then when I played this on my Dreamcast (which is the port I recommend the most, it runs better and looks better, I think the PC version is based off this one too) I never could go that far, the console was an used gift and lacked a memory card, so no saving for me. And yet every day I whould repeat the same cutscene and the same tutorial with the same joy, and every day I whould try to go a bit further, which was hard since I liked the maps so much that I whould explore the same places over and over. With the years I lost the console and the game, but it remained a fond memory of my childhood. Untill now, when I could finish it for the first time (only lacking the 100% because I missed a heath upgrade somewhere...), and I don't know if you could call this nostalgia, sometimes you like something as a kid and when you grow up not anymore or you experience it further and the magic wears off. But for me, for this game, it was that feeling of wonder the entire time, with every new thing that I avoyded spoilers of for years I loved it all the way, every aspect still caters to my tastes and for what I tend to look for in media.
Please give this game a chance.
Somehow it feels like it was made for me, and that it was waiting for me all these years, is such a feeling of satisfaction to finally give this story (some sort of) closure and truly give it the title of one of my favorite games of all time.