Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered review for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch

In many ways, Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is similar to Tomb Raider I-III Remastered: both are PS1-era games (technically PS1/PS2-era games in Soul Reaver’s case) that were developed by Crystal Dynamics being remastered and brought back by Aspyr to celebrate anniversaries of the beginnings of the respective series.

To be sure, given the challenges of video game preservation in the modern era, it’s always good to see these old games brought back to life. Much like the Tomb Raider remasters, Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered allows you to see and play the games in all their polygonal glory, while also giving you the option to toggle on more modern graphics. While those old PS1/early PS2-era graphics definitely look their age now, you can still see why the Soul Reaver games were praised when they originally came out for their atmosphere – yes, the games look a little silly at times (particularly if you spend too much time looking at the bizarre proportions of Raziel, the game’s protagonist), but, all things considered, they generally look decent.

Similarly, even if the story feels overblown, it’s still neat to see something so ambitious for its time. Obviously that goes more for the collection’s first game than the second one, but still: Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered has a deep story with voice acting that helps the characters come alive, notwithstanding any silliness. It feels very ‘90s, but seeing as one of the main draws of a remastered collection like this is nostalgia, that’s not inherently a mark against the game.

Unfortunately, the gameplay of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2 also hasn’t aged very well, and that’s a little harder to overlook. Much like the Tomb Raider remasters last year, the game feels clunky in every respect. Regardless of whether he’s sneaking up behind enemies, gliding through the air, or trying to jump from one platform to another, Raziel feels awkward and ungainly. What’s more, combat feels like a chore: not only do your attacks frequently feel useless, enemies occasionally feel unkillable unless you can maneouvre them so that you’re able to throw them onto a fire or into the light – which, seeing as movement is one of the big problems with the game, understandably feels a little frustrating at times.

Dealing with the camera is also a bit of a pain. I don’t want to complain too much about it, since the first game came to be in a pre-Dualshock era where you couldn’t even move the camera up and down, whereas the mere fact of its existence is a key upgrade in Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered …but at the same time, that doesn’t make it fun. You regularly feel like you’re battling with where the game is trying to force you to look, rather than being able to take in the world around you as you want to see it.

All of which is to say: Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is probably a must-play if you were obsessed with it 25 years ago, but probably missable if you didn’t play it the first time around. It’s got some interesting ideas and it delivers on some of them, but overall, you’ll probably need nostalgia goggles to get the most out of it.

Aspyr provided us with a Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered PC code for review purposes.