More Articles on Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Legacy of Kain: Soul ReaverLegacy of Kain: Soul ReaverLatest Previews
Tom Clancy's EndWar - Ears OnMidnight Club: LA - MultiplayerFar Cry 2 - MultiplayerGears of War 2 - Hands OnNeed For Speed UndercoverUser Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for Legacy of Kain: Soul ReaverWrite your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver Preview
Mark Simons
00/12/0000
Kain makes is set to make a welcome appearance on the Dreamcast, what can Sega fans look forward to?
Soul Reaver stunned PlayStation owners when it came out last year with it's epic gameplay and frankly amazing graphics and a unique loading system that actually meant that in-game there was no loading! Now Dreamcast owners can sink their teeth into this story of the vampire Raziel who was all but destroyed by Kain after he grew wings that even Kain himself did not have.
The game has many unique features, many of them technical, but these do affect the gameplay as well. Firstly there is the seamless shifting between the real world and the spectral world which occurs in front of your eyes. The whole game-world morphs in front of you, changing from brilliant and attractive architecture, into something far more dark and sinister. Shifting to the spectral plan occurs when you run out of energy, and to get back to the real world you need to harvest enough souls to allow you to shift. The differences between the two planes are essential in completing the game, as you can do things in one plane that you cannot do in the other, so puzzle solving becomes a whole lot more interesting once you realise that the whole world can change...
Another technical feat is the complete lack of loading screens in the game. This is down to the game streaming the data off the disc as it is needed, thus creating a seamless illusion of the game world. It may not sound like much, but not having a loading screen to shatter the illusion of the game is a great benefit.
Playing as Raziel requires not only skill as a platformer, but also puzzle solving and combat skill, as all are essential to completing the game, and as PlayStation owners will tell you, this game does all of these things very well.
Graphically the game will be better than the PlayStation original, sporting a 60 frames a second update as opposed to 25, and higher resolution textures as well as some nicer special effects. The end result is essentially the same as the PC version, that is although very attractive, lacking the same punch that it has on the PlayStation, but this is purely because it is stunning to achieve on the PlayStation, and less so on the Dreamcast. Nonetheless the game does look very good, and has playability to match and Dreamcast owners should have another great game to add to their collection very soon.
