المراجعات

• gamedeal user

  Sep 8, 2015

  [h1]Soul Reaver 2[/h1] "This is the sublime moment of our undoing, Raziel - the ineffable fulcrum upon which swings the entirety of our history. This is where all of Nosgoth is betrayed." ~Kain This game is the third entry of the Legacy of Kain series. Second, if you don't include Blood Omen 1 as that was made by other people technically, but the rest of the Legacy of Kain series was built right off of that game. Also, I feel this is quite obvious but will post a warning all the same, [b]this review will most likely spoil the first Soul Reaver game.[/b] After all, Soul Reaver 2 picks up literally right where Soul Reaver 1 left off, converting the final dialogue between Raziel and Kain of 1 into 2's CGI prologue scene. Kain escapes Raziel's reach by using the time streaming chamber to escape to a much less desolated version of Nosgoth in the past. But Raziel, still the faithful servant of the being only known as the Elder God who ordered him to assassinate Kain at the very beginning of Soul Reaver 1, follows him into the portal fearlessly armed with the Wraith Blade. And then, he meets Moebius. Moebius is a more than dubious character, one which Raziel is rightly suspicious of. Moebius, similar to Raziel's master, the Elder God, pushes him towards executing Kain. It doesn't take long for Raziel to gain the ire of both of them. As Raziel encounters the Kain that fled from him not too long after meeting Moebius at the Pillars of Nosgoth and does not kill him. Instead, Kain asks him to witness this pivotal moment of Nosgoth's history: the Corruption of the Pillars. After all, they walk in the first Blood Omen's era, about 30 years before Kain is presented with the choice he is given at the end of the first Blood Omen. Either die as the last vampire and thus bring about the extinction of his race, or allow the pillars to begin to collapse entirely, bringing about the apocalyptic version of Nosgoth you travel through in the first Soul Reaver. Kains tell Raziel to unearth his destiny, and then leaves. And thus, in Soul Reaver 2, you are no longer chasing Kain to assassinate him as Moebius and the Elder God seem so determined, but instead, travel through Nosgoth in several different eras, learning more about your past as a human, the Soul Reaver, and your destiny. There's quite a bit of time traveling in store for you, keep in mind this advice: "History abhors a paradox." Following in Soul Reaver 1's foosteps, Soul Reaver 2 is another action adventure game. The combat and graphics have obviously been improved quite a bit. However, as I said in my Soul Reaver 1 review, it's important to have reasonable expectations. I had less issues with Soul Reaver 2 than I did with Soul Reaver 1, less flickering textures, I could use a 360 controller without installing a program such as Xpadder or something. Still, even Soul Reaver 2 is still almost like fourteen years old. I did have a few crashes, lessso than Soul Reaver 1, but unlike in Soul Reaver 1, you cannot just save anywhere. So if it does crash before you can save, you probably will have to repeat things you've already done. Also, I cannot verify if it'll work on Windows 8 or anything like that. Personally, I played on Windows 7 and it was fine. The combat has been updated from Soul Reaver 1 and is in general different. In Soul Reaver 1, often, you found yourself doing your damndest to avoid getting hit because that mean you would lose the Wraith Blade, and if that happened, you would have to either throw your enemy into a fire, pool of water, or into the sunlight to kill them because after all, the majority of enemies in the game were vampiric. In Soul Reaver 2, the most common enemy you'll be fighting will be the Sarafan (humans), these weird creatures made of darkness that appear in parts, and hellish demons that will actually follow you into the Spirit Realm if they knock you into that (that's right, they added enemies actually capable of removing the "no stakes" element of the Spirit Realm). Additionally, while the Wraith Blade still works the way it did in Soul Reaver 1 for a bit in the beginning of Soul Reaver 2 (you keep the wraith blade until you get hit), not long into the prologue, the rules are changed when the Wraith Blade actually meets the past version of itself, the Soul Reaver. The Wraith Blade actually gains a will of its own. The Wraith Blade had always been a soul consuming spirit bound to Raziel and before then, trapped in the Soul Reaver itself, but now it was fully awake. Basically, what this means is, you won't lose the Wraith Blade anymore if you get hurt, but the more you use it, the more a little a ring will fill around your health. If it becomes full, I believe your health will actually begin to drop, although, I'm not too sure. To be honest, I was always mindful of how much I used the Wraith Blade because of this. Plus, I also just used the other weapons you could get from Sarafan and the sort. The Spirit Realm remains in Soul Reaver 2, and to be honest, while it's still cool in Soul Reaver 2, I preferred the way it looked in Soul Reaver 1. You maintain most of the abilities you gained from killing your vampiric brothers in Soul Reaver 1, such as phasing through barred barriers and certain doors in the Spirit Realm, climbing certain walls in the Material Realm, actually being able to swim without being immediately sent to the Spirit Realm/basically falling apart (you're essentially a walking corpse after all)... and etc. Where as in Soul Reaver 1 your goal was to kill off your vampiric brothers and then kill Kain, in Soul Reaver 2, you'll find your goal is more along the lines of finding elemental forges to imbue the Reaver with various different elements, along the lines of fire, darkness, light, air, and etc. As there are numerous doors that are locked unless you possess a certain element, and most of these places contain knowledge about things you want to know more about. Plus, you're already there, why not explore a less ruined Nosgoth that isn't infested with vampire spiders? Admittedly, I preferred the boss battles to the forges but... the one final "boss battle" this game does have is awesome for story reasons. There's less of this in Soul Reaver 2, but as in the first, if you're stuck and it seems there's no way to progress, enter the Spirit Realm. And also, if you find the enemies that will pursue you into the Spirit Realm if they beat you annoying when they start showing up, it seemed to me that they were actually easier to kill in the Spirit Realm. So keep that in mind. Also, another improvement in the transition to Soul Reaver 2. There's still puzzles, but almost zero block puzzles. Hoorah! Although... there is one thing I was sort of bummed out by. Soul Reaver 1 was linear sure, but it didn't feel that way. There were side areas you could explore, you could save anywhere... but SR2, BO2, and Defiance are all on a checkpoint system. They're still good, but the Nosgoth you explore in SR1's probably my personal favorite. As it was with Soul Reaver 1, I definitely recommend this game. The gameplay's certainly improved from Soul Reaver 1, and everything else (the story, the atmosphere, the voice acting, and the music) continue to be excellent. As long as you appreciate old games, yes, absolutely play this game/series. After SR2, only Blood Omen 2 and Defiance remain... and also Nosgoth, I guess. I'd recommend playing Blood Omen 2 between this game and Defiance. Defiance should be the final note you finish playing LoK on, not BO2 for... reasons I'll go into in my inevitable BO2 review. tl;dr: Absolutely. Legacy of Kain, in the words of the Elder God, "you are worthy." 7.8/10.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 6, 2020

  Initially incredibly glitchy, the point of being unplayable, but after some searching, I added the d3d8.dll file (from https://github.com/crosire/d3d8to9/releases/tag/v1.9.1 ) to my game folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 2) and all of the problems instantly disappeared. Thank whomever created that so much! It should really be a standard part of the Steam install, because without it you get crazy slamming up and down when you try to swim, randomly lurching forward errors when you try to attack, and clipping issues in the spirit realm that send you through the floor falling eternally until you exit and lose 30 minutes to an hour of progress. I was just about to give up before I found this amazing little life-saver.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 21, 2022

  Just posting this to make my findings about this game known. This game works out of the box on Steam Deck. This game ( as well as all of the other Legacy of Kain games on Steam) has horrible issues with game pad compatibility. However, it works flawlessly on Steam Deck as there are community profiles that map the keyboard buttons to the buttons on the deck, allowing for flawless controls. And the game runs and performs flawlessly from my experience.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 29, 2020

  The game itself is great, but nearly unplayable as is in this pc release. There are two things you need to do to make this Steam version playable: 1. Go to https://github.com/crosire/d3d8to9/releases/tag/v1.9.1 and download d3d8.dll. Place it in your games base folder. This will fix all the gamebreaking bugs. Trust me, it's a necessity. 2. Set up a controller through Steam. The highest rated community one will do. The game is near unplayable with kb+m. Enjoy!
• gamedeal user

  Jan 3, 2015

  I'm not reviewing the game itself, but the version currently on Steam and how it plays. That is, depending on your system, terribly. Lots of people have problems with random freezes during cutscenes, which is a pain since save points are often an hour or so apart and you can't even skip cutscenes you've already seen. The localized versions of this game, while they exist and are generally considered good quality, are simply not available on Steam. This is English only, and worst of all, this game comes from a time when not having any kind of subtitles was acceptable (way to do accessibiility, by the way). I don't care how old this game is. If you are republishing it, you have to do basic support. Why are we still paying for it if not this? Update on this : So it appears the frequent freezes are related to processor affinity in multiple core systems (most modern PCs). There are workarounds, none of which are very convenient for end-users. This could be fixed somewhat easily for everyone if Square Enix had any care. For this reason, and for the non-inclusion of versions other than English, I still don't recommend it.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 17, 2022

  Technical Issues

  Lets start with the technical issues, because this is probably the hardest game in the series to get working, at least it was for me and I had some extra steps that most guides didn't cover. I also want to give a special thanks to Wrace, who single handedly has kept these games playable and seemingly is still be trying to help others in getting these games working to this day. I found this discussion the most helpful and up-to-date. Its probably the best place to start, it has Wrace helping in the comments and that's what got this game working for me. Technical notes/General Tips <*>Its essential that you don't play this game above 60 fps, a lot of in-game mechanics break. I see people complaining about being stuck in place when in spectral mode, this is usually due to very high fps. <*>If you have a 120-144 Hertz monitor, you have to set it at 60 hertz via your OS. In order to achieve 60fps via the use of the games inbuilt v-sync. There are alternatives of course. <*>Don't play the game in 16:9, unless you have installed the widescreen patch, otherwise everything is very stretched, so use the highest 4:3 resolution you can. <*>I very strongly recommend you play with a controller, otherwise the combat will really feel clunky. <*>With a controller pointing your move-stick and pressing JUMP towards the enemy, dashes you forward while locked on, then u follow it up with an attack. With the keyboard this is extremely awkward and initially made me think combat was broken. <*>If you're not sure about something or stuck, read the manual! It helps explain a lot mechanics you might of missed/forgot(I really miss good'ole manuals) <*>I didn't know how to drop items without throwing them, found out you had to crouch then press action. (me dum dum) <*>Not obvious at first, but When facing multiple enemies, when locking on the nearest enemy, the others will ignore you, until you either kill or stop locking on, but this isn't always the case, especially late-game. When I finished with the fixes, that game ran flawlessly, except 1 instance where music didn't play during 1 cut-scene, otherwise not a single issue.

  Soul Reaver 2

  Now the game is sadly a downgrade when compared to the first 'Soul Reaver', but there is great deal to love about this game. The story is the obvious standout, I simply couldn't stop playing because of how hooked I was on the plot. I cant remember the last game had such a gripping storyline and the voice acting is stellar, its absolutely a 10/10 in that aspect, I still have my personal theories going into defiance. Gameplay wise, its decent, but I'm quite forgiving when it comes to old adventure games and the major difference from the first 'Soul Reaver' is this game is linear, so no secrets or diverging paths. I didn't skip any enemies, there's reasonable amount enjoyment in mastering the combat, thought clunky at times. You can manipulate the AI, because they will try countering your attacks, so mixing it up crouch/light/heavy/dash attacks can be fun... until you get stunlocked. You don't have spells from the first game sadly, a lot was cut form the game to ensure they hit their deadline with this one. The only real new ability you earn is being able to run through swamps/water with the air reaver. The puzzles are quite enjoyable and the game is overall paced quite well, the combat can get repetitive and little tedious at times. Overall, I strongly recommend this game, if not for the story alone.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 18, 2022

  To everyone who has trouble getting Soul Reaver 2 to run on Windows 10. Here's what I did: 1. Go to the Reshade Website and download d3d8.dll (This converts all the directx 3 stuff to direcktx 8) 2. Extract and copy into Soul Reaver game file (C:\Steam\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Soul Reaver 2) 3. Download the widescreen fix for Soul Reaver 2 and extract them into the game files also 4. In the game files create a text document and write: "@start /affinity 1 /high sr2.exe" (This will make SR2 only use one core to prevent crashes during cutscenes) 5. Click save as and make sure to type the file ending .bat 6. Click on the bat file to open the game (Do this everytime you want to play) 7. Go into Graphic options and set your prefered Resolution with a bit depht at 32 8. Change the selected Driver (I used Trial and Error) 9. Enjoy the best narrative in the Legacy of Kain series and videogames as a whole PS: Since you're running the game through the .bat file, Steam won't show you as in-game and won't record your total playtime. PPS: You can still see your playtime everytime you save
• gamedeal user

  Oct 31, 2013

  Just amazing! I played it at least 3 times, enjoying it every time. The ambient is going to force you to play it without any pause, and the story is well prepared and intriguing. 10/10, totally worth it!
• gamedeal user

  Apr 6, 2014

  I would recommend this game, solely because it was great at the time it came out and it's still a gem now. Though the combat was a little naffed, the story, the voice acting, the characters and the over all plot is so great.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 19, 2013

  Soul Reaver 2 starts up where the last game left off. Raziel has plunged through the Chronoplast time portal in his relentless pursuit of Kain and must unearth the mysteries of Nosgoth's ancient races as he travels unabashedly through eras of both the past and the future. Soul Reaver 2 has more in-depth puzzles and improved weapon enhancements, it also introduces a number of elemental mechanics, as well as an increased number of enemies. As with the original Soul Reaver the bigger focus of this game is the puzzles and these have been much improved and far more challenging. You travel to these various dungeons and you will find far fewer block puzzles and instead a large variety of puzzles that use the differences in landscape between spectral and real realms, reflections, wind, light and elemental reaver attributes. As you progress the game you will receive temporary imbuements to the soul reaver for various elements. These give the reaver various abilities and these are used for the majority of puzzles in the game. The Story is where the game really shines. The story is so complicated and well written that it spans five games. It is hard to explain the story, you just have to play the games to understand it. The voice acting is awesome. It is one of the best you will find in any game out there. The music as well is very good, you will find yourself hearing it in your head long after you played this game. The graphics are great for the time. The graphics now are quite decent, less glitches and more enjoyable lightning sprites. They made Nosgoth's appearance more lively and a better transition effect from Spectral Realm to Material Realm than the first one. Raziel and the other characters were well designed. The unique play mechanics of Soul Reaver 2, as well as its impressive graphics and excellent story, make it easy to recommend to fans of action or adventure games. Sounds 9/10 Graphics 8/10 Gameplay 9/10 Atmosphere 10/10 If you liked my review, please feel free to follow me and/or my curator group: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Ov3RT4K3R/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides http://steamcommunity.com/groups/orcollective#curation Also feel free to check out my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC83DYCmrWfl9ttrhX54jmWA