Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered review: A more than worthy remaster

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Developer Aspyr, fresh from remastering the first three Tomb Raider games, has cleaned off its brushes and given vampiric poster-boy Raziel his own substantial makeover in Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered. Every character from the main players in Crystal Dynamics' time and space-bending epic right down to the lowly grunts and creatures has received new, highly-detailed models.

We’ve seen similar levels of uplift in Aspyr’s previous efforts but nothing on this scale. Raziel himself, as the character players will spend almost all of their time viewing, has obviously received the biggest overhaul. Raziel’s wraithlike figure now appears more tangible than before.

His previous skull-cap-like hair is now a thick black bonnet, complete with his trademark bangs that hang down before his glowing white eyes and his garb, the clan banner used to mask his horrific disfigurement sporting high-resolution textures while his exposed bones and muscles now protrude convincingly through his blue skin.

Raziel’s transformation, and that of everything in Legacy of Kain 1&2 Remastered, is easy to admire thanks to Aspyr’s use of the original source code, enabling players to instantly flick between new and classic visuals with a single press of the right analog stick.

Throughout my playthrough, I found myself frequently swapping graphics modes to see how extensive Aspyr’s remaster ventured and I was consistently impressed. The aforementioned assortment of grunts, the low-level enemies that Raziel dispatches along his blood-soaked vendetta, have received a remarkable level of reworking, with all new art assets that go above and beyond a simple texture swap.

This is also true of the collections’ pantheon of grotesque bosses with Raziel’s devilish foes now presented with reworked geometry, hair, skin, bone, and gore that revels in the dark and twisted nature of Nosgoth.

Speaking of the land of Nosgoth, Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered decorates every surface with high-resolution textures that preserve the overall look and feel of the originals and adds a copious amount of details to intricate stone carvings around the gothic chambers, stained glass windows within strongholds and the twisted, haunting sinewy strands of the spectral realm.

Elevated Raziel… not reduced

While long-time fans will likely get a kick out of the new visuals, giving Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered a lick of paint is only half the battle when rereleasing these titles in 2024, with a revamp of the twenty-five-year-old control scheme requiring just as much attention.

Thankfully, the remaster brings a substantial improvement to the somewhat clunky controls of the original release and marries the new scheme with a welcome bump up to a solid 60fps.

While Soul Reaver 2 always had the cameras mapped to the right stick on controllers, its forebearer required players to rotate the camera around Raziel using the L2 and R2 buttons (on PS5). The original controls also meant that players couldn’t move the camera through the Y-axis, which often made looking for a way forward a cumbersome exercise in trial and error.

Aspyr has rightly corrected this issue with a camera now tied to the right stick and, to highlight just how much care and attention has gone into this remaster, they’ve even created new, moody sky boxes to accommodate Raziel’s newfound ability to look up.

The vastly improved camera controls aren’t the only new feature that makes navigating Nosgoth a smoother experience. A brand-new map and onscreen compass remove the frustration of finding your way around the sprawling realms. Purists may be pleased to hear that the map and compass are optional and easily deactivated, however, the maps of Nosgoth, created in collaboration between Aspyr, Crystal Dynamics, and key members of the Legacy of Kain community are truly beautiful works of art that shouldn’t be ignored.

The only area that could benefit from further modernization is the combat. While Raziel must still dispatch vampiric foes, either by impalement, submerging in water, engulfing in fire or bathing in sunlight, before given these opportunities the actual hack-and-slash gameplay of hand-to-hand combat hasn’t aged particularly well and is faithful to a fault.

While the ability to lock on, block (in Soul Reaver 2), and perform dodges have all returned, there’s no way to cycle through targets when facing off against multiple foes. The modern control scheme also means Raziel always feels considerably overpowered against his adversaries from the get-go, making combat throughout both games a bit of a bore. Some of the unlockable powers and skills alleviate the monotony somewhat but it’s a shame we didn’t see some improvements to the basic scrapping.

Thankfully, brawling has always played second fiddle to exploration and puzzle solving in Soul Reaver and the intricate mind-benders are back and, thanks to the various control tweaks, easier to navigate than ever before.

A loving legacy

Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered evolves beyond a simple visual touch-up in other ways too, adding new features and a heap of goodies for fans and newcomers to dig into.

For those who can’t resist getting a bit snap-happy during their gameplay sessions, a new photo mode is available, although it’s currently a little rudimentary. Pausing the action by pressing in on both analog sticks together gives players free control of the camera and some basic vignette options to toy around with.

It’s functional, but lacks the extensive options available in many other photo modes, with elements such as frames, filters, character poses, and changeable facial expressions all missing. Some of these options were also absent from the Tomb Raider Remastered photo mode at launch before being added in a post-launch patch so hopefully Soul Reaver will receive the same improvements down the line.

Performing much better though is the raft of extras available from the main menu. It’s frankly overwhelming how much high-quality content is on offer here. Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered packs in everything including galleries showcasing concept art, renders, and fan cosplays, a music player to listen to the soundtracks from both games, a movie viewer, and beautifully produced scripts for each title.

The undeniable standout here though is the Lost Levels. Previously cut sections from the first game have been restored to a playable state and offer a glimpse into an alternative conclusion to Soul Reaver. Each of the small disconnected playable areas presents an interesting curio more than anything you’ll spend a lot of time in but it’s great to see what could have been and be able to poke around in levels that never saw the light of day.

Introduced by a written foreword from pillar of the Legacy of Kain community and creator of The Lost Worlds fansite, Ben Lincoln, the Lost Levels demonstrates the love and passion that has gone into remastering these classic titles. The Lost Levels acts as a reward of sorts for the fans who have supported the series and yearned for another entry since the last game in the franchise, Legacy of Kain – Defiance, released in 2003.

Whether you’re new to the franchise or a returning player, Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered is an exceptional package that improves on almost every aspect of these classic titles and delivers two unmissable epics that every gamer should experience.

Should I play Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered?

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Accessibility

Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered provides only a few, basic accessibility options for players. Subtitles are enabled by default in both games and are clear to read with a subtle grey background to them. Controller settings can be tweaked with optional vibrations and adjustable stick sensitivity.

Aspyr has included new in-game maps, a compass, and gameplay hints in both titles to make navigation through Nosgoth easier for players and all of these features are optional and easily disabled in the pause menu.

How I reviewed Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered

I played through the campaigns of Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered over a week while seeking out as many secrets as I could find. I explored all of the newly curated bonus content including reading through the various scripts, viewing all of the gallery content, and playing around in the new Lost Levels.

I played Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered on PS5 on a 4K Sony Bravia TV, with my DualSense controller and PS5 Pulse 3D Wireless Headset for the most part and occasionally through the built-in TV speakers.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve also played Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain after it was released on PS+ Premium and revisited the original PS1 and PS2 versions of both Soul Reaver games, enabling me to appreciate and analyze the differences in controls, visuals and playability to the new remaster.