Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2

Somehow it happened that as soon as I appear in the editorial office with a hungry expression of a journalist who has nothing to do but would like to have, then every single colleague encountered along the way begins to look in his memory whether any erpeg or strategy is about to show. The fact is that when asked about the best, the most playable and most important for the development of the human species game I will count without hesitation at any time of day or night: "Fallout", "Arcanum", "Monkey Island" and "Civilization", and only after a while will come to me wondering if "Quake" was also significant. This does not mean, however, that I have no need for purely dexterity, especially when it can take place in one or another, but moving atmosphere. And I am absolutely not ashamed of nights spent with a friend while playing "Doom" via cable, nor a broken joystick after six days of being "Privateer", nor hiding from my family to go crazy as "Soldier of Fortune". Nevertheless, to get something on my liming paws to start them, I had to plead strongly. The face was probably really hungry, bare fangs dripping saliva, and the skin blue with the outside cold, because the search for a game for me focused around a blue-skinny, skinny vampire named Raziel.

Thus, together with blue skin, an uncontrollable appetite for the souls of everything that moves, from dogs, through people, and on the souls of spirits, and with wonderful physical fitness, I also got a lot of baggage of harm and the desire for revenge. For Raziel was never grateful to Cain for freeing his soul from a dying body and reborn it in a vampire form just to get the perfect warrior under his orders. Now, when, after a thousand years of faithful service, Cain got rid of his immortal servant by hitting him into the Abyss, Raziel felt underappreciated, disliked and repulsed, not to say betrayed. No wonder he went to visit Cain with a firm determination to snatch his ex-master's heart through his nostril. He was less concerned about the unfortunate fate of the land of Nosgoth, which is now falling, partly because Destiny orders it, and partly because of Cain's fault. However, you can easily forgive him a bit of selfishness, because the death of the latter would be a satisfactory solution for both Raziel and the entire land of Nosgoth. It wasn't easy though ...

What slowed down my pursuit of Cain the most was the beautiful, gothic interiors, slender walls, stained glass windows, frescoes on the walls, a little later wonderfully picturesque scenery, streams, waterfalls, lakes, marshes, skylights hovering above them, leaning towards the ground ruins of once lofty buildings - in a word, unearthly, monumental graphics, thanks to which the land of Nosgoth is so attractive that it is simply pleasant to walk and admire it, browse through polished marble sheets or observe the natural play of light and shadow near each lamp. Similarly, the characters from the main characters of the performance look great: Cain, Moebius, or the terrible vampire Vorador - refined in detail up to mimicry capable of expressing a wide spectrum of feelings. Of course, Raziel presents herself with the greatest of abundance of moves, though one might wonder if a thousand-year-old vampire would be able to keep so much humanity and even innocence. Nothing, however, that Raziel is in all his monstrosity extremely sympathetic, able in sincere amazement to open wide his inhuman eyes, a moment after God blame the spirit of the mercenary, desperately defending himself against the monster, he flew at the halberd shaft and threw at mud. In the end, if he was still trembling ;-) in agony he ripped open and greedily devoured every tastier fragments of her insides, he might have been closer to our imaginations about the monster, but his character would be much less pleasant to play with.

I mentioned that Raziel is extremely physically fit and I am hurrying to add that his superhuman skills translate, one into one, into the whole range of activities that he is able to perform. It is true that many great graphics and animation titles have already accustomed us, the players, to the fact that the character on the screen can be much less defective than ourselves, sitting in the presumably real world (here I mention "Heavy Metal FAKK", or even :-) "Prince of Persia"), however, when I put in a row what more popular tepep characters, including Lara Croft, or just Julie, wins Raziel with his invisible, mysterious eyes, imperfect three-fingered hands, shamelessly exposed with a spine, capable feet, at first glance, crumble stone, additionally equipped with a pair of ruffled membranes, probably once magnificent wings. Thanks to the latter, he is not able to fly into the air, but it is enough for him to glide briefly, which greatly facilitates, and often even allows Raziel to travel through smaller gaps and other holes in the ground. His steel fingers are capable of not only stopping the enemies heart with a direct touch, but also dig into the solid rock, which makes the betrayed vampire the undisputed favorite on any climbing competition. A bit worse - which seems quite strange - is the issue of struggle. Although Raziel is able to use any weapon found or acquired, ranging from swords, through halberds and torches torn off the wall, and ending with the terrible and intangible title epic Soul Reaver, but the set of attacks he has at his disposal is surprisingly modest. It's a shame.

The subsequent fights fought by Raziel are, due to his extremely limited fencing skills, similar to each other, and therefore too easy and after a short time become boring to the point that I preferred to avoid them just because they did not distract me from admiring the area. But it may be good, too: - / because if it were not for the sad fact that better than a perfectly qualified warrior, having a thousand years of service under the orders of Cain, can bring just a few elementary engravings plus cutting from the market, you really would not what to attach in "Soul Reaver". What significantly saves the pleasure of fighting are dodges, which Raziel can do with cat's agility. In practice, it looks like the opponent or the opponent rushes to attack in the just decision to kill the blue monster and stops a few steps in front of him, he takes his weapon more firmly in both hands and whatever he fearfully waits for a good, in his opinion, moment to strike. In the end, he takes a swing, throws himself forward, one or another blade cuts the air and ... hits the stone, because Raziel has been behind the attacker for a few nanoseconds, ready to deal a few blows and dodge another attack. In the end, the exhausted opponent, due to a clear drop in blood pressure (caused by a significant decrease in it), no longer has the strength to defend himself, let alone attack, and then he dies left alone, or is pierced with a shaft, loses his head from cutting with a sword, is set on fire by a torch, or simply pierced through the mighty monster's paw. The soul escapes from the battered body, and then the vampire swallows or absorbs it, which he does very well to his health.

However, if Raziel goes wrong and takes on his bony chest one cut too much, he will not die. Besides, we are all well known that a vampire cannot be killed just because it managed to cast a few liters of its blue, slightly phosphorescent blood. If this happens, then the place has something that makes the graphic perfection of "Soul Reaver" that I advocate demand praise even more sophisticated. Suddenly, the environment begins to vibrate, all shapes gravely bend like the architecture of dreamy dreams, lose their colors in favor of everything wrapping in monochrome monochrome and die in a disturbing fog. The characters of the would-be vampire killers disappear, and strange monsters with glowing eyes appear, deprived of any other expression. Raziel dies in the real world, he abandons his weapon limply and is reborn in a parallel spectral world, the world of specters that he has just become. If he also falls here, then he will be reborn only so that the player does not have to start playing again - in practice, however, in this spectral plane the vampire feels so good, he has so many souls to swallow to restore his weakened forces that it did not happen I would die there until I did it on purpose.

Both of these worlds, in which Raziel is able to exist, perfectly coexist and complement each other. The betrayed vampire is able to penetrate between them not only as a result of exhaustion, but also at his explicit request, while he can get into the spectral world at any time and in any state, and return to the real only in selected, designated places and under on condition that he managed to rebuild his health to the maximum. However, this is where the differences between the two planes are just beginning. I have already noticed that as a specter, Raziel feels much better. The colossal impact is due to the fact that thanks to the inseparable Soul Reaver, living its own blade, demanding the continuous feeding of the souls of dying, and otherwise carrying out a constant drainage of the life forces of its owner-companion, Raziel will weaken in his eyes, even if he lay on moss surrounded by a dozen naked slaves fanning him. In the spectral world, the title weapon is much more forgiving to the vampire and does not hurt him. The mobility options themselves also change depending on the plane the monster is on. On the first of these, Raziel is able to swim and dive, climb selected walls and move some objects, a walk through the mud will slow his gait accordingly. However, on the second, spectral, he will be able to walk freely on the bottom, run through spectral mud, and even penetrate steel bars, but the threads will be from any interaction with the environment, including wallowing. However, what justifies the existence of these two worlds most is the differences in their geometry, which go far enough that crossing one or another obstacle that cannot be overcome in one of them becomes possible after penetrating into the other. They can be stairs that exist only in the spectral dimension or a rocky ledge, which in one of them is lower than the neighboring one, and in the other high enough to jump from that to that. I assure you that the impression is absolutely fantastic when Raziel penetrates the other world, everything around him is bizarre, and in the solid rock straight up the stairs leading to the top.

Such and not only such combinations mean that despite frequently-densely appearing on-screen tips in the form of text (if we do not turn them off) or also a little more camouflaged signs placed in the environment, the player in the person of Raziel can happen for several minutes, during which he will chase the area in an idle search for the answer to the question "what next?", while it lies right there, hidden around the corner, possibly in an equally close parallel world. Of course, this can be annoying, but thanks to this, "Soul Reaver" is able to exercise not only the fingers, but also some parts of the brain (especially those responsible for powerless pissing, of course). And this is despite the fact that although the land of Nosgoth seems to be very extensive, because most of the time Raziel has the choice only or looking for a way forward, or backing back if he has not looked at something for a long time - he rarely enters a game "right" or "left".

Somewhat strange for me, I managed, until now, to avoid praising the praises in honor of this element of "Soul Reaver", which has by far the highest value and the greatest impact on the considerable attractiveness of the game - in honor of the mood. This happened partly because it results from many other, interacting components in the form of: graphics that I praise; dark music complementing it, basically a musical background, different for each of the parallel planes on which Raziel takes his journey to revenge; introducing movies into each chapter of his adventure, supported by really well written dialogues, in which you usually don't know what's going on, but thanks to that :-) generally felt suspense, and simple uncertainty of what's next, by no means suffers. All this adds up to a uniform, well-thought-out performance in which the player becomes one of his monstrous actors, a spectacle taking place in a world of horror so easily felt that participation in it would probably require considerable courage were it not for the fact that it is the player who covers in the blue skin of Raziel, he becomes the most dangerous monster in this world and it is he, and not anyone else, who sows terror in him.

Shuck