Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1+2 Remaster

[one-armed dwarf]

December 10

 

It's a visual upgrade remaster like Tomb Raider. Presumably we can swap visual styles maybe but who knows. At a glance the newer version looks slightly more cartooney than the lo-fi original so having that choice would be neat

 

They're missing a trick not doing Blood Omen as well, guess that's a harder one to upgrade.

 

 

 

 

[Maf]

This would be great. Soul Reaver is a series I really feel like I missed out on, and though these games are available on PC I think I read they have very difficult compatibility issues because they’re so old 

[shinymcshine]

I really don't think a cosmetic update of a 25 yr old game will really do it justice - the whole expectations of the gameplay is significantly different nowadays than it was back in 1999, and I just can't see people getting enthused about sliding block puzzles all over again.

 

Don't get me wrong, I really loved the Soul Reaver games, but a reboot/reimagining rather than remaster is really what's needed.

[one-armed dwarf]

My only beef having played very little of the original but enough to have an impression, is that it looks too colourful and smooth looking. SR is supposed to be this dark, expressionistic looking thing, I think. Twisted architecture, dark shadows, desaturated, gloomy. It doesn't feel as much like that in this footage. Wonder if it's just another example where tech limits kinda just facilitated the visual design and so I remain interested in if it has a visual toggle option

 

Anyway I think ports like this are so cheap to make that the small audience of players they will attract might still be considered a success and maybe it helps them find a way to make a case for making a new game with a fresher take

[Maryokutai]

First of all it's of course really cool that this turned out to be real, because after that Comic Con thing some people suggested it might have gotten axed.

 

But I also don't quite like the look of the remastered portion of this, at least parts of it. The character models are too clean IMO, like a 'what if' version if they had appeared in Sony's Smash Bros clone. Raziel is supposed to be a disfigured husk, basically a dead man walking, and should be at least a little disgusting to look at, but this version looks more like a McFarlane creation. On the other hand the environments seem to be fine and with more distance between camera and player model the issues I have with those aren't as apparent anymore.

 

I might be mistaken but it also looks like they used the PS1 version for the non-remastered SR1? Which would be an odd choice considering the DC version was superior on every level and would have resulted in a less stark contrast in visual fidelity between 1 and 2 if you choose to play the original versions.

 

But, all that said I will, of course, be there day one (unless there's a physical version coming later like they did with TR).

It's been an eternity since I played them anyway and if I can help at least move the needle a tiny bit towards them doing more with that IP, count me in. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Here's the steam page with screenshots

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2521380/Legacy_of_Kain_Soul_Reaver_12_Remastered/

[OCH]

On 24/09/2024 at 14:19, shinymcshine said:

Don't get me wrong, I really loved the Soul Reaver games, but a reboot/reimagining rather than remaster is really what's needed.

I think that is the secondary reason for choosing SR over Blood Omen 1. The primary reason being the popularity of the Raziel-led part of the series. But SR is mechanically modern enough that a fresh coat of paint and some QoL updates to swimming etc would still result in a playable game. Blood Omen, in contrast, needs a 'from the ground up' overhaul. 

But, imo without Amy Hennig there is no value or merit to rebooting Legacy of Kain. To be blunt, the talent isn't there today. The visual identity, the writing, the voice acting. There isn't anything like this series today. It was lightning in a bottle and a remaster is realistically the best this era could do for LoK.

[Maryokutai]

Crystal Dynamics is still an extremely proficient developer whose only blunder has been a trendchasing GAAS title that they got probably semi-forced into doing. On the writing part I agree – I'm not sure if I'd trust anyone other than Hennig to make a real continuation to the series. But a reboot, which would essentially just modernise the game but retell the same story beats? That'd absolutely be something CD could pull off. In this day and age I think the only limiting factor for that is the whole budget situation, because LoK needs a certain amount of production values to work, relative to current gaming standards, but isn't big or appealing enough to warrant that sort of investment. I predict these remasters to do okay, but still trail far behind the TR remasters from earlier this year.

[one-armed dwarf]

 

I'm not sure what Clive is doing here but this will be interesting

[OCH]

 

[one-armed dwarf]

This is technically a post for another thread, but relevant here all the same. Blood Omen I and II on PS (I assume when they say PS Premium that you can buy the games separately still)

 

 

Only one left is Defiance, I think

 

Blood Omen 1 is a sort of classic Zelda clone, though not as good from the hours i played

 

For some reason, Blood Omen 2 is the only LOK game I've completed. It's not good, kinda a 3D hack and slash block pushing game

 

 

So uh yeah, probably not getting people hyped with those descriptions but still. BO1 seems the most important lore wise, BO2 much less so

 

[Maryokutai]

My first contact with the series was on Dreamcast with SR1 and when I went back to BO1 shortly after it already felt super dated even back then. 20 years on I have no idea how it holds up and if they ever do a second collection with the BO games sand Defiance it will be the most interesting part of that for sure.

 

Anyway, cool they're on there. Defiance will probably follow as well. Though that one in particular was a lot better on Xbox than on PS2, so I kind of hope they all get released via other means on other systems as well.

[Maf]

Launch trailer

 

 

Comes out next Tuesday 

[Maf]

I was thinking of getting this for Steamdeck but when I look at it in the store it just has a ? Next to it. Does that mean they don’t know if it’s Steamdeck compatible before launch? You would think that information would be available before launch 

 

If not I guess I’ll get it on PlayStation

[one-armed dwarf]

Steam Deck is like this, it's treated similar to Linux (cause it is Linux). Some stuff will work and other stuff might be a bit dodgy but playable. Other stuff won't work, but if you're comfortable fucking around in a linux terminal you can force it to work (I did this with Gothic).

 

The stuff that causes the most issues are games with their own launchers within steam, which often are coded for Windows specifically. 2k broke Bioshock on steam deck with this lol

 

edit there's a NoClip documentary on Legacy of Kain. Dunno what's in it, but the title makes it sound like they're planning on making real sequels at some point. 

 

 

[Maf]

Some of the games I’ve installed and played on Steam Deck have a yellow ! Next to it which I take means it works but don’t blame us if 

 

I think if you’re trying to sell a game, though, you should have that info out there before launch. It’s weird that it isn’t

 

Not to make this a Steamdeck thread. Just I thought this game would be really well suited to it 

[one-armed dwarf]

So as far as I know, could be wrong, but the compatibility aspect of games on Deck is more due to the emulation layer. I think it's Proton.  Whichever it is, it's sort of an ongoing software compatibility effort which isn't entirely in the devs hands all the way, as far as I know, cause it works via Proton translating graphics procedures that work within windows into something that a graphics library within Linux will recognise. Some stuff works great, other stuff runs into strange issues owing to proprietary windows codecs or middlewares or weird shit. But it's not like they are making deck versions specifically, it's that Proton is translating one graphics API to another. It's really more about Proton than anything else I think

 

It's the essence of these open platforms like Linux, it's all a bit free wheeling. Maybe it works on Deck right now but they start doing things a bit different within their codebase which doesn't translate like it should, so no promises. These guys explain it better maybe: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/va2vy8/how_does_proton_work_exactly/

 

I think it will work fine, just don't pre-order (tho steam are good for refunds)

[Maryokutai]

Seems fine going by this video:

 

 

Was about to buy it on Switch earlier but it's been a super expensive month already and it's 10GB, which on that platform is a ton of space and I'm weird about these things.

Might wait until the new year, wouldn't really have time for it before then either way. But just like the TR Remaster this seems good all-around, on every platform. I read somewhere that they even re-rendered the intro sequence of the first game, which must have been quite the gravedigging job to get these files back. 

[Nag]

I'm quite tempted by this... I'll wait to see if I get any surprise credit over Christmas. 

[Maf]

4 minutes ago, Maryokutai said:

Seems fine going by this video:

 

 

Was about to buy it on Switch earlier but it's been a super expensive month already and it's 10GB, which on that platform is a ton of space and I'm weird about these things.

Might wait until the new year, wouldn't really have time for it before then either way. But just like the TR Remaster this seems good all-around, on every platform. I read somewhere that they even re-rendered the intro sequence of the first game, which must have been quite the gravedigging job to get these files back. 

Yeah, that looks like it plays all right. 
 

What the fuck does this guy have the highest jump in video games look at that jump lol