Soul Reaver 2

Plot synopsis:
=== Setting ===
Soul Reaver 2 is set in Nosgoth, a fictional land with fantasy aspects. In the first game in the series, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the vampire Kain embarks on a journey to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth—nine supernatural edifices which are inextricably tied to the health of the land, but become corrupted. During his adventure, Moebius, a manipulative sorcerer, tricks Kain into orchestrating the destruction of the vampire race: Kain is left the last surviving vampire in Nosgoth. After restoring eight of the Pillars, Kain discovers that he would need to sacrifice his own life to restore the final corrupt one. Realizing that his death would ensure the annihilation of his species, he refuses to kill himself. This triggers the Pillars' collapse, and dooms the world to eternal decay, but enables Kain to live on and revive the vampire race.
By the time of Soul Reaver, 1500 years later, Kain is a despotic emperor, his vampires dominate the land, and Nosgoth hinges on the brink of collapse. The Elder God, a demiurge-like entity, lurks beneath Nosgoth and controls the cycle of reincarnation; the vampires, whose biological immortality opposes his doctrine, are his enemies. In Soul Reaver, Raziel—Kain's lieutenant—is executed by Kain, but The Elder God resurrects him and encourages him to exact revenge. Traversing the wasteland and murdering the vampires, Raziel confronts Kain, who attacks him with the Soul Reaver sword, imbued with a spirit which absorbs its victims' souls. The Soul Reaver shatters when it strikes Raziel, and the blade's spirit binds itself to his arm. His motives still mysterious, Kain lures Raziel through a time portal into Nosgoth's past.
In Soul Reaver 2, it is established that, in Nosgoth, fatalism is an actuality—history is immutable, and all individuals are subject to predestination. Raziel, due to his paradoxical destiny, is the only exception to this rule—his presence enables temporal paradoxes to be triggered, altering history for better or worse. Kain relies on Raziel's free will in a bid to outsmart Moebius and resolve the dilemma he faced in Blood Omen, ultimately hoping to enable both the restored Pillars and the vampire race to co-exist in the future. Soul Reaver 2 opens as Raziel emerges from the time slip and is greeted by Moebius, having arrived in an era 30 years prior to the events of Blood Omen. Two further time periods, 100 years after and 500 years before Blood Omen respectively, are also explored as the story progresses.
=== Characters ===
Raziel returns as the protagonist of Soul Reaver 2. In Soul Reaver, Raziel discovered that he was once a human and a leading member of the vampire-hunting Sarafan brotherhood, and his epiphanies drive the conflict in the story. Kain, the antagonist of Soul Reaver, appears as a non-player character in cutscenes, urging Raziel to unearth his destiny. Moebius the Time Streamer, a sorcerer who was a villain in Blood Omen, attempts to manipulate Raziel into destroying Kain—it is revealed that he is an agent of The Elder God, Raziel's ally and guide in Soul Reaver, who is slowly established as a more sinister entity. Ariel, a specter bound to the Pillars who featured in Blood Omen and Soul Reaver, returns, and the vampire Vorador, also from Blood Omen, assists Raziel early in the game. The ancient vampire Janos Audron, a new character who was previously only mentioned in Blood Omen, acts as Raziel's mentor towards the end of the story.
=== Story ===
The game begins by summarizing Soul Reaver's ending: Raziel confronts Kain in Nosgoth's wasteland, and pursues him through a portal leading to the past. Moebius, the leader of a vampire-hunting crusade in this age, coerces Raziel to re-embrace his former heritage as a Sarafan vampire hunter by killing Kain. Though Raziel is initially eager to do so, his enthusiasm wanes over time as he witnesses the ruthlessness of Moebius's soldiers. Kain, who is destined to die at Raziel's hands in this era, implores Raziel to thwart fate and instead facilitate his quest to restore the Pillars. After he learns that Moebius serves The Elder God, and that he has thus been duped, Raziel faces a decision: indulge his lust for vengeance but submit to fate by killing Kain, or defy his cohorts and exercise his free will by exerting mercy.
While exploring this period, Raziel discovers evidence that two ancient races waged war in Nosgoth's distant past. One race created the Pillars to banish their adversaries, but the enemy race—the Hylden—retaliated with a curse which transformed the Pillars' architects into the first vampires. Kain explains that, had he sacrificed himself, the vampire race—the rightful inheritors of the Pillars—would have become extinct. Raziel chooses to spare Kain, causing a paradox; history reshuffles itself to accommodate the extension of Kain's life. He, however, refuses to indulge Kain's plans any further, instead opting to explore his own past. Vorador tells Raziel that the last of the ancient vampires, Janos Audron, held the key to Raziel's destiny, but Janos was murdered by the Sarafan five centuries ago.
Deciding to speak with Janos, Raziel orders Moebius to send him further back in time. Moebius deceives Raziel, instead conveying him over a century into the future, where he and The Elder God highlight the consequences of the Pillars' destruction to turn Raziel against Kain. Raziel navigates the future era and finds his own way back to the age of the Sarafan and Janos Audron. There, Janos presents Raziel with the Reaver, a younger version of the physical Soul Reaver blade which will later house a soul-devouring spirit. Suddenly, a group of Sarafan led by Raziel's former, human self launch an ambush, and Janos sacrifices himself. Raziel swears vengeance as Janos dies, and pursues the attackers. He uses the Reaver to kill them and his younger self, renouncing his Sarafan past.
The wraith-blade attached to Raziel's arm, over-aroused after the deaths of the Sarafan, suddenly seizes control of the physical Reaver, and impales Raziel; Raziel, horrified, then realizes his destiny. He himself has always been the ravenous spirit inside the Reaver, and therefore is fated to be stuck in a time loop; the sword shattered against him in Soul Reaver because it was unable to consume itself. While his soul is being drawn into the sword, Kain emerges and tears the Reaver from Raziel's body, saving him in reciprocation and forcing history to reshuffle again. However, this paradox strains Nosgoth's history too far, enabling the Hylden to return and jeopardize his ambition to restore the Pillars. Amidst Kain's dismay, Raziel realizes that the wraith-blade is still bound to him, and laments that his destiny has not been changed, but merely postponed.

Tags: revenge, murder

Review:
Fang-tastic.
A thousand words still isn't enough to say how excellent this game is.
The voice acting in this game is truly excellent and each and every line is spoken with heart and feeling, along with an excellent and well thought out script, you just don't want to stop playing.
Which is a shame, because the game is actually quite short.
Also, the ending is left at yet ANOTHER cliff hanger, which leaves you wanting to play the third installment right away.
The graphics look excellent and the lip syncing is perfect, the facial expressions on each characters face can be clearly seen and you know exactly what their current emotion is, adding to the cinematic style of game play.
Which, by the way, is excellent.Each and every character in the game is regarded with the utmost detail, you have to play this game to see what a great job Crystal Dynamics have done with this game.The battle system is also something to marvel at, It's so eloquently laid out so that you can get to grips with it within minutes.
It's also fun to fight your enemies as while you're in battle with them they shout out things at you like:''I'll send you to hell vampire!''''I'll free your soul!''''Return to hell!''The characters have so much depth and personality, that at times you forget they're just graphics with people doing their voice.
This game also contains about as much special features as a 2 disc DVD film (The features are earned by completing the game).The only bad thing I have to say about this game is that the save system is a bit frustrating, not the actual saving, but the various dungeons/temples are quite challenging (which is good,) but, unlike in Soul Reaver, which I only bought after playing through Soul Reaver 2, it doesn't save your progress in the dungeons, you cannot save anywhere like you could in the first Soul Reaver.There are a range of power-ups and modifications you can make to your primary weapon, the soul reaver, by completing the various forges, you can add elements to your reaver to help you in other situations (like melting ice with the fire reaver, for instance) and to kill enemies with.
As i said this game has so much depth, and each and every cinematic is excellent and professionally laid out (Soul Reaver 2's directing is considered movie quality) which is most probably where you would get most of the reply value, to view these excellent cinematics over and over again.
There are practically no loading times in Soul Reaver either, you can literally just turn on your PS2 and begin playing in minutes, so if you love your games with great story lines, graphics, game play and an all-round good time, then I advise you to and get this quick!.
You Must Buy This Game!.
I am the most cynical, pedantic and down right pickiest person when it comes to my entertainment.
To get an idea just how much, read my "Superman Returns" thread.
Taking that in mind, my review of this game is as follows.
Soul Reaver 2 can be described if necessary in only one word, PERFECT.
Story, graphics and playability are unmatched by any other game that was around at the time.
Soul Reaver was amazing but had far too much "Tomb Raider esquire" block pushing.
The sequel however, much like Tomb Raider 2, took that on board and replaced a lot of this with thought out puzzles and gripping action.This is one of those rare occasions when game developers deserve your money.
But me being me i have to say something critical.
To really get the most out of this game, play the PC version.
Playstation owners are limited by a set resolution and poor filtering.So in conclusion, get a decent PC and then buy this game..
A beautiful game, a captivating story.
After playing the original Soul Reaver, I wasn't very enthusiastic about the sequel, given the sad and chronic habit that sequels have of not living up to their predecessors.
Much to my suprise and delight, Soul Reaver 2 not only met my expectations, it surpassed my hopes.
At most, I expected a good conclusion to the abrupt ending of the original.
What I got in addition to that was an engaging roleplaying game, some of the most beautiful graphics I've ever seen on a console, and a story that got me incredibly excited for the next installment.The game, to be fair, is a little disappointing in two respects.
First, it has a feeling of being unfinished.
Not surprising, as the production was somewhat rushed to switch the technical platform from the PSX to the PS2.
In the game, there are four elemental forges that Raziel activates, and there looks to be three additional ones set up in the game that seemed to not make it under the wire.
Secondly, the game's running time is rather short.
Most players seem to have finished the game in about ten hours, give or take, where the original Soul Reaver took much longer.But to balance that out is incredible graphic artwork - Nosgoth in its past eras is brought to life in a way matched by no other game I've seen.
The voice acting is unparalleled: Michael Bell, Simon Templeman, Paul Lukather, Richard Doyle, Anna Gunn and especially Rene Auberjunois have given their characters a depth of vitality and realism that make the experience even more engaging and make the player forget for a while that it's just a game.
Everything accomplished by the technical and artistic teams, however, have served to provide a beautiful setting for a truly fascinating tale, a story that has clearly been in the works since the very beginning of the series and is just as clearly not fully revealed...
and I'm not going to reveal it here.
You're going to have to buy the game just like I did..
Lush, Involving and even better than than it's predecessor..
Starting where the previous game left off (even going so far as to use a redone version of that game's end sequence as an intro) Soul Reaver 2 drops you head first into Raziel's quest for revenge against his vampire maker Kain.The game looks far better than the original even though that is much to do with this being the series' first outing on the PS2.
The gameplay and controls are still as intuitive as before (tomb raider take note) and the fabulous involving storyline is more apparent than ever.
The story takes Raziel from Nosgoth's past to its near future and ancient history.
I won't say more as the story rally should be seen and played to appreciate its epic scale.The voice over work is again worthy of broadway theatre with Michael Bell, Simon Templeman and Rene Auberjonois doing outstanding work as Raziel, Kain and Janos respectively.The only gripe about this game is that if you played the first one to completion you may find this a bit too easy and quick to complete.
Don't let that stop you though.
If you own a PS2 or a fairly high spec PC then buy this.
You will not regret it and you will go back to the story again and again..
Not Nearly as Good as the First.
While the enhanced graphics of the PS2 have given Soul Reaver 2 one advantage over its predecessor, it falls short in every other aspect.The plot is not nearly as engaging as before.
There are one or two nice twists, but for the most part, you'll wonder why you're going where you are.The inventive boss battles of the first game are long gone.
Instead, you're faced with endless battles with what essentially boils down to only 4 enemies.The puzzles have been greatly dumbed down as well.
Now, they amount to no more than taking an item from point A to point B.If you simply MUST play this game....rent it..
Amazing game!
(Somewhat spoiler to).
The story for this game has many curves and twists so its important to pay attention at all times!
This is an important game to play if you've played as Kain in the Legacy of Kain series because it gives another perspective from a former Sarafan's view.
His name is Raziel and some have even called him a do gooder as an insult.
I think he is in fact somewhat like Hamlet.
He is confused about his destiny and what's the right or wrong thing to do.
He has different people/gods/vampires telling him what to do.
Who is he to listen to?
Who's telling the truth and who's just trying to use him?
I won't throw the ending though cause it's a powerful ending and you'll have to earn that!
This game is a must for Kain fans!