Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a third person/action game with puzzles and a moderate quality combat system. The game was originally developed on the PSone hardware, with positive sales the game was ported to the Dreamcast with spruced up visuals.

Gameplay: 6/10
The whole game is the same here as on the Playstation with nothing optimized to run on the Dreamcast. You play as Raziel who at the beginning of the game is unfairly cast into the Lake of the Dead. With the water burning your skin like acid you plummet to the bottom of the lake. When after an unknown time you stop falling you find that you have no skin left and your wings are tattered but you can still move, your mission is to get even with Kain. What else would be there to do? Response to the button commands is moderate but controlling Raziel for some maneuvers can become tiresome.

Sound: 5/10
Sound quality is average at best and doesn’t do any boasting at all. The voice effects are bad and do not improve your enjoyment of the game. Combat effects such as the clash of weapons of the slaying of a creature are quite good but again other games do the sound section so much better.

Graphics: 6/10
While LOK:SR is clearly a port across from the PSone version things on screen have been improved slightly. The levels whilst not well textured or smooth do look sharper on the Dreamcast’s hardware. A range of somewhat dark colours are used to texture the levels which suits the dark mood of the game. Which is better than having primary colours flashing up on the screen. Special effects are also good, an example would be Raziel entering a portal to another world.

Replay Value: 6/10
Legacy of Kain may have a fair amount of gameplay in it, there is not enough variation to warrant several replays through the game. Once you have worked out the route to progress playing the level again seems shallow and unrewarding.

Overall: 6/10
An above average platform adventure with okay graphics and mediocre gameplay. The game can sometimes be difficult and sometimes easy. Game progression is not too linear due to the level design and the unclearness of certain puzzles.

Get it or Leave it?
That’s a tough call! Seeing as it is an average game and not too terrible to play. If you like third person/adventure games then you might as well invest. Also if you missed the game on Playstation you should give it a try. But if it doesn’t sound like you then it probably isn’t so don’t bother.