Graphics and Sound

Strong.

Graphics are definitely one of Soul Reaver's strong points. It isn't really that the graphics themselves are innovative; they're just good. No, the real star of this game's looks are all the fun special effects. The glowing Soul Reaver sword itself, the green outlines as Raziel passes through bars, monsters perishing in flames - there are plenty of fun, badass effects throughout the game.

Another area where graphics excel is in cutscenes. They're the same as the in-game graphics (save for the swanky rendered intro), but they're almost always well-shot and nice looking (aside form the fact that the characters don't move their lips when talking). In fact, our only graphical complaint isn't one that's very specific to Soul Reaver - it's a problem in tons of games these days. What is it? It's too friggin' dark! To be able to fully see the walls in some of the poorer-lit areas, we had to crank our monitor's brightness all the way up. Look, we know the land is NosGoth, but the whole gothy-dark thing is growing a little weary. It isn't cool and different if everyone is doing it.

Yummy

Burn baby burn

Hit and Miss

As usual, in-game sound is nothing special. Unless you have a burning desire to hear the pitter-patter of little soul-sucking feet, you're better off without it - almost. The one saving grace of Soul Reaver's audio scene is the voices in the cutscenes. Not only are the story and lines extremely well written (more so than any game we've played recently, and by far), but the voice acting is superb.

The voices are so creepy, in fact, that we at first mistook the voice of the Elder god for that of the same voice actor who did the dialogue for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. It isn't, but the actor (Tony Jay) has the same bone-chilling quality to his dialogue, and it's firmly in place within the context of the story. Kudos to Tony and the other vocalists.

He's dead, Jim

Big door