Genre: Adventure
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Eidos Interactive

This reviewer had to place himself back into the heated days of the 3D accelerator wars to assess this title's visuals. No, there is not any "Unreal" volumetric fog, nor planar floor reflections. But the character models, in spite of this game being a port of a PlayStation title, fit in with the period. The texture resolution isn't the highest, but the Dreamcast's hardware filtering makes them look very clean. The game's parlor trick is the way the level geometry morphs and deforms when shifting between the game's two "realms"-- and it is a neat trick indeed. The title's world could have used more color, as the constant browns and grays become a little stale.

Soul Reaver uses all chip music, because it is constantly shifting the melodies around depending on what's happening during gameplay. Unfortunately, this game came out right in the phase when the industry was starting to move towards the modern-day Hollywood orchestra garbage-- so this reviewer can't even remember any of the songs from this game: the music isn't bad, but it just sits in the background, not contributing much. The game has various cut-scenes, and the voice acting is excellent. The title also does a good job of signaling enemy activity or respawning off-camera.

This game is a lot like the 3D "Legend of Zelda" titles: lite-combat with camera circle-strafe lock-on, mixed with puzzle-based game areas. Soul Reaver's designers apparently loved crates, as many of the puzzles involve moving and flipping giant blocks around into certain patterns. The world's zones are cleverly interconnected and can be re-visited via various teleporation rooms. The protagonist is a vampire, so upon stunning an enemy, the baddie needs to be thrown into water, fire, or impaled on a weapon to be "killed", upon which its soul can be collected in order to regain health. The camera is pretty fussy, but can be rotated with the d-pad; holding L + R activates a first-person "free look" mode. This reviewer played with a "claw"-style mostly, with his right thumb on the d-pad much of the time.

People who like titles such as "Ocarina of Time" will have a field day with Soul Reaver, as both games attempt to scratch the same itch: endorphin hits from solving puzzle-like areas, with some light combat thrown in. Where this game can be a bit of a let-down is in terms of its camera, which is seemingly always pointing in the wrong direction especially during combat; while the areas are too confusing for their own good, and almost need to be mapped out on paper to navigate. But the cool "realms"-shifting concept, the neat enemy finishing idea, and the unique game world are definite positives.