Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered - Switch Review
"A faithful remaster through and through"
The Legacy of Kain series is a classic that many from the late 90s/early 2000s look back on with immense fondness. While it's been dormant since its last release in 2003 with Legacy of Kain: Defiance, most fans gush over the Soul Reaver entries, with the first having been released on the original PlayStation and the sequel on PlayStation 2. Fast forward to late last year and Aspyr is back at it again with another faithfully remastered classic collection in Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered.
The Good
Remasters come in a variety of shapes and sizes (metaphorically speaking), but the idea is to make the game feel exactly the same but with a modern coat of paint. With that, I'm pleased to say that Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered achieves this in spades. With the click of the right analogue stick, you can immediately switch back and forth between the original graphics and the new remastered graphics.
Where the Legacy of Kain series shines is in its gripping storytelling and lore. The voice acting is marvelous and bone-chilling, with a gothic tone that'll transport you back to the early 2000s, providing nostalgic flashbacks of blasting The Cure CDs in your bedroom. If you've played the Legacy of Kain games, you know what I mean, but if you haven't, hoo boy you're in for a wild ride!
TL;DR
- A faithful remaster for purists
- Gripping storytelling and lore
The Bad
The nostalgia we feel for games we grew up with is powerful and we often look back on our childhood classics longing for the return of simpler times; however, as we delve back into these games after a decade or two, we see how necessary these evolutions in game design are. The PS1 & PS2 were technical marvels at the time, but there were long and tedious teething challenges when it came to fluid game design, especially for the original PlayStation. Playing the Legacy of Kain games feel like a chore, where even the simplest platforming and combat mechanics feel clunky and arduous. I missed way too many jumps, way too many attacks and way too many core mechanic examples for my liking within the first hour, and it didn't get much better from then onwards.
On top of this jankiness, the frustration continues to mount with the slew of block-pushing puzzles. This isn't to knock block-pushing games (or sokoban, as they're commonly referred to); rather, the early 3D console nature of these games combined with my previous gripes makes these all-too-frequent moments excruciating to work through.
For a large portion of both games, the combat felt almost entirely superfluous. The games are quite linear and despite some rooms requiring you to defeat each enemy to progress, more often than not, you can freely run past them with little to no consequence. Aside from wanting a challenge, there's no reason to engage in combat, and it’s precisely what I did due to how clunky and unrewarding the combat feels.
TL;DR
- PS1/2 jankiness
- Frustrating block puzzles
- Unnecessary combat
Final Score: 5/10
Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered delivers exactly what it promises and is a faithful remaster through and through. It's difficult to review games from both edges of two millenniums as I can only judge it based on how it holds up today and how I imagine those who have an emotional attachment to it from years past, but it's certainly a hard one to recommend in 2025. If anything, I feel as though there are plenty of talented indie developers who grew up with these games and are using modern engines to create smoother experiences today. So, if I were you, I'd look into those first, but if you're looking to play a game from your childhood, then this collection will absolutely provide that for you.
Thank you for checking out our Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered Switch review, thank you to Aspyr (via Five Star Games PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:
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