Development
Soul Reaver entered development alongside Blood Omen 2 in 1997 and focused on puzzle solving instead of Blood Omen 2's action. During design, the development team created larger areas that could be explored more thoroughly as Raziel acquired new powers, avoiding the "shallow" of Blood Omen's layout. Crystal Dynamics based Soul Reaver on Silicon Knights' research of vampire mythology for Blood Omen. Other aspects of the game, such as the idea of a fallen vampire who devoured souls, were inspired by the epic poem "Paradise Lost". The staff aimed to develop gameplay similar to Tomb Raider and used an upgraded version of Gex 3's game engine to generate the three-dimensional game world. Before Soul Reaver's release, the relationship between Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics dissolved. Because their research was used, Silicon Knights filed an injunction to stop further promotion of the game. Other delays pushed the release date from October 1998 to August 1999.
These delays forced Crystal Dynamics to cut significant game material, including additional powers for Raziel, a third battle with Kain, and an expanded Glyph system which would have given elemental powers to the Soul Reaver. In an interview, series director Amy Hennig stated that the development team split the original, much larger plans in two after realizing that they had "over-designed the game", given the constraints on time and data. This decision explains Soul Reaver's cliffhanger ending and the appearance of originally planned material in later games. Despite the split, Hennig explained that the team left unused components—such as extra power-ups and enemies—in Soul Reaver's game engine to avoid unforeseen glitches that might have arisen from their removal.
Read more about this topic: Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver
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