Having just recently played through the SR1 and SR2 remasters and wanting more of the story, I bought this fairly immediately and continued my journey through Nosgoth to see what fate had in store for Kain and Raziel. At the very least, the game's narrative exhibits a similar level of quality from its predecessors even if I felt some parts were a bit slow. The conclusion was a bit bittersweet given that the likelihood a sequel will be made is near zero. I really felt that the execution of uniting Raziel and Kain by cleansing the soul reaver by absorbing Ariel and then later on, Raziel willingly gives his life to cleanse Kain's corruption and allow him to finally complete his destiny with the completed reaver was so well done. I did not really expect this turn of events. Other points like Moebius being shown the true form of the Elder God in the spectral realm by Raziel or Janos being possessed by the Hylden Lord. Or the fight with Turel who threw Raziel into the pit at the beginning of SR1 but was noticeably absent in SR1. The game really does a great job at weaving all these seemingly disconnected events throughout the series and showing you how they connect and influence subsequent events in the timeline. I felt that storytelling really rewarded you when you paid attention.

Now, we come to the part that I did not like much. The gameplay... While it was in most respects leagues better than SR1 and 2, it was still pretty lackluster. I think some of this is due in part to the control scheme, where it felt really difficult to pull off anything other than your standard 3 button combo or using a launcher ala DMC to do some air combo. The telekinesis for both was nice but it was difficult to push enemies onto objects to instantly kill them because the control scheme goes against what you'd naturally expect in this game. I never quite got used to it which made combat more annoying than it might have been. It was also more annoying in the case of Raziel to switch to the spectral realm. I would often prime a switch and then it would be nullified because I was used to just pressing the button rather than holding it like it was here. The other part about the combat and gameplay that was annoying was certain groups of enemies (the demons for example) just hit way too hard and are obnoxious as hell when a group of them come at you.

Ultimately, I think this is still worth playing because the story really is that good but like I mentioned in my SR1/SR2 review, if its exhausting to play, just watch a Youtube cutscene compilation as opposed to playing this. I also don't think I would recommend this at full price either. Definitely with a discount.

fantastic game love this series so glad they remastered it can play with the new graphics or the old graphics by clicking the right stick down

the same but now remastered and better than ever