Friday 30 August 2013

Soul Revenant FAQ update and screenshots

 We have been asked so many times in the last few months about the status of Soul Revenant and I am sorry I couldn´t post anything new earlier. I have been very busy but finally I got some free time to fully start working on Soul Revenant and made some progress.

Today I can finally reveal some new screenshots and information about the game. If you have any further questions, feel free to leave a comment.
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What is this project and why are you doing it?

Ever since I have learned about the deleted content and the ending of Soul Reaver, I craved to roam those areas. I had many dreams where I was trying to find the entrance to the Undercity or got lost on a search for Kain´s Mountain Retreat.

Most of this content was cut due to time restraints and hardware limitations, but I always wondered, what would the game be like if there hadn´t been any?

For years I was waiting, but it became clear that the game will never be remade as its sequels were produced. We want the game to be like a sister project to Blood Omnicide, and we think now it is a good time re-introduce this game back onto pc platform, in the wake of the release of a new mp game War for Nosgoth.

Our goal is not to surpass the original Soul Reaver, which would be impossible due to the amount of work needed, but to honour it. Only Dreamcast got a superior version back in 2000 and ever since, it never came to the pc.

The second main aim is to include the much eluded cut levels like the Undercity, Turel´s lair and the Mountain Retreat back into the game. Reconstructing them won´t be easy, as there are only few scraps of concept art, dialogue, videos and screenshots left. I will do my best to bring them back in form as close as possible to the original intentions of the authors.

The name and idea of Soul Revenant has been conceived by Jake and I took upon myself to direct this project since he is busy with Prodigal Sons and his other games. He is still on the team and helping out a lot.
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Are you using the same engine as Soul Reaver had?

No,  it´s running on a commercial engine (3D game studio) which does not have the limitation of original Soul Reaver (It has its own in return, though) and the game is being built using some of the assets from Soul Reaver1, 2 and Defiance and rest is custom models.  Game´s code is being written from scratch to play and behave like the original Soul Reaver game by our programmer.
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Will it still play the same?

Bear in mind that certain things could not be achieved only mimicked to best of our ability, as being a team of three people with no budget can only go so far. We did invest a lot of time into this project so I hope you will commend our efforts. We cannot reach the professional level of quality of the original Soul Reaver, but at least try to achieve a similar experience. Certain gameplay changes will be necessary but we will do our best to direct them in a manner which won´t interfere with the current gameplay mechanics.
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What would I need to play this?

In order to play Soul Revenant, you must legally own Soul Reaver 1, 2 and Defiance. It will require a simple check for these games on your hard drive, to prevent any legal problems (just like in the case with Blood Omnicide). We are using updated Raziel, Kain and Ariel models from Defiance which had been modified by me and retextured by the Hylden and the Pillars and Sluagh models are from SR2. Everything else is either from SR1 or custom made.
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Will there be a demo?

Yes, we plan a demo release and some trailer/gameplay video later.
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How far along is it and when it will be done?

So far it has been in development for two weeks and is being worked on almost daily. It´s still in a very early stage of development and lots of stuff is unfinished or temporary, so please bear that in mind when looking at the screenshots below.

We got a basic movement for keyboard&mouse and joypad input, character can run, jump, glide, attack, crouch, devour souls and shift realms. Animations need work but for now, we focus on making it playable at first, polish stuff later. I´ll post updates as the development goes further along.

As for the environments, Underworld, the path from Pillars Sanctuary to Abyss is done, for both spectral and material realms. They are currently just placed in the game, no additional models or decoration are in yet. The phase which we are in now is the assembly of the levels and programming all necessary actions for the game to work properly.

For a release date, I think when it´s done approach is best and updates will let you know how we are progressing.
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How is it an improvement over the original pc release?

In certain areas, it can never match the original game (e.g. animations), however, we strive to bring it as close as possible with certain improvements in mind:

- higher polygon characters and enemies
- improved distance visibility
- high res textures and menus
- additional level decoration
- includes the full soundtrack which was omitted in the pc release
- includes the cut levels, dialogue, abilities and story
- subtitles with language choice option
- gameplay changes (less block puzzles)
- lip sync
- bosses revamped
- enemies´ health and strength will vary
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Will it run on my pc?

Hardware-wise, this game won´t be too taxing on your pc, so you should be able to play this on most pcs with Windows.
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Is it for free?

Yes, there is no need to pay for anything BUT you must own the original Legacy of Kain games. If you do not have them yet, get them from GOG.com
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Can I help?
Yes, you can by submitting and contributing your ideas as how to improve the original gameplay of SR (ideas for puzzles, interactions, levels, etc.). You will be credited for any contributions which helped the development of this game. You can send your ideas and suggestions to ancientvampire(at)centrum.sk
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The SoulRev Team:

The team consist of me as a director and designer (doing basically everything except programming), programmer Kelly (which tackles all the issues with the code and the engine) and Jake Pawloski, who helps out with lot of additional art, textures and ideas.
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Disclaimer:

This is a non-profit, non-commercial project made by fans for fans of Legacy of Kain. We do not claim any ownership of the original game ideas, story, mechanics or assets. All of the original content is a copyright of their respective owners, e.g. Square Enix/Eidos and Crystal Dynamics.
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Screenshots:

58 comments:

  1. Dear Soul Revenant Team! :) Thank you very much for developing such a Game and thank you Raina for posting New information. I want to give you a small idea to the gameplay: Could you make the different members of the clans more different in strength? For example, the turelim vampire could take like 16 Hits and deals even more damage than in the original than the melchiahim vampire, which takes 6 hits. I would appreciate a wider spectrum of power and health of each vampire. Thank you very much!

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    1. Hello, dear LOK fan!

      Yes, that´s already part of the plan - I want to make them various strength levels since stronger vampires like Turelim shouldn´t be so easy to kill. This will give additional variety to combat I think :) Enemies will be worked on once the main tasks are finished.

      Thanks for the suggestion!

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  2. Un projet ambitieux mais avec un sacré potentiel ! Prévoyez-vous de mettre à disposition une démo qui contiendrait, par exemple, le premier niveau du jeu ?

    Je me demande ce que je pourrais faire pour vous donner un coup de main.

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    1. Hello, yes, it is ambitous, but I am determined to finish it. We plan to release an Underworld demo once the main systems are fully done and all animations and cutscenes are in place. If you have any ideas on how to improve the original SR game, feel free to email me. I have already thought of some myself, but I might not think of everything.

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  3. Hello, it's me again! Thanks for answering my question about the strenght and health of the vampires. One more question: Will Turel use two or four feet for moving? :D

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    1. Oh, and will there be health and magic upgrades in Turel's territory and in Kain's Mountain Retreat? ;)

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    2. Cool, np :) Turel will be biped, since he did not devolve to that state yet. His model is ready for the most part

      About the magic upgrades - I am not sure yet, but I do want to add some collectibles to those areas :)

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  4. The screens look great,another thing to look forward to.


    Here are my suggestions:

    *Is a map screen planned for this version?

    *Will the mouse be used to control the camera around Raziel?(for examples of what I mean,see Psychonauts or Alice:Madness Returns..)

    *Do you think it's possible to fix the sound loop bug in Soul Reaver for this version?

    *Suggestion for Rahab ,he seemed very passive in the fight,should have more attacks.

    *Spectral Realm in boss rooms should have more enemies,more aggressive.

    *Make enemies faster so you need to rely more on the dodge move.

    *Make enemies able to open doors to chase you.


    I never played the DC/PSX versions,but from the descriptions I've read in this site at least,it can only improve the original,I hope so.

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    1. Thanks for the comment, Remotful.

      1. Yes, we plan to add a world map
      2. Yes, we already have fully working setup for keyboard + mouse for the camera control (today we added zoom so you can put the camera futher or closer to Raziel).
      3. No existing bugs will be carried over from Soul Reaver.
      4. Yes, that´s a good idea to improve battle with Rahab, I´ll see what I can about it.
      5. That´s a really good idea, we might make wraiths more aggresive and stronger in general.
      6. Not sure if we can achieve this, but I´ll see what I can do.

      PS1 version has very low visibility and lock onto 30fps, which drops in bigger areas. DC is probably the best, but I personally do not like the replacement models as much for Raziel and Kain.

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  5. WladimirIljitsch02 September, 2013 11:19

    Hello, Raina! Thank you again for the answer! After reading Remotful's comment I decided to add some ideas to the bosses Melchiah,Zephon and Dumah. You make this game not for new players, but for fans like me who played this excellent game quite often, therefore I think you should make Raziel's brothers even harder to defeat, so the game would become a challenge again and I would love that! Here are some ideas to the bosses:

    1. Melchiah:
    - make him a little faster, therefore he would more scary
    - allow him to be in the spectral realm for some time so he can surprise you by shifting back in another place but not too far away ( maybe 3-5 metres ;) )

    2. Zephon:
    - Let zephonims to come out of the eggs if you are too late
    - Let his claws( not his four legs) to stun you, therefore he will be more effective at close range by dealing you multiple times of damage
    - Allow his 4 legs to throw you up to him

    3. Dumah:
    - Make him faster
    - Let his Circle attack to deal much more damage and his claws more damage
    - Make his earth attackes unpredictable and faster, allowing you less time to react
    - Give him a similar spectral ambush attack like melchiah
    - Alow him to do a claw attack combo
    - Let him only die by burning if he is only the center of the room, not of he is anywere else there like in the original
    - Let him to pursue you to the gas AND the fire mechanism so it will be harder to get him into the center

    I understand if my ideas may be technically impossible but I would appreciate your work really well if you could do that! Thank you again!

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    1. Hey Wladimir, thanks for all those suggestions. I totally agree with you that boss encounter should be beefed out and more difficult to battle.

      I love the idea for Melchiah - that will add additional tention when he is chasing.

      Using Zephon´s legs to stun you is great idea, that is definitely doable. Since vampires are sterile, not sure if the eggs containing zephonim would really work though.

      I was thinking the same things for Dumah, speed him up. I like your idea of the earth attacks to be faster. Yeah, being in the center of the room makes sense.

      I´ll see what we can achieve! Thank you all for suggestions! We got ledge grab done and footstep sounds.

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  6. WladimirIljitsch03 September, 2013 10:54

    Hey again! :D A third thanks for answering ;)!
    The problem with Dumah is that he dies in the room even if he isn't in the middle. That makes it in the original game too easy to defeat him. And Dumah has a bug: He doesn't follow you up to the fire switch and therefore you get him all the time too easy in the room because he burns every time even not being in the middle. I suggest you don't him to die when he is not in the middle ( maybe you let him laugh :D). Yeah, and some claw combo attacks would be nice for punishing you for not reacting to his earth attacks ;).

    Question: How will the fight with Turel look, could you tell a little bit about that or does it remain completely secret for now? :)

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    1. You are welcome :) Yeah, it´s too easy like that. Setting it that he has to be in the middle of the room shouldn´t be too hard I think.

      I have uploaded a new screen of brethren so take a look :)
      I am still currently debating on how fight with Turel would play out - since battle with Morlock is basically the same thing just on a smaller scale. I was imagining it to have like a huge cauldron of water below the arena (used for cooling the furnace in the smokestack or something) and Raziel has to cut ropes/chains which hold the platform Turel is on. Of course Turel would be attacking you and trying to throw you off while you do that, so it won´t be easy. Something like this I think.

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    2. Hey Raina! It's Vampmaster from the Eidos forums. I was thinking the fight with Turel should take advantage of his poor eyesight (he's probably not blind at this point in his evolution) and his telekinesis. He should be at his deadliest close up when he can see you and when you're far away, he should use a combination of his TK and charging at the player. He would gradually damage the area so much that he would destroy the floor and fall into a reservoir or something. Wasn't his territory connected to the Undercity by a tunnel or something.

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    3. It would be ironic if he fell into a whirlpool that looked a bit like the abyss.

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  7. WladimirIljitsch03 September, 2013 13:32

    Wow!!! Turel is so good! Well done! Looking forward to further updates! :)

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  8. Hay Raina :D first! I want to say, who ever was in charge of (upgrading) raziels scarf THANK YOU!!!!! I hated how in defiance it was almost skin tight >:( also, I find it increadible how you guys created turel's skin because from the consept it almost looked as if he had a set of 4 horns. did you guys created his model from ground up or was there hidden code within the game and you just finished his model to what he could of looked like?

    ALex :)

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    1. Hey Alex,

      I did his cowl, thaks! :D yeah it was a bit too tight, I wanted to bring it closer to the original SR1 renders. Turel´s skin was available for download together with high res skins for Melchiah and Zephon (some body parts are missing though). For Turel I used an adult Turelim and put that high res skin on him and it matches :)

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  9. WladimirIljitsch04 September, 2013 18:47

    Who is actually stronger in cour combat concept, Turel or Dumah? :D
    Are there already parts of Turel's clan territory ready? If there are, could you be so kind and post them? :)

    Could you explain the game mechanics of the lava in Turel's clan territory in concept, will it be dangerous or useful?

    Besides that, I can't express my appreciation for the two images of the brothers. I feel like taking one of the big brothers and let him fight against the others :D .


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    1. I would say Turel, as he replaced Raziel as second-in-command. No, those additional areas will have to come last :)

      I think lava will instantly send you to the spectral realm if you land on it or touch, so that will add additional challenge, since at that point Raziel can already swim.

      :) np, glad you like the pics! Haha, yes, I am still debating if Turel should be the same height as Dumah though. What do you think?

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  10. WladimirIljitsch05 September, 2013 18:57

    I think he should be even higher :D In my opinion between the height of Dumah and Zephon, maybe closer to Zephon :) And of course wider ;)

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  11. WladimirIljitsch05 September, 2013 19:04

    Maybe a little bigger than the length of Rahab :)

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    1. Heh, I see, though I don´t want him to make him too big as he devolved further into bigger form later in Defiance :)

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    2. WladimirIljitsch06 September, 2013 14:58

      Will this game be playable not Englisch versions of the game?

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    3. WladimirIljitsch06 September, 2013 15:12

      To be honest , I think Turel's height is pretty good for this state of evolution but maybe it should be a LITTLE bit bigger, very close to Rahab's length :)

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    4. If fans provide us with script in other languages, yes, it will.

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  12. WladimirIljitsch10 September, 2013 18:37

    Hello! It's me again! :) Could you give Raziel the weapons of the vampire hunters ( Yeah, the flamethrower :D) but with maybe limited ammo?

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    1. That´s an interesting option.. The game will have certain things which were possible in the beta, so I don´t see why not. Flamethrower sounds like fun! :D

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    2. WladimirIljitsch13 September, 2013 15:38

      Will there be portals for travelling in Turel's territory and Kain's Mountain Retreat?
      Could you allow Raziel to kill Rahabim vampires in the water? :D And also add some more enemies to the spectral realm if it is possible, please. Let also the Turelim vampires to hear you far away and even if you are walking slowly and not loudly.

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    3. Yes, there will be portals to those areas. About Rahabim - not entirely sure, we will think of something. Yeah, all vampires will have different stats.

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    4. Ahh you see originally the Sunlight, Ariel and Kain reaver's could cook them swiming suckers even underwater :D Load up the SR1 debug menu on the PC version with a trainer, and start your new career as the most badass undead wraith angler the land of nosgoth has ever seen :D like im sure Raina already has

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  13. Hi there Raina! Wow, just wow. Just recently I found your posts about SR being the most ambitious game ever and I was saying "Damn, some indie devs or modders should do a custom game with the help of the original devs with the ommited content..." BAM! Got this page... Seriously, since I knew what SR missed... I made my own ideas of zones, bossess and everything... I'll be watching closely this project and If I have a good idea, I'll tell you. First idea, a Raziel vampire form bonus for people who beat the game (just a skin, nothing more). Most people would love that probably. Anyways, thank for the effort !!! All the SR comunity will be happy finally!

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    1. Oh! Sorry to repost, but I saw something I can help with... If you send me the script on english, I can translate it to spanish no prob on my spare time. I played the game on spanish so I know what kind of words they used and what manners of speach. I know most of the dialogue will be exactly the same, but the new areas need translations.

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    2. Hey Karlos :) Haha, thanks, cool. Yeah, I´d like some good ideas :) I will think about Lieut. Raziel as an unlockable skin. Sure, there is script on the Nosgoth.net. Isn´t there a Spanish version of the game already? Not sure if there is an existing transcript of it though, if not, that would be great if you could translate :) They recorded all of the dialogue (even the cut one) for the game, so it is just a matter of getting the sound files from the language version of the game.

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    3. I think the secret areas are not recorded outside english. And yeah, there was a spanish version (with a pretty good voices) but thats the thing, the new areas that you will make wont have extra dialogue apart from the cut one? And as said, the cut one needs some translating. It would be easy, I've heard those cut parts like a bazillion times xDD

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  14. Karlos - yes, they are. I have a friend who confirmed this, so it seems all of the dialogue was recorded at once and is part of the files.

    Anonymous - uhm, thanks :D

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  15. I hope you guys finish this project! Thanks a lot, I was 9 years old when I first played soul reaver 1 and I look foward to doing it again. Maybe after all those years I can finally beat this =D. Thanks and keep up the good work, the screenshots looks great so far

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  16. Hi

    Will this work with the Steam versions too?
    I have SR1 on GOG,but SR2 and Defiance on Steam.

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  17. this may serve you, perhaps because you saw it, or it is material that you have, sorry for not Put me in contact, did not have internet, although I do not gain much ... lol well, whatever, saludooss = D
    ... would be perfect, as discussed above one Razielim here in the game in some secret room .. xD or idk if maybe and you're in that xD. very good job!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn6yWR1tS_o&noredirect=1
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P13pS9SnHQw
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a38FnpcGkq8
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JED_hPsqCFE
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRUeHTXPjBw

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    1. Hey, thanks for the links! Np, I was busy as well. haha, yeah would be cool to catch a glimpse of a surviving Razielim, pretty nice idea.. I´ll think about it :)

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  18. Really hoping to play this when it's done :3 Excellent work. Keep it up!

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  19. Why not, just for giggles, have an encounter with a surviving Razielim, and helps his former lieutenant to reach inaccessible areas?
    Or you can do a boss encounter, a fight with a flying enemy would be a royal pain.

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    1. I was actually thinking I *might* put a Razielim somewhere in the game... we will see ;) but not a boss encounter, as that was not part of the game.

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  20. Is remake, mod or Update of Soul Reaver ?

    Can you play or patch is needed ?

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    1. In the released demo version, you can play it as it is. However, for final version you will need the original games to play (as I use content from them).

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    2. And to answer the first question - it is a full remake.

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  21. Wow man, this is just great and amazing, you touched my heart dude, you know I have many things to tell you, about what can i do to help, some concept art. you know it is hard to express myself in a short way with such a great new, I've been a Lok fan since i was 5 and i think this is like part of me. Just 3 advices,
    *first one try not to use the soul reaver 2 style, that one is not the best one, you should do things like the first soul reaver(gothic style).
    * you probably know this thread, but anyways here it is if you haven't read it.. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=488564
    * answer me pls xD

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    1. Thanks for the comment, Renato!

      Not really sure what you mean not to use SR2 style - what exactly do you refer to?

      Yeah, I have seen that thread ;) I have done a lot of research as well and know what to do, don´t worry.

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    2. Oh i what i ment is this...

      Don't you ever noticed that SR 1 have like a creepy and gothic style in purpose? because you know nosgoth is devastated and all that stuff, enemies always have darker skins like if everyone were dirty.

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    3. Oh I see... well I´m faithfull to SR1 atmosphere, not SR2, since that is in a different era.

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  22. there is no way i can use the sr1 cd from ps1 and the sr2 and defiance dvd from ps2 right?

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  23. I like the idea: "Can I help ? You will be credited for any contributions which helped the development of this game." While trying to help on Blood Omnicide (and I really meant to contribute, with translations in two/three languages along with promoting artwork and upgrading Blood Omen's inside art - you know, icons, cards, so on), I was assured I'll never be credited for any shit - only the project's "founding members" were to get the laurels.

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  24. I am sorry to hear about your experience. Why would they not credit people for their own work on the project? It doesn't make sense to me and I definitely will credit everybody who helps me on my game :)

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