Compass

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The compass was a gameplay feature in Soul Reaver 2. It was a directional system which assisted Raziel in navigating Nosgoth.

Role
The Compass was an additional display designed to aid navigation. Compasses could be seen on official maps of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2, however only Soul Reaver 2 presented a compass within the game which could be accessed along with the World map or actively used in gameplay.

The compass rose was a part of the heads-up display in game, positioned in the upper-left corner of the screen as a semi-transparent dial. It displayed north, south, east, and west, and its needle always aligned with the direction associated with Raziel's present perspective, roatating as Raziel navigated the game world. It could prove useful in conjunction with the world map. When Raziel chose to examine his surroundings, the compass would always accurately display the direction he was currently facing, and align itself accordingly if he looked left or right. North was marked in red.

Unlike the map, the compass was not linked to the ring menu. Instead, it was usually passively visible in the top left corner of the interface. It was possible to disable its presence.

Background
Crystal Dynamics did not implement the compass feature in Soul Reaver 2 until some time after May 2000. Amy Hennig mentioned in an interview that it was introduced as a player aid, in response to criticism of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver that determining directions within the game world was difficult. She said, "we knew it was a problem, and it was just one of those things that just in the rush, we really have to get it out, we just said that's unfortunate, but there's nothing we can do about it. It's too big of a problem. [...] Well, what we're going to do is, we haven't done it yet, but we're going to put a compass on the screen". The world map was included for similar reasons.

Since its inception into the game, at least three different iterations of the compass display were tested before the final golden design was settled upon; as evidenced by the three versions of the compass that appear in pre-release images.

Appearances

 * Soul Reaver 2