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Archive IGNDC Interviews Crystal Dynamics' Andrew Bennett at IGN

"An interview with the vampire maker. Sounds spooky, don't it?"[1]

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Under any ordinary circumstances, having the life sucked out of you would be a bad thing, a certain vampire named Kain came along and changed all that. In an effort to capitalize on their success, Crystal Dynamics followed up their initial entry into vampy vengeance with Soul Reaver on PlayStation and Dreamcast.

The game took flight like so many blood-thirsty bats and Eidos has wisely decided to do a little secondary soul sucking in the form of Soul Reaver 2 this Spring. We were lucky enough to sit down with Andrew Bennett, Executive Producer, Legacy Of Kain series over at Crystal Dynamics to find out why this title will suck even more than the last one...we mean that in a good way, of course.

IGN DC: When the original Soul Reaver hit the Dreamcast, you guys really managed to surprise a lot of people with the job you did on the conversion. This time, however, you're building the game from the ground up with next generation consoles in mind. What sort of changes will this bring about for Soul Reaver 2?

Andrew Bennett: Our Soul Reaver PS1 engine streamed nearly all content straight from the CD as the player explored the world. This meant that on average we were only holding an average of 3 or 4 rooms' worth of geometry, textures, objects, music, sound effects and animations in memory, compared with a normal engine which would have had to use the same memory for an entire level of the game. Streaming therefore meant that we already had content which was essentially of Dreamcast standards. However, we still looked at what needed to be upgraded and did more work, especially on Raziel, Kain and the special effects. We then used the extra power of the Dreamcast to give us a near-constant 60fps compared with the average of around 25fps which we were getting on PS1. We got great reviews throughout the press because our Dreamcast version wasn't the traditional port ¿ it looked and played like a Dreamcast original title.
On Soul Reaver 2 we've already cleared a lot of our technical hurdles (memory issues, streaming, frame rate) and the extra power of the next generation systems allows us to really concentrate on making a great game, with great content and a deep story. For example, the extra power allows us to have many more bones to articulate the faces of our main characters (for instance, there are about 30 bones in Kain's face alone vs. 40 for his entire body last time) to be used for lip and gesture-syncing, giving much more life to our in-game cinematics and broadening the player's enjoyment of the storyline.

IGN DC: Speaking of hardware performance, you guys are on your second go 'round with the Dreamcast. Is this experience helping you squeeze more power out of the system? What can we expect in terms of poly counts, frame rate, and the like?

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AB: For Soul Reaver 2, we're not held back by PS1 and so we're able to upgrade all our content constraints without sacrificing 60fps. For example, Raziel is now around 3,000 polygons vs. 500 last time on PS1 and 800 on DC. The environments are roughly 8-10 times denser in terms of polys with around the same increase in the number of textures.

IGN DC: Soul Reaver 2 is currently slated to simultaneously hit the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, and we've been told that the port will be limited by the strengths and weaknesses of both systems. What sort of advantages has the Dreamcast brought to the table, and conversely, have you had to hold back anything the Ps2 could have done because of the DC's less powerful hardware?

AB: We're keeping a pretty good balance between the two consoles. Early on, we were concerned that we'd have to adopt a "lowest common denominator" approach to stay within the constraints of both platforms, but that hasn't been the case at all. The Dreamcast programmers have really managed to push the DC engine to the limits and in just about every way it's keeping up with the PS2.

IGN DC: While all those bells and whistles are neat, what about the meat of the game? We know Raziel is sporting some new moves. Can you tell us a bit about what's different from a control standpoint? What's all this about new reavers?

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AB: In Soul Reaver 2, Raziel starts out with the Soul Reaver blade and all of the physical abilities that he gained in SR1, such as swimming and scaling walls. The new mechanics in Soul Reaver 2 are based on a number of elemental Reaver "forgings" or enhancements acquired over the course of the game. For example, equipping the Air Reaver makes Raziel lightweight and enables him to glide farther, activate updraft plinths, and blast through corroded elements. An important difference in SR2 is that all the new abilities are required to finish the game.

IGN DC: The bosses in the original were truly something to behold. Can we expect the same type of madness with Soul Reaver 2? What about their henchmen? Will there be more variety this time around? Even gamers get bored cutting up the same 'ole bad guys...

AB: We decided early on that Soul Reaver 2 wouldn't be a traditional 'complete a level, fight a boss' type of game. This time around the game progresses more like a novel or a film, with Raziel's quest punctuated by crucial events and encounters which could be called 'epic sequences' -- some of these are gameplay-based and some are story-based.
The enemies themselves are more varied in SR2 than the standard devolved vampires in SR1. Over the course of his journey, Raziel encounters human, demonic and undead foes, in addition to vampires and spectral creatures.

IGN DC: And puzzles? Though we loved the first game, we couldn't help but feel like an undead stock-boy after a while? Will we see new sub-quests and puzzle types to keep the action fresh?

AB: One of the major complaints of Soul Reaver was that Raziel seemed to really love moving blocks around all day. For Soul Reaver 2, the programmers have spent a lot of time generalizing the puzzle and object-interaction systems into more of a 'lock & key' paradigm, and have given this to the Designers as part of their layout "toolbox".
A 'key' can be something as simple as a key which opens a door, but usually it's more complex -- for example, a reflecting mirror that has to be found, carried across the level and placed in a receptacle (the 'lock') to enable light to be bounced through a room as part of another puzzle.
This generalized system means that we've really opened up the range of puzzles that our Designers can include, which means the player is stretched further and enjoys the experience more, rather than just seeing a block and thinking 'OK, where do I need to slide this into'.

IGN DC: Speaking of things about Soul Reaver that bugged the snot out of most gamers, the cliff-hanger ending didn't sit too well with those who were really getting sucked in to the story. Where will Soul Reaver 2's plot take us? Will the ending make us pull out our hair yet again?

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AB: Having to have such a sudden ending to Soul Reaver was far from ideal and something which bothered the team as much as the fans of the game. It's a pity that players remember the ending so strongly ¿ hopefully it doesn't detract too much from their overall enjoyment of the fantastic storyline that was woven in with the gameplay throughout the rest of the game.
Those outside the team who have been told the story for Soul Reaver 2 think it's awesome. There are a number of 'Oh My Gosh' moments in there where things fall into place and your understanding of Nosgoth's history expands exponentially. The ending of the Soul Reaver 2 is one of those moments.
Soul Reaver finished with Raziel meeting Moebius, an ancient, powerful sorcerer who has the power to manipulate time. Soul Reaver 2 starts with Raziel pursuing Kain back in time, through Nosgoth's history. Raziel will visit many eras and locations, which are familiar to fans of the Legacy of Kain series, and he will play a role in key moments of Nosgoth's history.
IGN DC: What about the delivery? Will the same voice acting crew reprise their roles? Can we expect as many scripted events and in-game cinemas to help carry the plot?

AB: The Legacy of Kain series, especially Soul Reaver, has always received great reviews for its voice acting. Soul Reaver 2 will continue this tradition with the same voice actors reprising their earlier roles.
Soul Reaver 2 will heavily feature in-game cinematics to tell the story and these will drive the player on his quest. In addition, this time around, we're using more visual indications of the story background such as murals and incidental objects which support the fiction.

IGN DC: Is anything we're forgetting? Any programmers developing weird blood-sucking habits? Want to tell us all about Blood Omen 2? What about your favorite spooky story? Tips for bites from rabid bats?

AB: Blood Omen II (working title) is our other Legacy of Kain game, which another team at Crystal Dynamics is working on. It features Kain as the main character and follows his adventures about 200 years after the original game Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. It's due out for Christmas 2001 on PS2.

IGN Dreamcast would like to thank Andrew Bennett very much for his valuable time and wish him and the Soul Reaver 2 team the best of luck.
―IGN[1]

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