Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a 1999 action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive for the PlayStation and Windows.

Taking place 1500 years after the events of Blood Omen, Soul Reaver chronicles the journey of the vampire-turned-wraith Raziel, lieutenant to the vampire lord Kain.

[11] Combat in Soul Reaver is a hack and slash system, involving the use of combinations of various different attacks before a finishing move.

In the spectral realm, players fight minor enemies called Sluagh and the souls of dead vampires who have become wraiths.

[12] Human and spectral enemies can be killed with Raziel's claws or any weapon, but vampires must be bludgeoned into a stunned state and then destroyed by impaling them, setting them on fire, or tossing them into a hazard such as sunlight or water.

[13] When killed, enemies leave behind souls that replenish Raziel's health, which automatically decreases in the material realm and increases in the spectral.

Players can find an ancient relic that gives Raziel the power to fire bolts of telekinetic energy, which cause little damage by themselves but can knock enemies into hazards and push objects from a distance.

[12] These glyphs typically involve vampire weaknesses such as sunlight, fire, water, or sound, as well as additions such as telekinetic force (available well before the normal telekinesis becomes available) and the causing of earthquakes to temporarily stun enemies.

[14] Refusing to sacrifice himself to restore the Pillars, he doomed Nosgoth to eternal decay and proceeded to raise his vampire lieutenants, including Raziel, to besiege the land.

[15] By the time that Raziel is revived centuries after the game's opening cinematic, Nosgoth is on the brink of collapse, little more than a wasteland wracked with cataclysms and earthquakes.

Infiltrating a Necropolis inhabited by the Melchahim vampires, Raziel finds his brother Melchiah, who has devolved into a beast unable to sustain his own flesh.

There, Raziel discovers coffins for members of the Sarafan, a fanatical order of vampire hunters killed centuries before Kain's rule.

To Raziel's horror, he finds the crypt was designated for him and his brothers; as cruel irony, Kain revived the Sarafan to serve him as his vampire sons.

[24] Raziel ventures through a secret passage under the crypt and finds a flooded abbey inhabited by the Rahabim clan, whose members have mutated into amphibians; its leader, Rahab, has become a merman.

[30] During design, the development team created larger areas that could be explored more thoroughly as Raziel acquired new powers, avoiding the "shallow[ness]" of Blood Omen's layout.

[31] Crystal Dynamics based Soul Reaver on Silicon Knights' research of vampire mythology for Blood Omen.

[32] Other aspects of the game, such as the idea of a fallen vampire who devoured souls, were inspired by the epic poem "Paradise Lost".

Character and level designs were influenced by Islamic art and culture, anime and manga, including Vampire Hunter D and the films of Hayao Miyazaki.

[43] 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.

[44] 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.

Harland remarked that, under Amy Hennig's direction, he programmed music to change based on the current gameplay situation - for example, combat or swimming.

Anna Gunn, Simon Templeman and Richard Doyle reprised their roles from Blood Omen as Ariel, Kain and Moebius.

[48] In 2000, Soul Reaver was added to Sony's "Greatest Hits" list,[49] and the combined, global sales of its PlayStation, Dreamcast and computer versions surpassed 1.4 million units by late 2001.

[52] Because such films like Stir of Echoes, The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project and The Mummy had premiered earlier in 1999, Soul Reaver's release was considered "ideally timed" for a horror-oriented game.

"[65] Soul Reaver's dark and gothic atmosphere was generally well-received, and several publications praised the game's cut scenes.

[68] Next Generation Magazine echoed this, stating that, "even if you own the PlayStation version, you may want to rent this anyway", but expressed disappointment that no new features were added to the Dreamcast port.

[12] Next Generation Magazine considered the game challenging due to "difficult puzzles and lack of a map", requiring the player to backtrack.

[71] Computer Gaming World similarly felt that the limitations of the PlayStation carried over in the PC port, rendering the latter's visuals "mind-numbingly boring".

"[35] 1UP.com ranked Soul Reaver second on its "Top 5 Games That Ended Halfway Through", stating "it's pretty clear that the plot would have been a lot different if the money hadn't inconveniently run out.

"[72] GamesRadar placed Soul Reaver at #4 on a 2007 list of the top seven video game apocalypses, regarding the post-apocalyptic Nosgoth as "one of the most fascinating wastelands we've ever explored".