The iconic Legacy of Kain series finally returns after more than 20 years in the form of the remastered Soul Reaver collection of games. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered it will be released in December, and it may surprise many of you that it will have a Slovak signature and not a small one. She is the director of the remastered collection Monika ErősováSlovak woman living in Britain, whom you may also know from Sector. She’s worked on the remastered Tomb Raider trilogy before and now she’s moved on? How did she get it?
“One day, out of the blue, I received a message asking if I would be interested in working in the gaming industry. If I’m honest, at first I thought it was some kind of scam text message, but I quickly found out that it was a real job offer!” She joined the team at the end of March last year, where she first worked on Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft. According to her, this was a challenge, but also an extremely rewarding experience. She continues: “From there, I moved from the position of environmental artist to the director post of Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered, which was mainly due to my deep knowledge of the Legacy of Kain games..”
And he is right, he really knows his way around the world of Legacy of Kain and knows its little-known corners. That is why he knows what and how to improve these games: “In Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered, we improved everything we could, but at the same time tried to preserve their original identity. We managed to improve the engine so that the games now run smoothly on modern platforms. But it didn’t stop there and we added the so-called Quality of Life improvements, such as adjustable control with the camera on the right analog stick or mouse (if you play on the keyboard), photo mode, the ability to skip cutscenes (this will happen if you replay the games), subtitles and support for multiple languages, extensive bonus materials and more.“
Moreover, they didn’t stop at just improving the old games, they wanted to extend them to the team: “We even brought back day and night to the game and implemented dynamic music that was missing from the original PC release. Basically, this was all done in the spirit of additions rather than changes to our work on Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered.” However, as Monika herself adds, restoring dynamic music was not easy at all: “Fortunately, we managed to program such a system that basically imitates the sound chip of the original PlayStation. It is such a synthesizer with feedback support with the so-called attack-decay-sustain-release system for tones. I’m very proud of our team for finding a way to bring this feature back, because playing Soul Reaver without the incredibly engaging soundtrack composed by Kurt Harland just isn’t the same.“
This is her second remaster of the cult brand. You might think at a glance that the series are similar in many ways, but from the point of view of the development of the remaster, this is not the case, as Monika explained to us: “While the classic Tomb Raider games are divided into individual levels and mostly take place in dense jungles, tombs and industrial areas, the world of Nosgoth has a completely different aesthetic – its world is mostly desolate and individual parts of the levels are uploaded gradually, so we could not apply here the same principles. Therefore, we decided to focus on those things that we could influence, such as HD textures, beautiful new models and as many Quality of Life improvements as possible.“
Of course, it didn’t just end with improvements, but they also added new features. Monika highlights the inclusion of bonus materials in the game’s launcher. And there certainly won’t be enough of them, there are both fan and original materials: “These were originally part of the PlayStation 2 version of Soul Reaver 2, but we decided to remaster them in HD, adding a brand new world map and adding a section with new renders and artwork for both games. Beautiful fan artwork and cosplays also find their place here, along with the original ending credits, demo videos, and spoiled footage from the set. For those interested in ancient gaming mysteries, we have prepared a museum called Lost Levels. So players can officially explore these levels for themselves for the first time!“
What attracts Monika to these classic games? Why is he working on making them playable in enhanced versions today? She evaluated it simply: “I like remasters because, among other things, they also serve as a good way to preserve those titles that would become completely unplayable over time.Thanks to this, we will now be able to play cult action adventures, and hopefully it will arouse enough interest in the players to wait for the new part.
Source: www.sector.sk
