Insomniac has been chasing that "big budget studio animated film you can play" dragon for years and I think they finally caught up to it.

The plot is pretty standard and carried by fun characters. I won't read into it much because it's clearly a game for the family and especially tween kids.

Game doesn't overstay its welcome, you can go through it in a weekend (thank god) the level design is pretty forgettable in the back half and the shooting is fun with a more tamer arsenal than usual (so in short its a ratchet game post tools of destruction). honestly semi-decent send off to the series. We definitely aren't getting another one of these this decade.

Rivet is A+ bait. Well played.

Genuinely one of the coolest video games ever made.

In a time when at most when games (JRPGs not withstanding though a lot of them were pretty bad too) tried to tell stories you got writing that is near impossible to take seriously: you had this strange anomaly near the end of the PS1's lifespan.

Soul Reaver immerses you in its world, its feelings of desolation. There's a willingness within its design to not tell you where to go and how to do something. It wants you to lose yourself and find new cool things to report back to your friends. All of this wouldn't work 90% of the time but coupled with incredibly fun and sharp dialogue, a soundtrack that draws you further into its world and just incredible atmosphere.

There's no other way to say it: It has the sauce. They just don't do it like this anymore.