Legacy of Kain - The Lost Worlds

[Sykar]

Imagine my shock when I discovered this morning that there are people working for 20 years to find deleted content primarily for the Soul Reaver game but they did find some of that lost content in other games as well.

Sample YT video:


Webpage:
https://thelostworlds.net/

I guess that is what you call.. dedication. Or obsession?

 

[A horse of course]

Soul Reaver's cut content and script changes are fairly well documented, including Turel's stuff. Didn't know they had access to these early builds though.

 

[Sykar]

Well as I said they found other stuff which was cut from other titles of the series as well. Overall I found it to be an interesting read.

 

[A horse of course]

Well as I said they found other stuff which was cut from other titles of the series as well. Overall I found it to be an interesting read.

You mean new stuff? I've read pillars of nosgoth/lost worlds etc. fairly extensively in the past so I assumed I knew most of the major beats.

 

[Sykar]

I just discovered it so would not know. I am also perplexed just how much footage they released from those early builds including an entire conversation with the priestess:


Animations:


And her level:


For me this is new.

 

[A horse of course]

I just discovered it so would not know. I am also perplexed just how much footage they released from those early builds including an entire conversation with the priestess:


Animations:


And her level:


For me this is new.

Since they have access to various old builds, what they do is check something in one version, then another, and splice it together in the video (e.g. the Turel boss fight where one build has the Turel model, another build has the water animation etc.) However, in cases like the priestess video, I believe they have to actually extract all the assets and then try and rebuild them to recreate the scene as they believe it was supposed to play out in-game. So pretty time-consuming stuff. As for where they got the builds, I assume they were leaked by former employees of Crystal or Eidos. They've obviously been holding on to this stuff for a long time.

 

[Sykar]

This is an interesting video where the creator spliced together a lot of material to make one potential original path. What is most interesting to is that a lot of the dialogue for that cut content actually exists.

 

[Falksi]

Wish they'd have cut out half the fucking block puzzles in the game instead.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Such a great series that had to die for little whiney Lara.

 

[Murk]

The cut content, as stitched together there, does look pretty dope -- but if that route meant no Kain in SR 2 or Defiance, then I think the result we got was for the best.

Though some of the cut areas do look great.

It's mind boggling how so long ago you had a game that still looks great and features gameplay mechanics that seems impossible for modern devs. Swimming, verticality, ledge climbing... Hell the way the world twists with you watching it happen as you shift from material to ethereal... meanwhile we live in a world where you have to go through a loading screen so an NPC can move from point A to point B.

 

[gerey]

Such a great series that had to die for little whiney Lara.

LoK games always had terrible gameplay, and Defiance was especially bad and repetitive.

I would have loved if they had kept all the neat little details from Soul Reaver 1 (vampires can only die if burned, throw into water or impaled, the soul reaver actually being a danger to the wielder) and built the games up to be more like Blood Omen 1 in the sequels.

As it is, they remain a testament to good writing, great voice acting and interesting presentation dragged down by anaemic gameplay and dumbing down.

It's a pity Defiance was the last entry in the series, especially since it left the story at a point where it was getting very interesting, but on the other hand I feel it was also a good sendoff to the story and characters - especially Kain and Raziel.

If anything, going by the leaked reboot/sequel material, it's good that the IP is well and truly dead, and I hope it stays that way. My heart couldn't take it if they shat up Kain and Raziel's father/son dynamic by making them gay, as I'm sure would be done if some woke developer got their filthy hands on the rights today.

Also, are we talking about the first or second Tomb Raider reboot? Because the first one (Legends, Anniversary, Underworld) were much closer in spirit to the originals, and the Lara in those was very similar to the Lara from the original games.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Overall it's good to see it but I'm glad we got later games for Tony Jay and Simon Templeman. Amazing voice work.

 

[Silverfish]

The best part about The Lost Worlds was that Ben, the fella who started it, was one of the greatest shit-talkers in the series' fandom and there was dick-all anyone could do about it since his contributions dwarfed everybody else's. 10/10 memories.