Legacy of Kain series

[Androdion 875]

Hey everyone.  I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about this series of games after he sent me a pic of his original copy of Soul Reaver, so nostalgia is definitely creeping in. I can't say I've played LOK and SR, but their sequels and the completion (Defiance) where games that were a part of my youth. I'd really like to be able to play these games again, for nostalgia's sake. In all honestly I haven't played a LOK title in 15 years...

Does anyone know if it's possible to get these five games running properly in Windows 7 x64, and where I can get them? Any fans of this series out there?

[gogoblender 3,068]

I like the music and timing of the narrator... i had to go through a lot of video on youtube to get what the "feel" of this game is .. straight up rpg, arpg, hybrid?

hopefully someone here has played it, still playing it and can offer some advice on getting it to run.

this Trailer here to a goob job?

 

gogo

[Timotheus 416]

On 5/11/2020 at 1:02 PM, Androdion said:

...

Does anyone know if it's possible to get these five games running properly in Windows 7 x64, and where I can get them?

Check out gog.com right now they have a -86% sale on the LoK games. Generally all games available there are made to work on modern systems and the requirements explicitly name Windows 7 so I would expect them to work. 

EDIT: check the user reviews though and sort by "most recent". I was checking up on the oldest game just to be sure, and found out it's regarded as a fairly rough port to PC. There's a considerable amount of comments mostly about the controls (or lack thereof).

Edited May 13, 2020 by Timotheus
Additional info found

[Androdion 875]

Blimey! I looked at the GOG page just a couple of days ago and they were full price, I guess that for 0,99€ I can risk them not working. Sadly as far as I could tell no one is selling the first Blood Omen online, "just" the four pack that's on GOG/Steam/etc. Do you happen to know how I can get my hands on that one too?

Oh, and thanks a bunch for the tip mate!

PS: Bought the four games and all start and go straight to main menu except SR1. The process starts but the game doesn't, much like Gothic 1 and 2 on my Steam account. I've read that BO1 is a copyright nightmare so I guess that's that. Still, 3 out of 4 ain't too shabby for less than 4€.

[Timotheus 416]

9 hours ago, Androdion said:

Do you happen to know how I can get my hands on that one too?

Oh, and thanks a bunch for the tip mate!

PS: Bought the four games and all start and go straight to main menu except SR1. (...) I've read that BO1 is a copyright nightmare so I guess that's that.

Regarding the original Blood Omen: Wikipedia seems to conform your findings

"After its release, a dispute arose concerning ownership of its intellectual property rights, after which Crystal Dynamics retained permission to continue the series with their 1999 sequel, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver."

And you're welcome!

For starting up SR1: I've seen suggestions in the reviews on GoG. Maybe this helps:

"You really have to jump through hoops to get it to run on Windows 10, at least with an AMD processor with Nvidia graphics card. The game will only start in 640 by 480 software mode after setting the appropriate compatibility options. You can then either switch to hardware acceleration or turn up the resolution but you cannot do both as hardware acceleration only works in 640 by 480. Even then, it's not worth it because the most annoying lags and hitches will occur anyways, hardware acceleration or not. You also need to have your controller plugged in, whether you will use it or not when you start the game or the game will not start. The graphics are ported from the PS1 version when they could have been ported from the superior Dreamcast version. The game does not support Xinput either so you will need some help to use any modern gamepad with the game. I used reWASD to map the controller to the keyboard, making sure game is in keyboard mode and that got it to play nicely with my Xbox one controller because this game is really awkward on keyboard. Not to say it solves all your control issues like those freezes that happen until you let go of the controller button (happens a lot on high jumps) and random lags that will make you miss jumps. Certainly not the best way to experience this awesome game, but the only legal way."

[Androdion 875]

You know, I was already going through a dozen open tabs on GOG and a dozen more open windows on Steam when I tried setting compatibility settings for XP on kain2.exe, the main executable for Soul Reaver 1, only to find out that the game already comes configured like that. And for some reason I double-clicked the exe on the folder, as some games don't like the Steam client I thought the same could happen with the GOG client as well. Do you want to have a good laugh then?! Not only did the game run at first try from double-clicking the exe in its folder but it also let me choose both hardware acceleration and resolution higher than 640*480. And somehow now I can run it directly from the GOG client as well.

I went the paranoid route, rebooted my system and tried running all games again from the GOG client. All are working. Go figure!  Bottom line, four games for less than 1€ a piece. I wouldn't be surprised if I'll eventually hit some bugs during gameplay but whatever, that's a problem for another time.

Now if only I could get my hands on a physical PC copy of Blood Omen 1 at a decent price...