Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2

Legacy of Kain
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain	1997
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver	1999
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2	2001
Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2	2002
Legacy of Kain: Defiance	2003
Nosgoth	Cancelled

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 is a third-person game in the Legacy of Kain series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc V2 DRM^{[Note 1]}
		Includes Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance.
GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam
Publisher website (unavailable)

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Demo

A demo is available here.

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.02 is the latest version. Digital distribution versions are already patched.

To install this patch on newer versions of Windows, run sr2pc102.exe as an administrator.

Soul Fixer

Fixes crashes related to audio (no longer requires single core affinity), resolution switching, and the Bink video player.

Fully restores motion blur by improving the effect, replaces FSAA with SMAA, and adds support for aspect ratio at any resolution.

Adds compatibility with all DirectInput and XInput controllers.

Requires version 1.02 from GOG.com or Steam.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Soul Reaver 2\1.00.000
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/224940/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Soul Reaver 2\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/224940/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents* folder in OneDrive on all computers.*
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Use Soul Fixer or see Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor		See Widescreen resolution
Ultra-widescreen		Use Soul Fixer or see Widescreen resolution
4K Ultra HD		Use Soul Fixer
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	Use Soul Fixer
Borderless fullscreen windowed	Use Soul Fixer
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)	FSAA. Can't be enabled when `Fullscreen effects` is ticked in the setup dialog. Use Soul Fixer for SMAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	Run `sr2.exe` with `-setup` command line argument and tick `Sync to refresh`
60 FPS
120+ FPS	Causes incorrect functioning of the "devour souls" button and other glitches such as brief teleport (especially during combats) and certain corrupted sections of the game. Use Soul Fixer to prevent these issues.

Extra setup dialog options

Not needed when using Soul Fixer.

Add a DWORD value
Press `⊞ Win`+`R`. Type `regedit` and press `↵ Enter`. Go to `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Soul Reaver 2\1.00.000`. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value and rename it to `ExtendedDialog`. Change its value data from `0` to `1`.

Widescreen resolution

Not needed when using Soul Fixer.

Widescreen fix^[4]

Download Widescreen fix by nemesis2000.
Extract sr2.7z files to the installation folder.
Run upx.bat for the GOG.com version.
Edit sr2.ini to set the resolution.

Notes

Password: sr2

Supported exe size: 1 609 728 bytes

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Uses DirectInput. XInput controllers may experience issues, use Soul Fixer or Xidi to fix them.
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

DualShock 4 controllers

Generic/other controllers		Generic DirectInput controllers are supported
Button prompts

Additional information
Button prompts
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Has on/off options for sound and music
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Retail and GOG only
German				Retail and GOG only. Patch for other digital releases here.
Italian				Retail only. Download.
Brazilian Portuguese				Translation
Russian				Retail only. Fargus (updated in 2023) and Fargus + 7Wolf.
Spanish				Retail only. Download.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
vorpX		G3D, Z3D User created profile, requires DGVoodoo2 v 2.55.4, see profile introdution. `Note:` Profile may not work with the latest wrapper, in case of issues please report to the vorpx forum.

Issues fixed

Crashes and freezes on multi-core CPUs

Use Soul Fixer

Force CPU affinity to one core^[5]

VSync does not work on Windows 10

Use Soul Fixer

Uncapped frame rate issue

Use Soul Fixer, turn off `Fullscreen VSync` in the game options, and set `Frame Rate` to `60` or `120` FPS.

Enable VSync and set the refresh rate to 60Hz

Limit the frame rate to 60 FPS^[6]

Purplish screen

All versions

Switch from 16-bit to 32-bit color depth in the graphics options

Version 1.0 only

Modify DWORD value

Press ⊞ Win+R.
Type regedit and press ↵ Enter.
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Soul Reaver 2\1.00.000.
Open DisableVShader and change its value data from 0 to 1.
Click OK.

Note:

The vertex shader issue causing a purplish screen was resolved with game version 1.0.2.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8	Use Soul Fixer for Direct3D9

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

SR2 Enhancer

Adds a set of optional features for improving the gameplay, such as skipping cinematics, save at any location, and more.

Requires version 1.02 from GOG.com or Steam.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 450 MHz AMD K6-III 500 MHz	Intel Pentium III 700 MHz AMD Athlon 700 MHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	850 MB	1 GB
Video card (GPU)	16 MB of VRAM DirectX 8 compatible	32 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[2] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[3]
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/224940/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (224940) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ soul reaver2 Wayback Machine [missing title] - last accessed on 2021-9-5
↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
↑ Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 Widescreen Test №3 GOG
↑ Set affinity to CPU 0 - last accessed on 9 June 2023
↑ It's a FPS problem - last accessed on 9 June 2023

[4] SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[2] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[3]

[Proton_path_note-5] 2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/224940/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (224940) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[Nixxes-1] soul reaver2 Wayback Machine [missing title] - last accessed on 2021-9-5

[2] Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16

[3] Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16

[6] Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 Widescreen Test №3 GOG

[7] Set affinity to CPU 0 - last accessed on 9 June 2023

[8] It's a FPS problem - last accessed on 9 June 2023

[1]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	Crystal Dynamics
Windows	Nixxes Software^[1]
Publishers
2001-2009	Eidos Interactive
2009-2023	Square Enix
2023-present	Crystal Dynamics
Retail re-release	Sold Out Software
Engines
	Gex Engine
Release dates
Windows	October 30, 2001
Reception
Metacritic	77
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Legacy of Kain