Running Soul Reaver 2 on Newer Versions of Windows

article by Ben Lincoln

These instructions are over a decade old. You can also try using the Good Old Games release of Soul Reaver 2, which shouldn't require any of these steps.

Soul Reaver 2 can behave somewhat oddly on Windows® 7 (or, at least, the 64-bit version of it). It is over a decade old as of this writing, so there are no guarantees you can make it work. Here's what I did to get the game running:

I applied the 1.02 patch (see Soul Reaver 2 PC Patch version 1.02).
I set the registry value HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Soul Reaver 2\1.00.00\DisableVShader to 1, because if I didn't, the screen was mostly pink and purple with silhouettes of the 3D objects barely visible.
I changed the properties of SR2.EXE in Windows Explorer to enable compatibility mode (selecting Windows XP SP3), and to run as Administrator. If I didn't do this, then various text in the game (menu options, etc.) would display incorrectly.

Note: like the other PC releases of the Legacy of Kain games (with the exception of Soul Reaver - see Running Soul Reaver on Newer Versions of Windows), there doesn't appear to be a good way to enable a widescreen display for this game, so it will appear stretched horizontally even if run at a resolution that is typically widescreen.

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Soul Reaver 2 PC Patch version 1.02