The reason why the series died was that they tried to make it more fight/action centered because they wanted to get good sales. First game got very good sales, but following episodes didnt sell enough, and reducing puzzles to focus on fights wasn't the good decision. I feel fights in those games were dull and boring.Te game had great story but if the series comes back it deserves a gameplay upgrade.
The series struggled to define its gameplay. That's why every game tried something different.
-Blood Omen was a top-down Zelda-like with light Metroid influences
-Soul Reaver was an open-world Tomb Raider-like with puzzle bosses and some Metroid elements. And block puzzles
-Soul Reaver 2 was a linear game where you went back and forth along the same linear route across 3 time epochs, solving batches of puzzles (in dedicated shrines) by alternating your Reaver charges; and it had combat which was... pretty dull. And 6 bosses back-to-back who were all humans with a lot of health
-Blood Omen 2 was a linear game that alternated (basic) combat and puzzles. It had bosses who were a mix of puzzles and combat, and some clever puzzles as you unlocked Mind Control and Telekenesis- the Steampunky design helped;
-Defiance was a linear game that hopped between 2 protagonists and focused more on pure combat, with an emphasis on flashy combos, aerieal attacks and trying to look like Devil May Cry; Loads of combat-only bosses; Kain's puzzling as confined to using telekenisis to collapse things sometimes, but mostly just using key items; Raziel had some more variety, due to additional elemental Reaver powers.
- The series was constantly struggling to find a good ratio of combat to puzzles; The story was consistently great-to-amazing (Blood Omen 2's weirdness notwithstanding, but the gameplay has never been more than "okay" So as much as I
adore the series, it was always a miracle this got as much publisher backing as it did.
I feel like it's time for a Blood Omen remake
I don't believe any 3D remake would keep the oddball extra stuff that made exploration in Blood Omen special.
The only thing I want for Blood Omen is an HD remaster.
Soul Reaver Remake with an actually bearable combat model and less emphasis on block puzzles might end up a game that could do well in the modern market, though.