Push

A push room

The Push Rooms were a series of testing rooms found in earlier versions of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, each used for testing specific functions of the game.

Profile

The rooms can still be accessed in the Debug menus of earlier version of Soul Reaver where push rooms are listed under "Push" and are titled as "Push 1" to "Push 10". Each room set is broadly the same, with small variations in content and characters/enemies/NPCs present according to what was being tested.

All of the push room generally consist of a rectangular room with chequerboard flooring with a large raised step across the middle of the room and a high platform in one corner. On the ceiling the letters “HI MD” can be made out – potentially a message for programmer Mark David. Typically each room will contain a number of blocks in various positions and most contain a dart weapon. As with other areas of the game, some alpha versions can contain simpler objects or enemies which are ‘updated’ as designs – and specific files - progress through the development process.

Known Rooms

• Test Rooms

• • More Areas
    • Push
      • Push 1 - Push 1 is the only push room left in the retail build of the game although it can only be accessed through hacking. The room contains Two dart weapons, a vase and a torch. Several blocks are found around the room (including one on the high platform). A fledgling and an adult melchahim are present in the material realm or 3 sluagh in the spectral along with a soul and a planar portal. In the alpha only one dart is present and the blocks and vase use different plainer designs – most notable in this build however is the presence of another Raziel which is aggressive if targeted.  
      • Push 2 - Push 2 room is present in most of the builds but does not show in any of the debug menus. When loaded through other means it has same basic layout as the other push rooms and contains a torch, different block style, a vase, a health upgrade and a giant stake from the Dumah boss battle. Notably the room has 5 different switch styles arranged around the walls of the lowest area, along with an Adult Melchahim
      • Push 3 - Push 3 has the same layout but this time with a single dart and several blocks. Enemies now include a single representative from each vampire clan along with the human vampire hunters and a vampire worshipper – in the spectral realm these are replaced with with a vampire wraith and a sluagh. In alpha some block designs are different and some of the models present are different due to design changes at the time (for example the Turelim model is different due to it being the only one present in the alpha)
      • Push 4 - Push 4 has the same room with blocks and a dart – this time only a fledgling melchahim is present. Notably the room contains several 2D fire sprites which were unused and replaced with 3D particle effects in the retail game. The alpha version has one of the early ‘bug’ Dumahim and no fire effects
      • Push 5 - Push 5 contains a notable green mist effect and a Melchahim along with a taller 3 storey block.

        

        The slopes in Push 6

      • Push 6 - Push 6 is a notable departure from the previous room layout and consists of a vast multi-levelled rooms with many slopes and steps – apparently designed for developers to test the various ways for blocks to change levels. The slopes in particular are very buggy and prone to glitches – potentially part of the reason for their removal from the retail game. Other interesting objects in the room include an anvil-like construction seen in the retail game only at the stone glyph altar – and the appearance of the green mist effect for distance fogging. Simpler alpha object design are again evident
      • Push 7 - Push 7 returned to the layout seen in other rooms, this time with a blue mist effect with an additional torch. A Turelim and a rahabim were present in material or a sluagh in spectral. The alpha version had the more green mist and lacked the torch and rahabim
      • Push 8 - Push 8 does not load in betas and appears to only have files present in the alphas. In the alpha versions it shows as the same area as the regular push rooms with a slight green mist effect, but also with a distinctive feature: a tall chimney extends upward from the roof of the room and connects to a large circular area atop the room – this may have been used to test water level effects.
      • Push 9 - Push 9 is another with green mist, fledgling or bug dumahim and a sluagh. In beta versions the dumahim is instantly set aflame.
      • Push 10 - Push 10 has numerous additions to the regular push room layout including a partially invisible floating platform, a trench which contains a flip switch which causes an earthquake, a greater variety of block design, an extra dart weapon, a torch, a vase, an anvil and even a copy of the wraith blade – which can be picked up but only appears as a weapon in spectral. Two melchahim are present in material, with three sluagh in spectral and the spectral realm has a noticeably more brighter multicolored appearance reminiscent of the spectral effects from earlier builds. There is also a subtle red tint to distance fogging. In the alpha version the wraith blade can be used in either plane

Development

The Push 8 room

Only one of the 'Push' rooms - ”Push1” - is present in the retail version of the game, but all 10 can be found in the alpha and beta versions of the game. They are generally the same between versions however ”Push8” notably has a high chimney-like passage with a spherical room atop it attached in the alphas which is missing in the beta versions of the game.