What do you get when you cross inflated expectations with a great game? Silly reviews. Bit for bit, this is the best fighter available today. It has fantastic graphics, fun characters, a good balance between those characters, great combos, fluid movement, and tons of replay value. So why does it deserve anything less than a 9.0. It doesn’t. When playing a game I look for one simple thing, fun. This game has that in spades, but since I committed myself to a review, let me break it up in categories that make sense, not ones that would appeal to marketing junkies and hype. Polish / Slickness: Think of this as the whole marketing package: presentation, graphics and sound. Soul Calibur II has great graphics and terrific sound. I would say that it falls just behind DOA3 in the slickness department. DOA3 wins a bit for awesome backgrounds and slightly better looking characters. However, SC2 is no slouch, and I seriously doubt even the most hardcore graphics fanatics would give SC2 anything less than a stellar report. The sounds are precisely with what you might expect. The voice acting is horrible, but no more so than any Kung Fu movie you have ever seen. However, the sounds of battle are great and having Keith David’s voice come out of Spawn is awesome. Fans of the HBO cartoon should rejoice. But let’s talk about the most important thing in the package, fluidity of movement. This is where all of the eye candy time is spent and it shows. Character do amazing things, but it looks completely credible, like the 12 year olds down the block should be doing these things. As you watch hits, responses, kicks, somersaults, weapon swings, etc, you will be blown away. This only got better from Soul Blade (Edge) to Soul Calibur 2. There is no other game I can think of that I will crank up to the hardest setting, set the round time to infinite, make a winning condition take five rounds, just so I can watch two computer opponents fight. That’s just awesome. Controls / Responsiveness / Precision: A fighter must be responsive, and SC2 is very responsive. Like all 3D fighters, it sometimes suffers from a lack of precision with controls, where the challenge sometimes lie in getting off a move. Some people like that difficulty, and some people don’t. This game isn’t going to convert 3D fighter haters who prefer the exactness of 2D control schemes. All of that being said, the controls are still the best out there for any 3D fighter. Sorry Virtua Fighter fans, but I feel NAMCO has this down in both the Tekken and SC series. Don’t get me wrong, Virtua Fighter is a fine series, but the controls tend to feel sluggish at times. Another thing that SC2 has is a block button. When you want to block, you should actively have to block. This makes good battles great battles, and the guard break and guard impact are two great additions to the game. These are basically like DOA reversals, but with blocking, and they leave the attacking opponent stunned when the defender succeeds. Combos, like guards, range in difficulty to “get off.” Some are easy and some are hard. This makes button mashing possible, but ultimately the button mashing will fall short when faced with an experienced player. If you stick with one character and learn all the moves, the feel becomes intuitive. You can then move to other characters. The timing will differ for many of the characters, but switching will be fun and a new way to experience the game. Longevity / Replayability: If it were solely for the differences in the multitude of characters alone, SC2 could keep you busy. However, there are many unlockable modes, some unnecessary, and some that are great. The ones that are great are better modes than most other full games. The “Weapon Master” mode offers tons of unlockable content and the game boasts and experience ladder and gold ladder. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance tried something like this with Koins and Koffins, but fell somewhat short because the MK:DA adventure mode was not as creative as the SC2 weapon master mode. “Weapon Master” has several unique challenges, and one I found particularly enjoyable. Without spoiling it, it is somewhat like “hot potato.” The little touches of mini-games that teach you the skill set to make you a much, much better player will really shine if you end up playing with a buddy. That’s part of the beauty of this game, it teaches you how to play better. That is a hard thing to get right. Too often games are too easy or end up pacing out their teaching wrong. If you go through “Weapon Master” mode, you won’t feel like you can’t do it. Okay, you might, but then again, this isn’t the Sims Online. You have to practice to be good, and if you don’t want to practice, relegate yourself to a fun game rather than a fantastic experience. I have yet to be so frustrated I shut the game off though. The battles are fun. Its Own Merits: What it all boils down to is this: Soul Calibur 2 is the most fun fighter out there. On the XBOX, it looks superb, especially if you have an HDTV. I personally had trouble getting the 720P mode to work in 16:9, but that might be my TV (Toshiba Cinema Series) or it might be the game. I don’t know because I was so anxious to play in 16:9 that I turned off 720P on my XBOX and never looked back. This game has character, it has excitement, and it has that intangible quality, fun. I keep seeing reviews that say three things: (1) some characters look out of place, especially Necrid (2) it doesn’t have online play (3) it doesn’t do much more than Soul Calibur. Let me say this, there are no stupid opinions, only stupid people who say them. Necrid doesn’t look out of place. He looks like a demon, the fiction is all about demons. When you say something so silly, you’re just reaching for things to say. It doesn’t have online play. Neither does UNO or any myriad of other games. That doesn’t make it a worse game. Bashing a game on what it doesn’t have isn’t reviewing a game fairly. If it had advertised online play and it didn’t have it, bash away. God forbid you should go to a friend’s house and enjoy a game. Finally, it doesn’t do much more than Soul Calibur. I for one love Weapon Master mode opening new weapons like Soul Blade. I missed that, and this brings it back in a tighter package. Plus, the game is fun. I don’t know why you would screw that up. If it were just a graphics update, I would be happy, but it isn’t and you shouldn’t be swayed by it. In summary, people should review games not based on their expectations, but on the merits of the game. This game is hands down the best fighter out there. Go out, by this game, and just realize that even game reviewers get their feelings hurt. They are reviewing this game based on what it doesn’t have, in this way, they are treating this game like girls have always treated them.
It is almost impossible to give Dreamcast's Soul Calibur any other definition besides perfect. Unfortunately, after so many years of waiting, its second edition, Soul Calibur, did not offer the fans the same astonishing ... Read Full Review
By Maximaltroop | Review Date: Jan 21, 2008 | XBOX
This game to start off has great graphics. the clothes move in the wind, the backgrounds look fantastic and intresting. The voice acting is awesome. The Gameplay is what we care about the most, so does it challnge the or... Read Full Review
