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Soul
Calibur II
Score: 9.3 / 10
Soul Calibur was the best reason to own the
now defunct Dreamcast. It was a gorgeous fighter with a great
combination of depth and intuitive, pick-up-and-play simplicity. One of
the saddest results of the failure of the Dreamcast as a platform was
that not enough people got to play that little gem of a game.
Personally, as a huge fan of the first game, I knew I’d be buying a copy
of Soul Calibur II (SC2) for myself whether I was assigned to review it
or not. The problem was deciding which version to get because each
version has a character unique to the platform, and the Xbox and
Gamecube versions sport real doozies: Todd McFarlane’s Spawn and Legend
of Zelda’s Link, respectively. In the end, I went for the Xbox version,
mostly because it was likely to feature slightly better graphics and,
with the official Soul Calibur II arcade controller being compatible
with all three systems, I wouldn’t have to deal with the Xbox
controller’s clumsy button placement.
So, now that I have had a chance to put the Xbox’s version of Soul
Calibur II through its paces, what do I think? Well, it is as gorgeous
as I had hoped it would be. It features amazingly smooth and fast game
play, and it has an expanded
version of the excellent Weapon Master mode
that was one of the best features of the first game. Add it all up and
SC2 is a remarkable game and one every fighting fan should own. Still,
expectations out there are very high for this one. People seem to expect
that the game will be, hands down, the best 3D fighter of all time. For
some of those fighting fans, SC2 might be a slight disappointment
because it lacks the depth and sense of
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accomplishment of the Virtua Fighter 4 games. For my money, it is the
second best fighting game of the year and of all time. (Three guesses
what I feel is number one, and the first two don’t count against you—the
intials are VF4:E).
The first thing players are likely to notice when they fire up SC2 is
the stunning visual display. SC2 looks great. The character models seem
to be made up of, oh, I don’t know, say a billion polygons. Well, not
really, of course, but the characters are well-modeled right down to
tiniest of details. More importantly, they animate with an unprecedented
degree of realism and style. Not a single frame of animation has been
glossed over, despite the temptation that must have presented itself
when the developers realized just how quick their new engine was. It
would have been simple to give an attack or two a few less frames here
and there without anyone noticing. As it is, every move seems to have
been given a tremendous amount of attention. The result is a fast,
smooth fighting experience.
As good as the game engine is, the fighting mechanics might be even
better. Soul Calibur veterans will feel right at home with the majority
of the moves. The big difference is the speed. The smaller, quicker
characters are simply blindingly fast. I started with one of my favorite
characters, the speedy Xiangua, and was able to blast through the Arcade
Mode without a single continue by simply running in, slashing, and
running out. Part of that was because the arcade mode is too easy, just
as it was in the first Soul Calibur, but mostly it is because in SC2,
speed kills. The effect of speed is accentuated even further by the
fully 3D nature of the game, a first for a fighting game of this type.
It is especially cool being able to dodge an attack and run around
behind the opponent to unleash some punishment.
That is not to say the slower character can’t hold their own. The big
guys take a while to get most of their attacks off, but once they do,
most of them stagger the opponent or knock them down to the ground. If a
player isn’t quick to roll away or pop their character to his or her
feet, the big guys will simply pummel him or her into submission. I can
be incredibly frustrating how fast a character can go from full health
to fully dead.
The speed of the characters and the multitude of powerful attacks might
taint the game in the eyes of pure fight game fans. When Soul Calibur
was on the shelves, the term “button-masher” was being thrown around
pretty regularly. For the un-initiated, the term simply means that a
player has as much chance of winning by just “mashing” the buttons
quickly and randomly as they do by learning the long list of moves for
each character and by practicing them to perfection. The term was being
misapplied then, and it is even more inaccurate now. If a player only
ever plays the A.I., maybe SC2 is a “button-masher”, most fighting games
are. It is during head-to-head that the depth of the fighting system
reveals itself. I experienced a tremendous series of butt whippings at
the hands of a tournament-winning Soul Calibur player back in the day,
even though I had already turned the game inside-out fighting against
the computer. The game doesn’t have the depth of Virtua Fighter 4 (no
fighting game does), but a match between two experienced players is
still a marvelous ballet of attacks, dodges, and counters.
SC2 has all the expected modes and tons of bonus ones to un-open, but
the highlight of the game, for me, is the Weapon Master mode. It is hard
to overestimate the value this mode and its over two hundred un-lockable
features hold. The Weapon Master mode is played on a map land with new
destinations opening up as the player completes each mission and
chapter. The tale being told is not particularly original or compelling,
but the individual missions have tremendous variety and, unlike the
arcade mode, the Weapon Master mode provides a serious challenge. The
dungeon levels especially made me thankful for the unlimited continues.
I would seriously hate to be ten rooms into one of the larger dungeons
and have to start from the beginning after a loss.
Soul Calibur II will satisfy most fighting fans with its smooth play and
brilliant graphics. It stands easily among a handful of other games as
one of the best fighting games of all time.
