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Soul Calibur 2 with Better Graphics

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 16
Date: August 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The most retarded people in the world are commenting on these reviews. This is a bad game - poor controls and online connectivity, extremely limited gameplay, no replay value. If you think otherwise you are a retard. Period.

Ok... What happened to the game I loved?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 12
Date: July 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Let me first off say, I love video games. I have since I've been 5 years old when I played my first video game for the Nintendo. I have played Soul Calibur with friends, family... Everyone. I went to the PX yesterday (Marince Corps store) and was going to pick up a game for the PS3 since it seems one of the best things to do on base (Without traveling 45 minutes) is to play video games. The clerk reminded me that Soul Calibur just came out so I nearly had a heart attack and ran to the stand and grabbed a copy. The cover art was awesome. Sweet.

So I get up to the counter and am about to ring up the game, the clerk hits the enter key on the cash register and all the power goes out for the entire store. That should of been my sign not to buy this game, and most likely was. I did get it anyway though.

I brought it home and went to a church event with one of my fellow Marines and after coming home later on that night I couldn't wait to play it. I opened up the case, took out the Bluray Disc and put it in the PS3. It booted up and then started saying "You can't play without a game save, click ok to make a game save." ... Ok, "Thats fine with me", *Click*

Starts loading up, get's to the screen ... "SOUL CALIBUR 4!!!"

Awesome.

Get to the menu, "Woah, the menu is really simplistic... Strange." I headed off to the single player mode automatically and hit Story mode and proceeded to play with Raphael. it then proceeds with a very simplistic story of why Raphael is fighting... "Strange" I said. I use to remember when Soul Calibur was REALLY in depth. "Maybe this is just a one time thing, a Quick story." So the fights come up, it's one vs three. Though I'm all buffed out with made fighting power ups. I keep fighting... One, two, three, four matches down... One cut scene of us going over the water and hearing a wierd sound. Ok. "That doesn't make any sense at all." Finally Stage 5 comes up, and ... "what's this... Is this the Boss battle already? ... It can't be, this has to be a mini boss... something, the game cant BE THIS SHORT." I fight the boss, and all of a sudden it shows a about 2 minute ending clip (Which was kind of cool, I have to admit.)

Then the screen goes black, and not to ruin the surprise for you but the game ends by leaving you 1 sentance to sum up exactly what happened after Raphael acquires the sword.

1 SENTENCE.

Credits roll, and I have beat the game using Raphael. In under 15 minutes.

To top that off, the character creation sucks. There isn't enough customization in it to satisfy hardcore gamers or in my opinion fans of the series. The best way to describe this game is its like the first version of the game that came out on the dreamcast. With Better graphics, and less fun.

You better have a friend to play you at this game, even then though its a huge let down.

Quite the letdown

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: August 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Overall I'm quite disspointed with this game.

Let's break it down though.

Graphics 5/5: As far my opinion goes, this is the most graphically superior fighting game there is at the moment, the scenes are beautifully rendered and the characters are rich in detail.

Controls 5/5: The controls never change and no exceptions here, the game is easy and can be jumped right into.

Character Creation 1/5: What a HUGE step back here...SC:III had so many innovative things here a "profession" made it feel unique and special. Now it's just "What character do you want to rip off?!" Which is extremely lame and lazy in my opinion. The different combos of clothings/faces are alright not as extravagant was SC:III was.

New Features 2/5: The "Tower" is quite bland and more like just a scenario mode nothing overly special about it.
The online mode I will admit I haven't tried yet but...I imagine it's no different then having someone sitting aside of you playing. I most certainly miss the strategy mode as it gave a real personal feeling to the game.

Main Guts of the Game 2/5: Let me start by saying the Star Wars characters compared to the rest of the group...are ridiculously overpowered. In Arcade mode you go from classic SC scenese to a...space ship? To fight "The Apprentice?" What the @#$@? The Apprentice is ridiculously over powered and if you're playing on medium expect hard diffuculty Hard expect Soul Edge...etc...The first time I went through I spent around 1 min. on each opponent and 9 min. on The Apprentice.

The story mode is VERY dissaspointing as it starts with about a 4-5 paragraph introduction then just like...arcade mode until the last fight. About a 1 minute clip a sentence or two pops up on the screen...that's it. Not a whole lotta point to "Story Mode" if you don't actually make the character have a FREAKIN' STORY!

Overall: I wish I would have rented this game instead of paying salty for it...It's just...not as good as any of it's previous bretheren. I'd be even willing to say a step BACK.

Three words: fix online mode.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I am a long-time player of the Soul Calibur series, and while the newest title in the franchise has much-improved graphics and new modes to play, it boasts little else in the way of interest. The combat moves are the same (with just a few differences), but for the most part, I felt like I was playing SC2 all over again. The character creation mode is fun, but adds nothing new to the game itself. My biggest complaint, actually, is the "disconnect bug" for the online play mode, and the amazing amount of lag that comes with it.

If you manage to actually stay connected for twenty minutes or more, consider yourself lucky. Online play features random disconnects every few matches, forcing you to reboot your entire PS3 to fix it. For the very few rounds you DO get to play, expect massive lag as your opponent beats on you mercilessly and you can do nothing but stand there and take it. I play World of Warcraft and have NEVER had issues with my internet connection, so it seems interesting to me that I'm having problems now.

All in all, if Namco/Bandai manages to fix the online play, I would be willing to give my review another star. But as it stands, the game offers nothing new in the franchise, and is overall a huge disappointment.

What were they thinking?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 19
Date: August 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Soul Calibur fans won't find too much new here, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Most of the original characters are available when you start the game (instead of having to unlock them later), the moves are more or less the same, and the graphics are great. The controls are quite responsive, and as in every previous iteration, it takes longer to watch the end credits than it does to beat the game in story mode.

And... as in every previous iteration, there are unreasonably long "Now Loading" screens, though they've improved the speed in Arcade Mode.

And now... a word about Star Wars...

WHAT?

Sure, I knew that Darth Vader was going to be in the PS3 version, and Yoda in the Xbox 360 version, and blah, blah, blah. I figured they were just unlockable characters that I was free to ignore.

Not so, in Arcade Mode. Not only are you inexplicably transported to space after level 6, but the two Star Wars characters become ridiculously difficult to beat for no obvious reason. We're talking Shang Tsung or Motaro cheap from the Mortal Kombat series.

It isn't that they're unbeatable. It's just that it makes no sense at all. I don't think I've ever seen a licensed product so obviously shoehorned in to a game. It totally kills the mood of the game, and the "spend 15 minutes, then make a sandwich" gameplay.

Getting back to Story Mode, when you finish with a character, you don't really get any sort of story or closure as you did in previous versions of Soul Calibur. Instead, you get a three-second variant of "now I have it!", followed by a black screen with a sentence or two.

If you haven't played any of the previous versions, you may enjoy this. Or, if you're really big in to Star Wars, I guess you'll get a kick out of playing as Darth Vader or The Apprentice. Otherwise, I think this is a pretty huge letdown for Soul Calibur fans out there.

I really wish I had rented this, instead of pre-ordering it months ago.

More of the same with better graphics

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If you have ever played any of the SoulCalibur games you will notice not much has changed aside for the better graphics. I haven't played through the game using all the characters, but the ones I did, gameplay didn't change. You can buy charcters as well as weapons with the money you earn through storymode as well as arcade mode. If you could do that in the 3rd one, I never really noticed because I didn't care for the last one that much. You can also tweak your characters attributes which is also nice. I enjoyed using Vader though some people would diagree and say he is no good as a fighter. It's true Vader is not a fast character in the game and sometimes I had to throw the computer players in order to beat them with him. On the otherhand he is very good with his lightsaber and it is fun using him while fighting with other characters that use swords(the Samurai Mitsurugi comes to mind.) Is this game worth buying? In my opinion, no. I played through Vader's storyline as well as the arcade mode and made enough money to unlock other characters. But if you are a hard core SoulCalibur fan or fan of fighting games then by all means spend away. My review is based on when I rented it.

Slightly Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The first Soul Calibur game I played was Soul Calibur 2. I didn't get to play Soul Calibur 3, so I'm not a total SC fan, but I enjoy the series more than other fighting games due to it's simple fighting system.

The Good:

The graphics are incredible. The character models look fantastic; Darth Vader never looked this good, and each character is incredibly detailed. Even Starkiller looks better in this game than he does in The Force Unleashed. And, as always the cutscenes look great.

The sound design is as good as you'll find in a fighting game, with nostalgic sounds of metal bashing against metal. The lightsaber effects are great as well. The dialogue and voice acting is cheesy, but that's become a staple in the series and it's pretty entertaining. Some characters have better voices than others.

Fighting is as fluid and simple as always. Casual players will find it accessible enough to button mash and get by, while hardcore players will find some depth with it and get rewarded for mastering it. It's well balanced. New features have been added, such as armor breaking and the critical finish. There's a large chance that you will never use critical finishes due to the requirements you need to pull one off, and most of them aren't worth the trouble.

The Bad:

Single player is absolutely pathetic compared to the previous installments, with only three modes, not counting training mode. The story mode is terrible and short, with re-used cutscenes and only FIVE stages. Tower of Lost Souls is too hard for the casual players, and only appeals to the hardcore players who can handle plenty of punishment, or players who want to collect every item in the game. Arcade mode is fairly lengthy and is the only enjoyable part of the single player. But even that can't save it.

Character customization provides a few hours of fun, but it loses it's excitement after a while. You can choose the gender, alignment (Good, Evil, Neutral), hair style, voice and voice pitch, facial features, armor, weapon skills, etc. And while there's tons of equipment to unlock and equip, and plenty of weapon skills, much of it seems like it's more for style than usefulness.

Finally, the online play is a welcomed addition, but is very laggy. Lag can be anywhere from a nuisance to controller smashing frustration. Cheap shots and hit-and-run techniques are much more useful than trying to pull off more advanced combos, if you are even able to pull them off with the lag.

Two steps forward, one step back

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Allow me to start by saying that this game is fun, but it is short lived fun. There are a vast number of characters in the game, including Darth Vader and his Apprentice (whom you have to defeat in Arcade mode using Darth in order to unlock for use). You can create your own character, or modify the characters that came with the game. You can play through all their stories, use them in arcade, try to assemble the right mix to conquer the Tower of Souls, or go online (the much touted new feature). But that's pretty much it. Unfortunately, the stories are very poorly written, often making no sense in English whatsoever. Arcade mode is relatively quick, the Tower is more difficult, with hidden goals to unlock treasures that are sometimes near impossible to achieve. Online is what you make of it, but it's never more than just fighting people that aren't sitting on the couch with you. One would have thought that with the vast capacity of a Blu-ray disc, the makers of Soul Calibur would have been able to include more features, possibly a return of the Chronicles of the Sword feature from SC3. The training mode was also unhelpful, essentially worthless. All in all, I'd reached the peak of pleasure from this game well within the time frame of a rental. Might I suggest renting this game before buying it, you may save yourself a lot of money.

Great fighting game- online play still has issues

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is easily the best 3d fighting game out there. Balanced (for the most part) deep and engaging. Character creation mode is almost a game unto itself and the Tower of Souls game is challenging without being too much of a pain.

That said, the online play needs some work. Game matching is buggy and frustrating. If you're getting this to play online either pass or wait for an update to fix the issues.

A tale of souls and swords. . . frequently retold.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ultimately a disappointing title Soul Calibur IV does not up the ante for the series as it plays itself way to safe for its first new generation outing. The core gameplay found in the Dreamcast title Soul Calibur remains the same which isn't a bad thing per se. Soul Calibur after all perfected weapons based 3d combat to an sharp sheen. Dicing and slicing your foes with all kinds of cool martial arts hardly gets old especially now as you can fight players worldwide through the PSN. Matches remain pretty smooth and lag free and it remains a fairly exciting feature as you work your way up rankings. From the beautiful visuals, tried but true gameplay, and comical guests from the Star Wars franchise, Soul Calibur IV continues to burn the soul. It won't rock your world though as the game needs some serious overhaul in terms of gameplay features.

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