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Review: Soul Calibur II |
Way back when, around September 9th, 1999 to be exact, a game unlike no other had finally hit our shores. Soul Calibur had arrived on the ill-fated (I hate using that word) Dreamcast. It had all of the winning attriibutes of a great game. A great one player mode, millions of extras to keep you playing, and unparalleled accesibility and gameplay. Now 4 years later, a new Calibur arrives; but is it enough to stand up to its predecessor?
Well, after almost a year and five months, Namco has finally blessed us with the (upgraded somewhat) version of Soul Calibur 2. With all the hype surrounding the multiple versions of the game, I decided that the PS2 version was the best for me. Im a sucker for the Dual Shock controls which work like a charm for Soul Calibur 2. I admit though, I do have problems putting in the slide input moves at times. Granted there are a few bouts of slowdown (Much less than I expected) I’ve seen that it only happens during the Extra modes. Certain stages (The Ice stage perhaps being the most frequent) slowdown ALOT, and it does take away from the fight. I dont play any of the extra modes however, Because the novelty of being able to use the the weapons wears off quickly for me. As for Heihachi; this is probably his best incarnation yet. His Hellsweeps are just like the ones in Tekken 3 (Guaranteed after the first hit is blocked), he retains his EWGF, WGF strings, and he’s an all around powerful character. Most people have questioned his ability to get in on range characters, but trust me, HE CAN GET IN. his Shadow Step is still in, and just basic Stepping can get hi in the range he needs to dominate.
I almost forgot about Necrid as well. Personally I like him. He has the best moves of almost every character in the game, which says alot about how he plays. In the hands of someone good; He’s better than most of the characters in the game.
Now for the actual game itself. Soul Calibur 2 is an undeniably beautiful game. From the stages to the characters, it all shines beautifully. The game doesnt slouch in the animation department either. From the smooth movements of Kilik or Yoshimitsu, to Ivy of course, the game animates as good if not better than any 3D fighter ever. Just go into practice mode and do all of Voldo’s stances if you dont believe it, or try paying attention to the way each character’s clothes breeze in the wind or their facial expressions in pain. It’s good stuff. Adding to the list of well done additions is the full character Voice overs. Granted they range from horrid (Mitsurugi, Talim) to great (Heihachi,Taki), to comedy (Maxi), its nice to see that Namco cared enough about this aspect of the game. And if you dont like the Voice Artists, then you can switch to Japanese! Huzzah indeed.
The story is also very interesting, without being convulted and stupid like most other fighting game stories. All of that characters are still looking for the Soul Edge, which was destroyed by the Soul Calibur. And in Arcade mode some characters will get the Calibur, and most will get the Soul Edge and a 2 frame picture with 4-5 sentences. Dissapointing, but straight to the point.
The game touts a pretty large Weapon Master mode, in which you take your character through a (quite contrived and boring) text based story of Soul Calibur 2, where you can earn or buy new weapons along the way. In order to get money of course you have to complete missions that are very much in the same vein as the first Calibur. Scenarios such as “You drank some of this magical water…only to find out that it was poisoned!!” are very common, and while the poison matches and whatnot give life to Weapon Master mode, I could have done without it. Most of the objectuves are rehashed from the first game with a few exceptions of course such as the Lizardman transformation (No Lie!), or the Mission in which only Guard Impacts hurt the opponent. If there were more ingenious ways to push the missions, then I would have been more enthralled in WM mode other than finishing the mission that gives you 30,000 gold over and over again to get the weapons. After this mode is all over you are left with an Extra version of every mode in the game in which you can play on the stages you earned in Weapon Master, and play with the earned weapons for a specific character. This didnt stop me from using Taki’s healing weapon and decimating the opponents in Extra Survival. Which leads me to another point; why are do most of the weapons in the game have the same purpose? Some may heal, but be low on defense etc., but every character gets a Soul Edge deritive with the same stat. The cheap knockoff characters Assassin (Hwang) and Berserker (Rock) and Lizardman are now unlockable, but none of them have an ingame move list, so what’s the point? They will just sit on the bottom 3 tiles on the select screen for me. Weapon Master just seems like a great idea, but partially bad execution. How about some actual good characters (Yoshimitsu and Cervantes notwithstanding of course) to unlock? Seung Mina is fine (fanservice ahoy!), but I’m confused as to why Sophitita is here, and not taking her equally as playable sister Cassandra is there also.
Practice mode however; is where the game’s modes fall apart. I think that Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution corners the market on this feature (which is one reason why it is so good). SC2’s practice feature has even less than Tekken 4’s did. No recording, and no onscreen movelists make me VERY angry indeed. A large part of finding character specific strategies (when to 2G, or GI certain moves) in SC2. Most tourney players, or people who look to become well versed in SC combat need these tools, and to see Nacmo throw it out in a game filled with other extras is a spit in the face personally.
The gameplay of Soul Calibur 2 is what is most dissapinting for me. The implementation of a more flexible sidestepping movement comes to mind quickly. Quite simply, the step system takes away the range game that most characters had in the first SC. Most characters like Taki and Mitsurugi had to work for their optimal range, and thats what made gamplay so exciting for me. But now that Step has made its way in It’s made most characters better, and others work much harder. Raphael, Talim, and Xianguha come to mind when I think of this, they are able to step and counter step their way into optimal range, and only use a few moves to win. So this means that most characters that couldnt even dream of stepping up to Astaroth without getting thrown can safely get out of harms way. This seems like a great addition right? Well take in to account that some Horizontal moves (which are supposed to track circling enemies) dont track properly (only a handful off the top of my head, and most of them are Mitsurgui or Raphael). So in order to combat this menace most characters must resort to one or two moves to keep the stepping opponent at bay, and keep their backside from being sliced as well. Why do most of these characters have 55+ moves if only a few work against step? Step is easily done and easily punishible, which is a grave conbination for those that want to become good at the game, but keep getting a 3A from a roaching Xianghua. At one point I was compelled that this ‘broke’ SC2, but it just made me feel that I need to learn to adapt. Sure Step is a bitch, and I hate it, but why shouldnt it be handled properly? After counteless bouts of practice I did learn to beat it, though its shoddy implementation can’t be ignored. If Namco had spent more time, maybe the game wouldnt have half as much screwy stuff in it as it does now (combo relaunching, countless Ring out bugs).
In closing, Soul Calibur 2 for some, can be best compared to one of the great popcorn movies of this summer. High on frills, easy to watch, and easily putdown. But for those who are willing to put in time towards the game will find a fun and insanely deep adventure, just not as engaging or Evolved as well…VF4:Evolution. How will the great 3D fighting game war of August end? With a bang of course, We have two GREAT games to play, Soul Calibur 2 in one hand and Virtua Fighter in another. How can one argue with that, because the genre needs these two games to light the fire up under everyones asses in terms of gameplay, and presentation. If you like Soul Calibur 2, then bump this score up 4 more points, If you like Evo then let it stay. If you like both then…well thats up to you.
END NOTE: The game comes with a demo disc from Namco. The I-Ninja demo is fun, as is Kill.switch, but the downloads are underwhelming (all character downloads for Tekken 4, Tekken Tag) and the videos are from games that have been out for months.
