SoulCalibur is one of the greatest fighting games of all time. It sets itself apart by having a killer story, recognizable characters, and above all, blades. SoulCalibur is a smartly designed, beautifully crafted game that allows for mastering and just plain old button mashing with its easy to pick up and play game mechanics. Using clever 8-way run tactics and abilities, every single character has a diverse and over the top move set. There may be a few characters that have the same fighting style, or use the same weaponry, but each one manages to maintain their identity with their unique style, finesse, and looks. Each character can beat the other, there is no one character that is the ultimate.
The story of soulCalibur is different for each character that players take through the arcade mode. But all in all, everybody is after the sword for either personal reasons or the fate of the world or some such nonsense. The basic arcade mode takes players and whatever character they’ve chosen through eight stages which increase in difficulty. After running though the arcade mode a few times, you may or may not get bored, but for those that do get bored, you have options.
SoulCaibur does have quite a bit of content to keep people coming back for many, many hours. Training, multiplayer, and options are all there on the main menu, but for the hardcore there is weapon master mode. Weapon master mode is a giant map containing lots and lots of different challenges with varying conditions that change the battles so immensely that it becomes almost a controller-chucking frustrating challenge. Scratch that, it does become controller-chuckingly difficult. This is where the meat of the game is; however, there is a flaw with its unlocking system. Every challenge that you complete you earn gold. Rather than just unlocking more challenges by completing previous challenges or just simply buying them with the gold that you’ve worked so vary hard to obtain, the game forces players to buy art work. I guess they didn’t want the art gallery to get lonely. This is a bit of a frustration because only certain pieces of art work unlock new challenges for the weapon master mode. Sometimes it’s the more expensive one, sometimes it’s not. There is no indication of the piece, which are all impressive, that will allow you to progress through weapon master mode.
Speaking of art work, the game is beautiful, for its time, at least. Each character has a level of detail that blows other games, and other games of this genre, out of the water. Every character’s animation is smooth, fluid, and something to marvel at. The game environments are also something to marvel at. Even though everything in the background doesn’t really matter, and the only thing that you really should be paying any attention to is the squared circle and the other guy charging at you with a sword ready to cut your head off and mount over his fireplace, you still can’t help but have a sense of awe and wonder at the scenery. To add even more of a wow factor to the game, the weapons pretty much explode with fire and lightning to further enhance the oomph of each blow. Making each battle something of an epic proportion. It also helps that the soundtrack is one of the greatest in video game history… just saying.
Each level has its own score to accompany it and set the mood for bashing in someone’s skull. It’s and absolutely gorgeous soundtrack and it makes every single battle a glorious experience. Even when you completely trounce the other player, you still get a sense of triumph as the letters appear on screen and the announcer declares K. O.!
All in all SoulCalibur is a game that helps make the Dreamcast what it is. I’ve always been a fan of the series and have always enjoyed playing the games and seeing what they’ve become today. It’s truly a worthy opponent and a great addition to any respectable gamer’s library. With an impressive fighting system and a set of well balanced and unique characters and weapons, SoulCalibur, whichever number that you pick up (I recommend number two), is worth having. And it will keep you entertained for a long time. The legend will never die… A+
No comments:
Post a Comment