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Soul Calibur II Review - Xbox

23rd October 2003 by
84%
It's been named the Halo of fighting games, the best fighting game ever, there's a whole lot of hype surrounding it, but is Soul Calibur II really all that? Transcending history and the world..A tale of souls and swords eternally retold. These are the words you hear when you load up Soul Calibur II, which is then followed by the most electrifying introduction sequence that I've ever laid my eyes on. Brilliantly rendered graphics leave the gamer very eager to dive straight in to the game, yet something will keep you from skipping through the introductory FMV.

Gameplay

As Russell Coight might say, "Fighting has never been so in-depth, except for maybe in another fighting game." Although Soul Calibur II does pride on its realistic fighting styles and its hundreds of combination moves, that isn't really something that will separate it from all the other fighting games we love today. What does separate Soul Calibur II from the rest is its innovative Weapons Master mode. As Kelly Starr has said in our Soul Calibur II GameCube review, Weapons Master mode is the quest mode of the game, where you travel from location to location on a map, reading little snippets of story and fighting battles based on the storyline. Most of the battles will have some kind of condition to them, such as you starting with low health, the ring being trapped or wind pushing you constantly towards the edge. Others will require you to do certain things, such as defeat your opponent with a ring out or to damage them with only guard impacts.

Weapons Master mode is also the main area where you can unlock costumes and weapons for all your characters. Sure, there's other unlockables that can be found within the standard VS Battle mode and Arcade, but if you really want to get stuck in to unlocking everything you'd better head straight for the Weapons Master mode. There are shops in each chapter on the map in Weapons Master mode where you can purchase new weapons and costumes for your characters, as well as art galleries and lots of other goodies.

Once you're past all the rabble of working out what exactly is going on in Soul Calibur II, you'll most likely be sitting in a fight trying to work out the controls. The initial controls are very easy to pick up, and basic combinations will prove simple to marshal. However once you get to fight harder AI, you're going to need to learn combinations and blocking manoeuvres that will put you ahead in the rank order. You'll have to perform amenably and unambiguously if you plan on becoming the king of this ring.

Soul Calibur II came out on all 3 main consoles, and each console got its unique character. GameCube got the legendary Link from the epic Zelda series, Playstation 2 got Heihachi from the Tekken series, and Xbox got Spawn. I was (continued next page)

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