Could have been more (Soul Calibur III (PS2))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	Soul Calibur III (PS2)
Date:	12/09/09 (0 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Graphics

Disadvantages: Rickety gameplay

Soulcalibur 3 is a game that, on the face of it, is pretty great. It's got some fantastic visuals, but is undeniably plagued by some gameplay flaws and a highly irritating glitch that resulted in a lot of people sending their copies back to the shops because it erased their game save.

Visually, though, this is a doozy - the graphics certainly are able to compete with the likes of God of War, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Resident Evil 4, and it also runs at a very fluid 60FPS. The character models are extremely well rendered, and most will probably be amused at the physics engine devoted to the breasts of the female characters, notably Taki. It's also a nice touch that they've reworked a lot of the classic Soulcalibur tunes for the hardcore fans.

The premise is the same as before - you can play any number of characters who attempt to get rid of the big bad etc. The game's main mode is called "Tales of Soul", and has you picking a fighter and then going through 10 stages, where you can choose to take any route you like, but they ultimately all wind up near enough the same, giving the impression that Namco are trying to themselves give the impression of choice, when in fact it's just a bit cheeky really. I will credit it as being legitimately quite difficult, but it's also irritating having to play through the same campaign so many times to unlock everything, when the cut-scenes just interchanged fighters most of the time without any other change. There is finally a create a fighter mode, but sadly it's not very comprehensive at all, and your fighters look like something you'd see in a wrestling game - campy and laughable.

To its credit, despite some overbearing flaws, it does boast immaculate visuals, and your favourite fighters have never looked better. Still, it's hard to look at this as an improvement, and instead it seems as though Namco have been cutting corners to churn out a visually impressive but otherwise quite empty sequel. Also, the difficulty is quite steep for casual gamers, so it's difficult to recommend over, say, the Tekken games. Oh, and you might want to back your memory card up before playing this, because the first print run of the game can delete all your saves.

Summary: A challenging but frustrating experience