Engrave Your Name In History (Soul Calibur IV (PS3))

Member Name: Goldensummit

Product:	Soul Calibur IV (PS3)
Date:	12/08/08 (707 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The graphics | Character Creation | Fighting gameplay

Disadvantages: Lack of Story | Lack of Effort in general

Difficulty: Medium
Learning Curve: Around 30 minutes

With the massive hype Soul Calibur IV has received, being the first instalment of the Soul Calibur series to reach the new generation of systems, you'd hope that it would bring great things. While in reality, this game has just brought a half finished game that only excels in certain areas, while others were left out to die.

I'll start from the top. The games graphics are exceptional, revolutionary even, and the new tweaks to the gameplay have really made this feel like a big improvement from all fighting games out there. But what really lets the game down, is the half-assed attempts at stories, that last between 10 - 20 minutes each, with no real resolution at the end or unique standing for each character, and only offering one other single player mode, being a sort of survival mode. Then there's also the generic usual Arcade mode, which are you fighting through a series of battles for no real purpose.

Now, if you've played previous Soul Calibur's, it has always offered a variety of unique game modes, with long, interesting stories for each character, while this seems to have been just a real rush job. For a start, you would have thought you'd have unique character endings, but instead you get a generic ending with very slight changes to tell them apart from each other.

Majority of the characters are already unlocked, and you can unlock a bunch by purchasing them at the Character Creation area. There is no real ambition at all to go through the stories, as it unlocks very little to you, but with it being very short, it won't take you long to get through them if you choose to do so.

But don't count this game out just yet; the character creation in the game is very good, not as good as Soul Calibur 3's mind you, but still very good. You have a big choice of what your character can wear, you can edit the colour of everything to do with your character, and you can even change the size, muscle, and shape of your character. But, you are restricted to only using the movesets of the original playable characters, which was something Soul Calibur 3 excelled more at, as it allowed you to have unique 'jobs' for your character bringing along unique movesets.

You get to meet up with other pre-created character creation characters during stories, but it brings very little worth to the game itself, as you can just create them.

Gameplay - 9/10

The gameplay enhancements and character creation really bring a great feel to this game, very worth playing online with friends, or offline with friends, bringing much fun to you and your buddies.

Design - 9/10

The graphics are amazing and done very well. The designs of the playable characters, the environments and even the characters you create are just wonderful, and really easy on the eye.

Sound - 8/10

The voices, sound effects, and the general atmosphere of the game are exceptional. The wide variety of voices you can choose for your own created character, as well as the pitch is a very nice addition.

Value - 6/10

There really isn't a lot for you to do in this game, nor is there a lot for you to aspire to. The characters stories you'll probably breeze through within around 6-7 hours, and it'll just seem like a broken record.

Overall - 7.5/10

The few areas that were good were very good, giving this worth to purchasing. But seems now, it focuses on the online play and sex appeal, while forgetting the games roots, and just rushing to bring in another cash-cow. It had real potential, but was just executed poorly in the single player department.

Summary: A few areas are exceptional, but seems they've lost their roots and sold out to the rushed jobs