Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

Soul Edge hit the arcades in 1996 and the PlayStation in December of that year.  The game was a big hit, but it wasn’t until the series was reborn as Soul Calibur on the fledgling Dreamcast that it saw true critical acclaim.  Garnering a bevy of perfect or near-perfect scores, the game went on to spawn a sequel on the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube.  While not scoring quite as well as the previous title, the multiplatform nature of the game gave the series wider exposure.  Soul Calibur III on the other hand was released exclusively on the PlayStation 2 and spelled the last release for the series on that console generation.  Today we take a look at Soul Calibur IV – the debut of the series on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  What new features would this version bring?  What adjustments to the older tried and true features could we expect?  Before we get into that, let’s talk about the story of Soul Calibur.

Soul Calibur follows a bevy of fighters that are all questing to get their hands on the legendary Soul Edge – a weapon that would grant incredible power for those who could wield it.  The soul of the warriors all burn for the weapons in different ways and…ahh…who am I kidding here?  I’ve now played four Soul Calibur titles and I still don’t really have a clue what is going on.  Let’s move on to the nuts and bolts.

Given that this is the first title on the next gen platforms, the most obvious upgrades will be to the graphic engine. Character models look as good as their CGI counterparts, with detail paid to every aspect of the presentation.  Characters have muscles that flex under the strain of combat, and clothing that fans out with their movements.  The armor is shiny and reflective, with excellent texture work laid on to the cloth or banded pieces.  The character models themselves show excellent lip synch and a full range of human emotions.  Few, if any, fighting games look as good as this.

It isn’t just the characters and equipment that got a makeover, the arenas got one as well.  Each area is more fantastic than the last, with the lush green courtyard, flight deck of a starship, and the castle courtyard being the standouts of the group.  The only level I honestly found bland was, sadly enough, the final boss area. 

The PlayStation 3 version of the game runs at 720p and seems to hold it’s framerate down solid.  It is crisp and clean and likely the best representation of the series to date.  While the art direction isn’t breaking any new ground, it does handle the source material quite nicely, giving off fantastic effects and lighting to bring the gameplay together. 

Since the original Soul Edge, the sound and music for the Soul Calibur series has always been comprised of fantastic orchestral pieces coupled with the most ridiculous over-the-top voice acting this side of the Resident Evil franchise.  Fans of the series will be happy to know that Soul Calibur IV is no different!  Orchestral titles from all of the previous titles are brought together in this title, and the announcer makes his return as well.  Spouting nonsense at the beginning and end of each and every battle, the announcer is only eclipsed by the ridiculous things that the fighters have to say.  Even worse, the fighters tend to talk over the announcer, resulting in obnoxious noise.  By the fourth title in the series, you’d figure that we’d be past poor voice work, repeating comments, and nonsense Engrish.  There has to be somebody at Namco Bandai that speaks both Japanese and English, right? 

The sound effects in Soul Calibur IV are very well done.  The sound of metal on metal gives a real weight to the weapon combat for which the game is so well known.  Since portions of the environments are destructible, there are also sounds modeled for the splintering of wood and the clang of weapons on metal columns.  Overall, the sound in Soul Calibur IV is what we’ve come to expect – cheesy, over the top, and high quality all around.

Since the invention of the 8-way run (being able to move and dodge on a 3D plane), very little has changed with the Soul Calibur series, or with fighting games in general.  The controls are essentially what you’d expect – the left thumbstick or D-Pad handles character movement, while the face buttons handling horizontal strikes, vertical strikes, kicks, and guard.  Granted, this just covers the basics, but it covers the bases for most casual players.

For more advance players, you’ll be interested to know about the Reverse Guard Impact that allows you to free yourself from an immobilizing stun move.  That, combined with the push/pull of vertical vs. horizontal strike counters, Soul Crush which allows you to perform a critical attack that will instantly defeat your opponent, and the ability to degrade your opponent’s armor to the point of creating a weakness. 

Like any good fighting game, there is a learning curve to the combination system.  Soul Calibur IV features a robust practice mode that allows you to rehearse combinations against an AI opponent with a variety of set responses ranging from brain dead to full-on maximum leveled warrior. 

Soul Calibur IV doesn’t break anything, but doesn’t introduce anything that’ll change the gameplay in any significant way for most players.  What worked for you in previous titles will work for you here.  A few extra points go to the PS3 for the superior D-Pad hardware on DualShock 3.

Soul Calibur IV has three primary modes – arcade, story, and the Tower of Lost Souls.  The arcade and story modes are pretty simple – arcade is a versus mode, and story mode gives each character a linear chance to flesh out their own story and motivations for wanting the Soul Edge swords.  Granted, none of it will make any sense whatsoever, but their storylines are there for the reveal.  Each story will take you about 20 minutes, and I’ll be shocked if you happen to remember any of them for longer than an additional 20. 

The third mode is the Tower of Lost Souls.  It allows you to ascend a tower of challenges that gradually increase in difficulty as you move up through the floors.  As you complete challenges you’ll unlock equipment, weapons, and other items that you’ll be able to use in the Character Creator.  Once you get to the top, you’ll find a whole different challenge.

Descending the Tower of Lost Souls gives you a chance to team up with another fighter to tag-team battle your way back to the bottom.  Functioning in a similar fashion to the tag team battles in other fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom or the King of Fighters series, as one fighter is off screen, they’ll begin to heal.  Obviously this means balancing damage between your fighters.  This mode was the most compelling for me, and I imagine that’ll be the case for most players.

The other mode in Soul Calibur IV is one that you’ll create for yourself.  Soul Calibur IV has a very robust character creator system.  You’ll choose your character’s sex and then a basic archetype to act as a foundation for your fighter.  Selecting from the styles already present in the regular characters, you’ll map on the head, body, weapons, clothing, and various other pieces you’ve unlocked through the single player game.  As you continue to fight with your new character you’ll rank up, unlocking new combinations and skills.  These skills and pieces of equipment can be taken into the online battle mode that we’ll talk about later.  You can also use this character in the other two modes, so there are plenty of opportunities to create your own sort of backstory for your create-a-fiend.  Some players have gone so far as to create the entire Generation 1 Transformers lineup, so the sky truly is the limit. 

Unfortunately, similar to the controls – there is very little new here.  Let’s talk about what happens when we go online.

Soul Calibur IV is not the first fighter that you can take online via Xbox Live or PSN.  Just earlier this year we got Soul Calibur’s primary rival, Virtua Fighter, allowing us to put black eyes on our friends virtually and from a distance. You can select either ranked or unranked matches, and then decide between “standard” and “special” versus modes.  In standard mode, fighters are locked down to their pre-defined defaults, whereas the special mode allows players to bring their pre-made characters and their unlocked skills into the fray.  When I was trying not to be destroyed inside of 10 seconds by the vastly superior fighters online, I didn’t encounter any lag or frame issues.  In fact, other than the fact that real players are far better than the online variety, there is little discernable difference between offline and online play. 

Obviously we can’t close out a review for the PS3 version of the game without talking about what makes it the version to have over the others – the Sith Lord himself, Darth Vader.  Donning the black cloak and red saber, you’ll be able to take on other fighters in the Soul Calibur universe.  Granted, there is a whisper-thin and almost non-existent explanation of why the dark lord is in the year 1584, but at the very least he is a mostly balanced addition to the lineup.  Starkiller, lead character of the recently-released Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on the other hand is rather unbalanced.  He’s able to throw lightning in midair and does significant amounts of damage at ludicrous speeds.  Obviously LucasArts wanted their new star to be powerful in the crossover fighter, but in the end he is overpowered. 

You can plow through Soul Calibur IVs primary story modes in roughly 6 hours, but there is plenty of work to be done if you want to build a new character from scratch and unlock all of their techniques.  That said, if you aren’t into the online competition side of things you might find the $59.99 pricetag a bit steep. 

Soul Calibur IV is the first next-gen platform title in the series. There are very few new features, but the ones that are present are rock solid.  Lag free online play and the new Tower of Lost Souls mode make for some compelling gameplay, and the graphics are certainly beautiful.  While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it does handle almost everything right.  Players will have to decide for themselves whether their online or offline habits justify the price.  Now that the base has been built, I look forward to seeing what new features Namco Bandai can bring to Soul Calibur V.

Gaming Trend Score

85

1. Graphics: 95
2. Audio: 85
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 80
5. Value/Replay: 80
6. OVERALL:85