What can I say about Soul Calibur 2 that hasn't been said through the endless half-words of joy by fans of figthing, weapons, weapons that have eyes and big breasted but half clothed women? Well, I guess "nummy goo" doesn't quite sum up any video game so full, complete words are needed in such an endeavor. And I, being a man that can use complete words shall embark on this task. To review Soul Calibur 2 with words to match the addiction.
I bought Soul Calibur 2 about a week ago. Since then, I've only managed to tear myself away by a slow weaning, much like a heroin addict must be weaned from the needle. I bought it because I saw my friends (Wolf Mike and his cousin, whom I will call Drunky Munky, because I can) like madmen in the Story mode. So me and Ibanezax went to the Wall of Marts, where I purchased the game, a Robin Williams DVD and an Eomer action figure. Hopefully this will also give you a bit of my mindset, which is far from normal. It was my birthday, I was buying like crazy.
Anyway, I sat down to play this game and now I will tell you of my adventure....
The Story
The story of Soul Calibur 2 is quite simple, you see. You're in search for the Soul Calibur...wait, you're not? But the game is called...okay...so you're in search for the Soul Edge. A guy called Inferno has it. Guess what Inferno looks like? Yeup, a guy suffering from a case of spontaneous combustion. Apparently, the Soul Edge is an evil sword, with an eye. Yes, its a weapon that looks back at you. It may be made of brains, sharp brains.
Anyway, this is a "fighting game" thus the story isn't that important. Here its just an object for the single player mode and the "Weaponmaster"(story) mode. Weaponmaster mode is there to unlock different weapons, game play modes and costumes for your enjoyment. So, its like winning more entertainment and more ways to beat the ever-loving hell out of your friends, if you are one of those gamers that shower enough to have friends.
Arcade mode's "story" is less defined, of course. Though a feature I really enjoyed was the "Destined Battle" fight. It is a match that includes a cut-scene for interaction between two characters. This gives a little more character to each...uh...character. Also gives your thumbs a chance to rest if you so choose.
So, to sum up. The story is just there to make you feel like you're actually doing stuff. It does that well.
Starfly's Story Rank:
Graphics
The graphics in this game are great. Everything has life to it. The background, the characters, the weapons...each is detailed and most of it has some sort of animation. Let me describe it a bit...
The weapons are fantastic. Each character has twelve weapons, including their Soul Edge Weapon, their Soul Calibur weapon and a Comedy weapon. Each character's weapons are tailored to the character, though some characters have more than one type of weapon.
The backgrounds are awesome. They are probably the most detail battlegrounds I've seen in any fighting game. Fireflie's dance about, water ripples, windmills turn (and in some modes even blows wind at you!), smoke drifts...its detail like detail should be. Whatever that means. The scenery is magnificent to put it simply.
The main graphics goody is the characters. They are fully animated. And when I say fully, I mean fully. Their lips move when they talk. The characters blink. Their clothes move (though sometimes they do have the problem of clipping through the character unfortunately). The women's boobs jiggle. No, seriously, they do. Thats detail right there.
Each character is completely detailed, with at least three costumes per character (The bonus characters have seven), with most costumes being much more than any other game's simple color change. Facial hair, details in their clothing, all perfect. As well as the previously mentioned boobs...well, most of the females are fairly excited to be in the game, one could say.
Good eye candy and good graphics all around.
Starfly's Graphics Rank:
Sound
The sound in this game is fairly tight. Each character has their own voice work done. Each character talks in battle. The weapon sounds don't sound like random stock, which is always a bonus.
Each battleground has its own music to accompany the fight. Some characters in the Arcade and Weaponmaster modes having specific music when you encounter them. Its not the most entertaining music, but it provides its purpose as background music for a video game.
All in all, the sound to the game is pretty good. It serves its purpose, rarely becomes annoying (though playing with Link makes you wonder how strong his coffee is and what you could do to switch him to decaf), and doesn't interfere with enjoyment of the game. All good functions for sound.
Starfly's Sound Ranking: 9.5
Gameplay
You will not have to be the little kid from "The Wizard" in order to play this game. I picked up the controls in about five minutes and was beating the mercy out of my opponents. You can start picking up the combos and special abilities just by button mashing or figuring out what makes sense for a move to be.
Mastering the game is something different entirely. I was playing for three days (with almost 20 hours of gameplay under my belt) and was beat down by a button masher who had been only playing for about an hour, and then another masher who had just started playing three matches ago. It took me a while and a lot more matches to start beating them, but once I did I became an unstoppable beast. I became like the destroyer of worlds, consuming victory after victory...
Well, I at least started to win a lot more.
In short, it doesn't take a lot to start playing this game, but there is always room for improvement if you really want to smack your friends into oblivion with not a scratch upon your fighter. This is a bonus, bring enjoyable gameplay not only when you first pick up the game, but also when you are a grizzled veteran of the game.
The game features a bevy of modes for fighting, but you probably won't use much more than the Extra Arcade mode, Extra Versus Mode and Weaponmaster mode.
The Extra Arcade and Extra Versus mode can only be used after you've unlocked them, but once you have you will wonder why they aren't the regular modes. The Extra means that you can use all the weapons you've unlocked through Weaponmaster mode to fight instead of the character's standard weapon. This is completely pointless in my eyes, as the game is not exactly impossible to beat. So its more of a time wasting factor, but hey...you can beat the joy out of lots more fighters along the way.
Beating the game has more purpose than just beating the game also. You can unlock stuff (like the modes of play), profiles for each character, and you earn gold to unlock...MORE STUFF. Some of it is great, some of it isn't worth your time. It becomes a goal though, to collect gold to buy useless stuff. How much a statement of reality this is...[Insert tear and sad music here]
The game is great fun regardless if your playing with yourself (like usual, eh?) or you have a bunch of friends over. The negative factor of having friends is that it can only play two at a time. But as the term goes, "Winner stays, loser pays." And as my heroin-esque metaphor suggested early, the game is very very addictive once you've started playing.
A strong game with lots of fun and enjoyment and plent of rubbing your victory into your friends' faces...
Starfly's Gameplay Ranking:
To Sum Up
Soul Calibur 2 is a magnificent game. Its truly a new standard for fighting games everywhere. It rocks hard and long. It love you long time.
This game will be spinning in my Gamecube for a long time to come.
Starfly's Final Rankings
Story: 8.5
Graphics: 9.6
Sound: 9.5
Gameplay: 9.8
Author's Opinion: 9.5
FINAL SCORE: 9.4
