Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> Soul Calibur 2

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Review:

26th September 2003:
Soul Calibur 2
Welcome back to the new stage of history! The sequel to one of the best fighting ever has arrived in Europe - but does it beat the its Dreamcast predecessor?
Posted by Marc Hull - GameCube - UK and Europe

With Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast being such an amazing game, I certainly don't envy the guys whose job it was to produce the sequel. After all, the game not only pushed the console to its limits technically, but also brought a touch of originality into a genre that has stuck to the same formula ever since the days of the 16-bit consoles. By definition, it's almost impossible for a sequel to deliver the same spark of originality again, so how did Namco attempt it in Soul Calibur 2?

From the minute you put the disk into the console and the introduction video appears, you can easily tell that this is a much bigger-budget game than its predecessor. Whereas before there was a reasonable realtime 3D sequence introducing the characters, this time it's been replaced by much higher-quality full-motion-video. The trade-off is that it no longer mixes up the characters at random, and doesn't show off the in-game engine at all, but it does give the game a very cinematic feel and prepares you well for what is to come. As you'd expect, the Arcade, Time Attack, Survival and Practice game modes are all present and ready for you to dive straight into. There are fifteen combatants to choose from, some of which will be familiar to fans of the series, while others are completely new, however all of them with the possible exception of Astaroth are modelled in a slightly different style to before. Some, like 15-year-old newcomer Talim are quite cartoony, other characters such as Ivy now look more serious than before, and some of the new characters like Necrid and Charade are stranger than even Voldo.

Of course, all people really care about is how well the game plays, and on that note it certainly doesn't disappoint. Each character still has a wealth of super-fluid moves that can be strung together, and despite having vastly different fighting styles they all seem very balanced. However, those going straight from playing the Dreamcast Soul Calibur to this will probably notice quite a difference in the gameplay initially. I don't know if it was just the GameCube pad's unusual button layout, but moves from the first Soul Calibur seem much more difficult to execute in this game, which increases the difficulty level a bit. Whereas before the arcade mode could easily be completed without using a continue, now it seems quite a challenge. Fortunately, this is more of a difference than a problem, since after playing the game for a week you'll soon get to grips with the moves and will be back on form.

Following on from its cinematic beginning, SC2 has many more cut-scenes and introductions for each of the characters and arenas. Before each battle, the playfield will be introduced with a nice rotating camera angle and a voice-over giving you some background information about your opponent. Then, as before, each of the two characters do their own taunts before the match properly begins. Even the replays after each match switch to a wide-screen mode for added cinematic effect, and the overall result is a game that looks incredibly polished. All the characters now have more winning and taunting animations, which provide welcome relief from the "This rod will be thy doom" repetitiveness from the Dreamcast game. However, the new English-American voices do get particularly grating after a while, so its worth digging around in the options menus to change them back to Japanese.

While the standard fighting modes are pretty good for a quick bout of gaming, extended sessions are catered for by the new Weapon Master Mode. Once again you're travelling around a map completing various missions, but there are plenty of additions that make this more than a simple extension to the Mission Mode from SC1. To begin with, the missions are now split into 'chapters', each of which has an introduction story, although this is told through large amounts of text. Each of these chapters contains three to twelve missions each, represented by icons on the map, but unlike the Dreamcast game where you could complete these in any order, now there's a set route between each one. The most important new additions, however, have to be the RPG-style elements that have been added, such as experience points that you gain after tackling a mission which allow your character to 'level up' to different classes. You also obtain gold throughout the game, which then allows you to buy items from each chapter's shop. Usually, the shops contain new weapons for each of the characters, but sometimes they also contain new costumes and game modes.

The ability to collect new weapons for each of the characters may seem like a huge new feature, after all, a lot of the weapons determine which moves your character can execute. However, in reality it isn't quite that big a deal. When you buy a weapon you can't then equip any character with it; instead each weapon can only be used by a single character, and often they are very similar to that character's default weapon. If you're expecting whole new move-sets to become unlocked by purchasing a weapon then you're going to be disappointed, however the changes are more than cosmetic. Each weapon affects your character's performance in areas such as attacking power, defence and reach, and some will even increase or decrease your health with every hit they make. Overall, we would have liked to see a smaller number of weapons that could be used by all the characters and that changed some of their moves, since although SC2 boasts over 200 weapons to be collected you'll probably only use a small number of these because many are so similar, but it at least adds an extra layer that provides the game with some originality over its predecessor.

Like almost every aspect of Soul Calibur 2, the game's sound has made a big leap since the Dreamcast days. From the intro sequence to the menu music, everything fits perfectly and is of very high quality. The sound effects are also done particularly well, with the hit noises now varying depending on what material your current weapon is made out of and which part of your enemy you hit! Graphically, it's quite a feat that Namco have managed to keep this game looking as good as it does while developing it simultaneously across all three platforms. Usually, multi-platform titles end up looking as good as the lowest denominator, but with this game each version has been optimised to make full use of the console it is running on. We've been playing the GameCube version mostly, but have also played both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox editions as well, and while the PS2 fares the worst as you might expect, the other two seem incredibly close. With hugely detailed character models, backgrounds that span for miles, anti-aliasing keeping everything smooth and some great self-shadowing effects, it's quite incredible how much the developer's have managed to squeeze out of Nintendo's little machine.

Aside from graphics, the other main difference between the three versions is the special character in each. In this area, there's no doubt that the GameCube fares the best, featuring one of Nintendo's most prominent games characters, Link, as a playable fighter. As you'd expect, he has a lot of the moves that you could use in Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker, including the ability to fire arrows, throw bombs and use his boomerang! The game's other characters also have some special abilities, such as Necrid who can summon in some of the other characters' weapons during some of his moves, but Link probably has the most varied move set of all the game's combatants.

Overall, Soul Calibur 2 is bigger and better than its predecessor in almost every area, so if you liked the first game, you'll probably love this. However, it's not perfect; there's still reams of background text to read through that could be replaced by some nice cut-scenes, and a lot of the game modes you unlock seem unnecessary (i.e several versions of Time Attack mode??). Despite this, though, Namco have still managed to produce yet another classic fighting game, which will probably be the best fighter on any console for a pretty long time.

Marc Hull

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Review Summary:

Soul Calibur 2 improves on the first game in almost every way, pushing the GameCube graphically, containing a stirring soundtrack and retaining the fast-paced, fluid action that made its predecessor so good. The ability to buy new weapons may not be as great as it sounds, but it provides the game with enough originality for it to stand out from every other fighting title available.

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Soul Calibur II
for GameCube

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