Soulcalibur II review

A shameless portrayel of Cassandra, one of the 'more attractive' combatants.

Modern beat ‘em-ups generally follow a simple formula. They start with an overly elaborate (and irrelevant) FMV intro sequence, comprise a series of varied characters, throw in a lot of unlockable characters and extras and host the fights in arenas that would make an architect proud. Soulcalibur II is no exception, but fortunately, it takes the formula and refreshes it very well (aside from the FMV which is fine and dandy, but nothing new).

The game centres around two powerful and evil swords called Soul Edge (the name of the first game in the series) and Soul Calibur (the second) and follows a group of fairly recognisable characters in their pursuit of the aforementioned blades. The arcade mode takes place over eight rounds of carnage and ever improving enemy skill, culminating with a ‘destined battle’ against your character’s particular nemesis and a highly unimaginative end boss. Emerge victorious and you get a few still images and a text description of how your chosen fighter continues their life after defeating the boss (sadly there’ll be no collecting ending FMVs here).

Reeling from the arcade

In Weapon Master mode, you may be challenged to defeat three enemies in succession with only one health bar.

Fortunately, the arcade mode is a very small part of the full game, which gives you the essential two player vs. mode and a very diverse single player story mode entitled Weapon Master mode. Giving you a variety of objectives and tasks from causing extra damage by knocking an enemy over or hitting them a certain number of times before the time limit runs its course, this mode puts some semblance of a story together that gives you an excuse to get into set fights while crossing the game map. The gradually increasing difficulty and huge satisfaction from beating an enemy you’ve been trying to defeat for ages really show up this mode for its excellence in terms of a single player beat ‘em-up experience.

With even more extra modes unlockable through various actions within the Weapon Master mode, two hundred weapons to collect and purchase from earning gold, more fighters to play as and arenas to fight in, it is a good idea to investigate this mode to its full extents, since all of the unlocked features can be used in the other game modes.

Cast of characters

Heihachi is an exclusive character for the PS2 version of the game. His fists are his weapon.

Each different platform that is host to Soulcalibur II includes one fighter that is unique to that version and the PS2 incarnation flaunts Tekken bad boy Heihachi. With a quite varied array of weaponry to use, all of the characters bring something new to the table (though some drastically less than others) and Heihachi’s hand-to-hand style is a welcome addition to the line up. Most of his moves seem literally plucked out of Tekken, but the chance to see which game has the ‘hardest’ fighters is added to by Yoshimitsu, who seems to belong in Soulcalibur II even more than Tekken, with his supernatural actions and big pointy sword. The only disappointments seem to be Sophitia (an unlockable character) who plays practically identically to her sister, and Charade - who randomly assumes another character’s fighting style at the start of each bout, which is fine except in terms of originality.

All weapons seem to emit a powerful and impressive glow when they are sliced through the air, and overall the effects are very well done. Characters seem beautifully animated, smoothly transitioning through each move as if a motion capture artist was sitting inside your PS2 waiting for your button presses. There are plenty of moves too which allows for regular discoveries of new attacks to bring a smile to your face (or a frown to your friends’).

“I’d fight Shatner, William Shatner.”

Necrid's weapon changes shape to become any weapon in the game suiting his mood. I need a set of clothes like that.

Undeniably the best feature of any beat’ em-up has to come down to the multiplayer modes, wherein you choose your (least?) favourite friend and show them up in a flurry of martial arts wizardry, depleting their health bar as fast as a student’s bank account. The game is very easy to pick up, so anyone will be able to have impressive battles from the get go. Unfortunately, this basically means that button bashing (a common ‘newbie’ tactic of hitting random buttons, hoping for a win) tends to perform rather better than you’d hope.

There’s nothing more frustrating than an enemy who beats your complicated and diverse attacks with a low kick every time, but to be fair, once a character is mastered (and that’s by no means an easy feat), it’s quite easy to vary attacks enough to both look impressive and put up a fight that would put even the most athletic button basher to shame. The arenas, although having very impressive background areas, are rather simple in terms of the areas where you actually fight and aside from subtle differences in shape and the odd wall to prevent ring outs, they play almost identically.

Watch them scream

"No I will not help you pull your sword out of the ground... not falling for that again."

Each arena has its own music track, some of which are totally immersive and exquisite in their tunes and style. The game’s music in general fits perfectly with the style, timing and drama of two weapon wielding warriors fighting to the death (or rather the knock out), and while most of the characters shouts and mid-game taunts seem fine, the in-game lip sync adds an element of realism, even when they are hit and visually shout out in pain.

The main negative point to the game as far as I can see is the same as that with all of the genre, which involves the frustration of being unable to kill a certain enemy or group of enemies in Weapon Master mode. This, coupled with the lame arcade mode and lack of much originality in terms of style and gameplay, are the only things holding my final judgement down, but Soulcalibur II is a fine addition to any gamer’s collection because even though it borrows aspects from other games and previous incarnations of the series, it does so very well, exceeding almost any other game in the genre on almost all aspects. You’re a beat ‘em-up fan? You need this game.