Soul Caliber 2 Review

Platform Reviewed: PS2, Gamecube, Xbox

Soul Caliber 2: An Older Game Evolved

When Namco released Soul Caliber, the original, it was widely hailed as the most beautifully perfect fighting game for a console. Despite the fact that it was released on the Dreamcast, a system that bit the dust and buried Sega as a console designer, its notoriety was untouchable. It’s likely that this is the reason few functionality based changes were made for the sequel. The single player mode in all three versions that have been released is the same across the board, but the difference that made Soul Caliberfans really buckle down and choose from the three big consoles (PS2, Gamecube, Xbox) is that each was granted one console specific character:

• PS2- Tekken’s Heihachi Mishima
• Xbox- Todd McFarlane’s Spawn
• Gamecube- Zelda’s Link.

As there was no need to improve drastically on the original, I think Namco did right by the historically prodigious series by leaving well enough alone. They retained the fighting mechanics, but improved the quality of the minor details like level design and single player gameplay.

So, What’d They Do Different Anyhow?

We’ll start with the single player, as newbies may want to get acclimated here. You have a few options available, but if you want to jump in and start unlocking the goodies, start with Story Mode. This is a unique feature to a fighting game, where you can unlock characters and buy weapons for your character to use in multiplayer mode. It encourages players to play Soul Caliber 2 on their own more than the previous version, but some of the missions were a bit tedious; for example, fighting a match where gale force winds were trying to push you away from your opponent. When it comes down to it though, most people don’t buy a fighting game to curse at the screen in an empty room. That’s why we have friends! Many of the gamers in my circle of friends had a difficult time making the decision that forced you to pick between beloved family members. For me personally, it was simple. I bought the Gamecube version. However, I have had an opportunity to play them all over the course of several long nights of rambunctious multiplayer brawls. I should warn, these battles started with the video game and often ended on the front lawn.

After playing them all, I would say stick to the Xbox or the Gamecube versions. Heihachi was probably the worst idea for a unique character ever. When the consoles released the information on their character specific versions of the game, I think the whole world scratched its head at the PS2. First of all, Heihachi is nowhere as well known (or cool) as Spawn or Link. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Soul Caliber, the Soul Caliber is a legendary weapon, so this fighting game is strongly based around bludgeoning your opponents with actual objects. Which brings me to my next point: If the whole basis of this fighting game is enveloped by the idea of clashing different characters that use different weapons, why insert the elderly, diapered Heihachi who uses his fist (and poorly I might add)? Not to mention that among the three systems, PS2 is the weakest when it comes to visual performance and some of the levels are just too gorgeous to be down-played by hardware issues.

The Doctor’s Orders

I think anybody who is interested in testing the bond they have with a fellow friend/gamer should try Soul Caliber 2. If you like fighting games, it’s a must have and if you want to experiment with the genre, this is the cream of the crop. Whichever console you end up choosing, if you wind up playing with a bunch of other people who have varying systems, it might be worth it to buy a controller converter as well. They’re pretty cheap, I think ten to twenty bucks’ll do it, depending on how fancy you want to get. I ended up getting one, not for myself of course, but for all of the people who complained that they “just weren’t used to playing it on my system of choice.” There can’t be a price attached to beating somebody so brutally AND leaving them utterly excuseless.