Soul Calibur IV

THE GOOD:
- Gameplay is still amazing
- Visuals are amazing, characters and background
- Tower of Lost Souls

THE BAD:
- Online mode is riddled with bugs
- Shockingly short story modes
- No local mutli-player modes such as league or tournament

SUMMARY:

Despite that fact that a large quantity of my childhood gaming was absorbed by Tekken, I have always been open to try other fighting games, and I am ashamed to say that the fourth instalment of Namco’s Soul Calibur was my first pry into the series that has been around since the conception of the original Playstation. The question is: did Soul Calibur really make the desired impact, compared to other sequels and recent follow-ups?

The story is as it always has been in the series; one blade, a couple of dozen warriors want it, they...

THE GOOD:
Excellent fighting styled gameplay; user friendly but not to the point where it's too easy; improves the AI a lot; improves the hell out of character customization; guest characters (Yoda or Vader depending on if you're playing PS3 or 360 version and The Apprentice) add a lot of new things to the mix; FINALLY has online play; fixes the corrupt save file thing that really screwed it up on PS2; gorgeous visuals; soundtrack is still as good as they come and are well suiting to the sort of game this is (medieval fighting game); controls are still as tight as they come, and thankfully they're the same as the last two Soul Caliburs on the PS2.

THE BAD:
Story mode doesn't really feel like story mode, especially after a taste of what we got in Soul Calibur 3; overall gameplay hasn’t really changed all that much from the series; AI still feels cheap, but it's a much needed improvement over Soul Calibur 3's; Critical Finish seems a bit cheap, but...

THE GOOD:
*Great gameplay
*In-depth character creator
*Smooth online play

THE BAD:
*Crappy story mode and endings
*Not much for single player

SUMMARY:
Finally the long awaited new installment of the Soul series has arrived, oooooooh. Somebody has made a few mistakes.

Soul Calibur IV is the new installment to the soul series, and it leaves a lot of die hard fans disappointed. Soul Calibur has always been one of the most story driven fighting games on the block, but this story mode is just down right dumb, being no more than 4 matches with certain characters and the final fifth battle with somebody wielding a soul sword. Not to mention that the characters' endings leave players DYING for more. The arcade mode remains unchanged.

Almost all of the main storyline characters return to the fray including some new additions, some submitted by guest artists (although their just skins for already created...

Alrighty then. Here's my review.

We all know the Music and Graphics are awesome, so I'll only talk about what's important.

~REVIEW:

STORY



While gameplay in a fighter is always the most important aspect, SoulCalibur has always been one of the more story-driven fighters on the block.

With that said, I am extremely disappointed in the new Story Mode. The endings for most of the characters are pretty much copy-and -paste versions of eachother, with script differences, and the occasional oddity (like Rapheal's).

Excluding the revelation that shows your character defeating the final boss, the majority of these ENDING cutscenes last only seconds. Your character says...