Doccy Darko's Soul Calibur 4 View - 7/10

I got my copy of SC4 last night and I got to say its good.. Just good.

It's basically the same game as every other instalment of SC but you kind of expect that for a button mashing beat em up. It's all part of the joy of picking up a new game and having an almost primal knowledge of the controls and special moves. That feeling you get when you press the triangle and circle together to perform your favourite special move and you haven’t even creased the front cover of the instruction manual yet.

I really like these games above some others in the same genre because of the back story of the characters. All the old favourites are there with all the moves identical to previous versions of the game. Sophitia with her shield and sword, Kilik with his long reach quarterstaff and Mitsurugi the one hit wonder. Even Voldo is back; bless his bizarrely bendy backwards butt.

There are a few characters that have had touch ups to their original look but for the most part it’s the same game. I was probably least impressed by the new look Nightmare, most impressed by all the women characters who seem to have had implants since the last game and obviously go to the same surgeon that the "Dead or Alive" girls use. Ivy in particular is kind of off-putting in a strangely "former crush on Betty from the Flintstones" way.

Darth Vader is kind of cool but the novelty wears off very quickly as his grabs are quite crap. The lightsaber looks awesome but why doesn’t it cut through swords shields and flesh like butter? In the movies they use it to get through giant bulkhead doors. I found myself going back to the old faithfuls very quickly.

Graphics aren't much of an improvement on former versions of the game and it still has the look that it’s been built for a late 90's arcade machine. I mean they probably are better, but I can't tell the difference. The best looking version of the game in my opinion was on the Sega Dreamcast.

The Game modes are really short, story mode is over in 15mins at most, arcade mode is only 8 characters and final cut scenes are rubbish. Where is the intricate story detail that I loved from previous versions?

The tower section is an interesting mode, you choose to go up or down in the tower battling different amounts of enemies (although so far only 1 at a time) the idea is to find treasure chests containing unlockables by performing certain things.

The new Character creation mode is interesting but in the early stages
(where I’m up to at the time of writing) of the game you can't do too much until you've unlocked all the items.

Unlockables... heaps of unlockables. The extra characters will take you no time at all to unlock which is a bit of a disappointment. Basically you earn points by playing the game and you spend those points on unlocking stuff. Characters are relatively cheap and therefore simple to unlock. This should be the hardest thing to unlock. Instead, you spend all your time and effort on unlocking new belts and shoes.

Overall I’ve probably given the impression that the game is nothing special, the fact is the game is good. It’s exactly what you would expect from a Soul Calibur title. Its fun, its characters are great, the weapons are cool. It’s the same Soul Calibur that’s been out for so many years now. Grab some mates and a few beers and really get into it, that's where the true fun in these style of games is at.

If you like this series, you’ll love this game.

I do

Submitted by Doccydarko 01/08/2008 1060 10

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SoulCalibur IV

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• Doccydarko Review 7/10 by Doccydarko
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