Three years have passed since the last installment of the Soul Calibur franchise, but does the latest game in the franchise live up to the high standards the series is known for?
The Soul Calibur series has been known for its gorgeous visuals, and not surprisingly, “Soul Calibur V” looks fantastic.
The character models are desgined with great detail and the battle animations flow very smoothly.
The stages themselves offer a great variety in style ranging from sinking battleships to fantasy battlefields; there is no shortage of diversity.
The game does offer a proper story mode, but it is one of the weaker aspects of the game, but not because a majority of the stories cutscenes are storyboards with voice overs.
The problem is that the story is not written very well.
Players take on the role of Patroklos, a character who’s out to save his sister Phyrrha from her malfestation. Both Patroklos and Pyrrha remain largely the same, in terms of personality, throughout the story, and rarely do you get use any of the new characters in the story.
Most of the new characters simply are replacements for many of the older character, with the exceptions of Z.W.E.I, Viola and guest character Ezio Auditore from the Assassin’s Creed series.
The combat system retains much of its depth and complexity as previous installations, but has added numerous features to make the game more accessible to new players.
The game is a 3D weapon style fighter, using a rock paper scissors style that revolves around high and low vertical/horizontal attacks.
Reading an opponent and preparing a defense is key; one mishap and your character may done for.
Critical Edges are brought back from “Soul Edge,” but work more like “Street Fighter”’s ultra combos, which allow newer players to pull off flashier combos, though it may take a bit of practice for newer players to string more complex combos.
The combat depth is impressive, but the single player is lacking.
Arcade Mode is simply a time trial with no character endings, Story Mode is short and takes a backward step from the narratives the series has been known for, Quick Battle allows you to earn titles for your online profile, Legendary Souls is an extra hard arcade mode unlocked after clearing Story mode, and the Create a Character mode is the game at it’s best.
You unlock more parts to create your own custom characters as you progress throughout the game and can use your created characters in every mode of the game except the main story mode.
The heart of the game lies in its multiplayer options.
The multiplayer options are basic and limited, but it does give “Soul Calibur V” a bit of replayability value that it needs.
The Online mode features both ranked and unranked match types, along with a global coliseum which can hold up to 50 players per lobby.
The online mode itself is among the best of all fighting games. Though lag is unavoidable, for the most part, online matches run very smoothly.
Overall, “Soul Calibur V” offers a great multiplayer experience and a very deep fighting engine.
But beyond that, the game offers very little and the single player is pretty dissapointing, which really does limit the replay value of the game.