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Reflex Review: Soul Calibur IV

by jdevl

All I was after with Soul Calibur IV was a next-gen version of Soul Calibur II with online play, a few new features, and few new characters. After the first night, I'd say it is living up to my expectations and I can already feel my obsessiveness to unlock everything growing each second that I do not have a controller in my hand. Some notable milestones so far: Completed 24+ Character's storyli...

All I was after with Soul Calibur IV was a next-gen version of Soul Calibur II with online play, a few new features, and few new characters. After the first night, I'd say it is living up to my expectations and I can already feel my obsessiveness to unlock everything growing each second that I do not have a controller in my hand. Some notable milestones so far:

  • Completed 24+ Character's storylines on Normal
  • Unlocked all characters to comple the "Chain of Souls" map
  • Cleared the Arcade Mode on Normal
  • Played about 15 matches online vs a friend
  • Customized a few characters
  • Yoda vs Yoda fights are hilarious and flawed
  • Pre-ordered Star Wars: The Force Unleashed after I realized how bad ass The Apprentice is
  • Unlocked the ridiculous Numeric God Achievement, look it up.
  • Tira is my new favorite character, she's hot, nuts, and her weapon is wicked.

The new features in the game are a bit intimidating. I haven't figured out the finishing moves yet, but it is satisfying when you break the armor off of your opponents. My skills have faded since I completely skipped Soul Calibur III so it will be a while before I can get the Guard Impacts down, too. The character creation is deeper than I expected, but there was too much to do to create a brand new character so I decided to just play with the abundance of standard characters for now. Online play worked fairly well, only a touch of slowdown at first, but after we stayed a strength of 5/5 on our signal for the rest of the session things were smooth.

The initial high is still lingering so I'll hold off my final verdict after I know whether or not I will stick with the game after the first week of play. At this point though, merely playing with The Apprentice has been worth the price of admission.