Namco tried something different for their second installment in the Soul Calibur series, and succeeded.
Soul Calibur 2 plays pretty much like that of Soul Calibur, which is a good thing. The fighting system, for the most part, is the same, but with the right tweaks. Soul Calibur includes a couple of more types of attacks and a couple of new arenas that will change the way how fighters play every now and then. First off, for those who haven't played the first game of the series, Soul Calibur is a fighting game in which all the characters carry weapons into each fight. This causes a great number of different fighting styles. You have Kilik with his staff, who can deal damage from a range and can pull back to deal heavy damage when need be, and you have Maxi with his nun-chucks, who doesn't have the reach as Kilik, or the power, but his attacks are all based on speed and combos. They do a great job at varying each character and weapon pair just enough to create the much needed difficulty depending on who you pair up against. The fighting systems is split into the regular high, medium, and low attacks that are pretty much a staple of all fighting games, but they also include a few unblockable moves. These are hard to pull off as they're slow moving, and your opponent is given advanced warning. But with that said, this isn't Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. There are no special moves, no energy beams of any sort, in the game. You have to use the combo system and moves for each character to take down your opponent in one of two ways. The first being that you eliminate their health meter. This is prevalent in all fighting games as well. The other way is to knock your opponent out of the ring. Knock your opponent out of the ring is a welcome addition, as it brings forth some strategy to the fighting. You may be on the losing end, but a well placed attack can send your opponent off the side of the edge, and end the battle. But now to the new stuff that Namco loaded into this game.
The first Soul Calibur only had a few modes of play. One of them being your regular arcade type where you face a number of random opponents in a set number of stages. The other being a quest type of game, where you went through fight scenarios that would involve you at a sort of disadvantage of sorts, like being slowly poisoned or facing a strong wind. These two modes return, along with a new Weapon Quest. The Weapon Quest is an upgraded form of the original quest, but it fits in more along an actual gameplay where you try go from chapter to chapter. The Weapon Quest enters in, as you can pick up better weapons for each character along the way. These weapons can then be used in the other modes. It can keep players going for quite some time. As for the rest of the new stuff, aside from a couple of new modes, like Survival and Battle Arena, the latter being a sort of video watching characters fight and pose, you have Link, the Gamecube exclusive.
Link seems to fit in the Soul Calibur world like a glove. It seems that he was meant to be here. Link comes equipped with all his staples. He's got his bow and arrows, boomerang, bombs, and of course, the master sword. When comparing him to the rest of the exclusives, Link is by far the best match. But again, enough about Link, lets get on to the review.
Soul Calibur 2 isn't without its faults. The biggest coming with the controls. The Gamecube controller wasn't made for fighting games. This comes prevalent in Soul Calibur 2 as the small size of the d-pad really hurts veterans of the genre and the positioning of the buttons makes it a little difficult at times to get the right combos going, especially for those more familiar with arcade controls. But luckily, despite this, Soul Calibur 2 is still a thoroughly enjoyable game.
For Gamecube owners looking for a fighting game to own, and there are few for the system, Soul Calibur 2 is a must buy. For everyone else looking for a great game, give Soul Calibur 2 a look. You'll be surprised by it's surprising depth. People looking to master the game will spend hours upon hours to do so. Don't overlook this game.