A very solid weapons based fighting game.
Soul Calibur IV's graphics are great. Everything from the character models to the environments and even the effects look grand. There is a great amount of both detail and depth to them in a really good way.
Soul Calibur IV's gameplay is simple yet enjoyable with only a few minor hiccups along the way. The hiccups lie in the controls mainly as often it feels somewhat difficult to chain together combo attacks with different characters. While with some characters it can be easier than others the controls just seem a tad slow. As with any fighting game the more advanced moves can take practice to do. On the plus side of things each fighting style feels very well done and really well executed. On top of this players can even customise Soul Calibur IV's various characters with different weapons and equipment. If players really want they can make their own custom character from scratch but they are limited to the main characters of the series styles which is a bit of downside. Furthermore the players are limited to what sorts of skill they can equip on their character based on both the stats of the equipment and base level of skill set being used. Skill levels can be increased by using that skill set with either a custom character or the default character that skill set is from. Soul Calibur IV does support online play and the single player portions feel good with the main downside being that the story mode for all the characters only last 5 stages. On a side note players' characters armour can even be destroyed in combat but is returned to its original state at the end of the stage.
Soul Calibur IV's audio is great. Weapon clashes sound very authentic and the voice acting is really well done. The only downside with the audio is that the voice acting often seems out of sync in the cut scenes.
Overall Soul Calibur IV is a very solid fighting game that's really fun and while it can be tricky like all fighting games. It's still a blast to play.