Soulcalibur V dropped in for review and we’ve been quite busy playing it for the past few days. We specifically stress on those last two words, to lay emphasis on the amount of time it took us to cover everything in the game, which left us whining for more. Let us begin by saying that this new offering from Project Soul is worth every penny you’ll pay for it, but that’s only if you’re expecting the game to provide you some brilliant weapon-based fighting mechanics that’ll keep you busy online as well as while with your friends. However, we’d like you to take heed of the fact that this title suffers from some hiccups in its story mode.
Living up to expectations, the game manages to look and play as good as any fighting title nowadays. It embraces full-blown sets of breathtaking moves that are assigned to familiar as well as new characters. For those who’ve played the previous offering in this series, Soulcalibur V needn’t come across as a breath of fresh air, as far as visuals are concerned. But then, fighting games are all about delightful ‘edge of the seat’ gameplay, and we believe developer Project Soul has left no stone unturned in imbibing the same. From the onset, the game reveals itself to be a brilliant looking entrant that is on par with any other modern fighting title.
The story mode that we mentioned earlier is much in buzz currently for being short in length. But there are other things too that don’t go its way. The narrative revolves around two new characters – a rebellious zealot named Patroklos and the funnily soft-natured Pyrrha. The former is in search of the latter who has been snatched by the ‘malfested,’ and this journey of his is filled to the brim with a plethora of predictable twists and turns that are bound to get under your skin at some point of time. And we failed to understand why all this is illustrated by mere charcoal-drawn storyboards that are accompanied by cliched voice-overs. Although there are a few cutscenes here and there, we couldn’t help but wonder if it would have hurt the developer to use them during the entire campaign.
Although the story has you playing as various characters, a majority of your time is dominated by Patroklos. This campaign unfolds in an episodic manner, making the provisions for you to jump into any situation you want, once you’ve completed it. That said, you’d be surprised as to how early things come to an end in this bummer of a campaign. Take two and a half hours for a span, and that too, if you’re unable to cope with a difficulty spike in the middle. Perhaps, the only things radiant in the story mode are new characters. Apart from the two we’ve mentioned before, Natsu, Xiba, Elysium and Z.W.E.I. are the other new fighters, who make meritorious additions to the game’s other modes. As one would expect, Ezio won’t be seen in the story, but he’s available in all other modes with a complete set of moves that stay true to his personality.
The Arcade mode from this game is akin to all such modes these days, encouraging you to improve your times on six consecutive stages, while playing as one character. And then there’s the Quick Battle and vs. Battle modes for the hasty types who wish to jump into straight-up fights without any hassles. If you ever think you’ve mastered everything there is to this game, you might want to try out the Legendary Souls mode which unlocks on completing the campaign. Presenting CPU fights with the highest difficulty, it really does separate the best from the rest. All these diverse modes leave you with that unavoidable urge to get back to the title and keep fighting. This is chiefly because of the amazing fighting gameplay that we’ve been mentioning all along.
Soulcalibur V also holds some decent online multiplayer components. You can hop into ranked matches as well as player matches that can be arranged in the form of rooms. A nifty feature here is that while you’re cooling your heels during other matches and waiting for your turn, a window pops up to stream those live matches right onto your screen. It’s a pretty neat addition if you ask us. Furthermore, The Global Colosseo feature acts as a meeting point for gamers before they start their battles. Smooth and enjoyable fights await you in all the three online modes.
The Critical Edge attacks prove to be healthy additions to this game. These attacks act as brilliant mechanisms to balance the fights. The trick here is to fill up your Critical Gauges as soon as possible to let loose some burly moves using a string of button commands. This neat little entrant can really prove to be the difference between winning and losing during intense fights. A number of well crafted environments are available in Soulcalibur V, with all of them being dynamic and a treat to watch as well as battle upon. The music in the title is quite engrossing and so are its lively sounds, which do wonders for the game’s overall appeal. The tracks can even be selected individually from the library during some custom matches.
Some long hours of fun lie ahead for you in this title’s Creation mode. However, your brains will simply need to be applied for the visual aspect of these creations, as the characters can only be given moves of other fighters. Tekken’s Devil Jin makes an appearance here, as his moves can also be applied by players to their creations. Our sincere plaudits go out to the Project Soul team for the diversity of this offering, which lets you generate even popular characters from outside the series, if you’re willing to invest that much time. Enormous amounts of possibilities are on offer with this mode which deserves every bit of attention it gets.
Final Word: The Training mode that can be found within the title doesn’t help a great deal, and it could have done with a better UI. Despite this, and the drawback suffered due to the story mode, Soulcalibur V still has a lot in it for you to explore. The gentle flow that lies in the characters’ movements, encourages you to come up with new combos and learn fresh moves, which is a necessity for a fighting game to click with players. A glitch here and there is to be experienced, but otherwise, it’s a neat journey altogether. With that, we conclude this review and leave you with our score for this game.
Graphics: 8/10
Environments: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 6/10
Game Sounds: 8/10
Replay Value: 7.5/10
Overall (not an average): 9.6/10