Soul Calibur 3
Submitted Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 12:38:22 PM by Klaitu

I'm not a huge fan of fighting games. I mean, I'll play them, but I'm not all up ons. At best, you could say that I find them mildly amusing.

That's about how I feel about Soul Calibur 3. As a fighting game, it's pretty good, but it plays pretty identically to Soul Calibur 2. You've got the same basic premise.. Everyone has a weapon, try to smash/slash/jab/smack your opponent as frequently as possible until they die, or you push them off the edge of the ring.

The game has a few features that are interesting, though. The normal mode of the game features dismally interactive cutscenes. They're okay, I suppose, except when the button combinations appear on screen, it tells me to press Left + A, except I'm on a PS2, I have no A button!

They've got a mode called "Chronicles of the Sword" Which is sort of like a strategic RPG. I'll give them props for the attempt to make the gameplay something more than endless beatup fights, but this mode lacks the strategic depth to be satisfying. It comes of as merely an excuse to have a series of battles that aren't on a tournament tree.

One excellent feature of SC3 is the Character Creation. You can make your very own Soul Calibur fighter, which is pretty gosh-darn cool. Only one problem: You can't play the game with that character. You can play the strategic mode with them.. you can play Vs. with them, but you can't play the normal game with them, and that's just silly.

Graphics are crisp and clear, and the background are beautiful and fun. The music seems rehashed from Soul Calibur 2.. I found myself instantly being annoyed by the music.. but the music is so flat and pedantic that I don't know if I've heard it before, or if my brain just figured out how the music goes already.

Soul Calibur 3 is a step in the right direction, but it's a baby step. A more appropriate title for this game would have been Soul Calibur 2.3. Still, if you're a Soul Calibur fan, it's worth a look. It's not a bad game, It's just not terribly original.

Overall Score: 7 of 10