Customer Reviews
Teenage boys dream! - By: M. Lewis, 09 Sep 2008 
Having enjoyed past SC games I was looking forward to playing this. And it is a lot of fun to play. It's good for some mindless video game violence but does become fairly repetitive.
The single player modes lack something. Story mode is a bit of a joke really, & there's not much sense of achievementin arcade mode. OK, Tower of lost souls does provide something else but there's little variety really. Online play lags a lot at times but can be entertaining. It is a problem that if you get downed once, your opponent can pretty easily hit you with several attacks & you've lost. As usual with xbox live, the majority of players are only concerned with stats & levelling up, so you're unlikely to find many matches where they are trying out different moves/combos etc, it's usual standard button bashingin an effort to win, which detracts from the entertainment value.
It can be fairly repetitivein all modes, thoughin some ways that is a problem of any fighting game. There is a good selection of characters but a lot of them have the same fighting style. Yes, we get Yoda rather than Vader, but really that's a minor point & really shouldn't affect your decision to buy the game or not.
Graphically it's pretty good, & to linkin with the title, I'm sure the ample breasts bouncing around on the female characters will do no harm to the games sales amongst certain parts of society!
Overall it's a decent enough game but not one that's likely to hold the attention for months on end. If you want a good fighting game though, look no further.
Pretty Good - By: Mr Review, 09 Sep 2008 
Having never bought any of the previous Soul Calibur games, I didn't really know what to expectin terms of depth & replay value, and, having always been terrible at this kind of game, was rather apprehensive about buying this. However I put these worries to the back of my mind as I needed to get something to ease the wait for Star Wars The Force Unleashed, & as this introduces characters from the Star Wars Universe, it was the perfect choice.
The game looks fantastic, each character's detail is superb & the thought & effort that has gone into the environments is great. The character motions are sleek & smooth, giving it a very impressive appearance.
The Single Player options are good, ranging from Story mode where you can play as any character through a series of stages, to The Tower of Lost Souls, where for each set of Levels on the Tower you have to select a certain amount of characters who are then put up against many more opponents. This can be quite challenging when you are only allowed to chose 1 character for a set which contains say 3 levels, each with 3 opponents on.
This is overcome by using the game's Character Creation mode, which as well as allowing you to completely create your own character, can be used to unlock new characters, & modify existing characters with new equipment to make them that little bit strongerin order to progress through the game.
Multiplayer is also strong - I have not had much experience playing it on Live due to my subscription ending :(, but when I did I experienced no lag & enjoyed the challenge of playing people who were clearly more adapted to this type of game. Offline multiplayer is fun & fast paced, but if there was one thing I would like to seein multiplayer would be an option to include more than 2 players & have a system similar to the Tower of Lost Souls whereby you can switch to a different character. This is just my opinion though, &in reality the multiplayer is as much, if not more fun the excellent single player modes.
Overall this is a game that I really have been pleasantly surprised with, it is fun & action-packed with some great visuals.
Can't think of a decent pun..."may the soul be with you?" - By: Zabba, 01 Sep 2008 I think, the main problem with Soul Calibur IV is, that, with the step into the 7th generation of videogames, the era of super awesome graphics & mainstream online gaming, the game tries so hard to fitin with the crowd, it has lost it's a way a little.
This isn't to say Soul Calibur IV isn't a good game, it is, it's a great game,in fact, & I recommend you buy it, I just don't feel it's as good as the previous titlesin the great series, & no amount of Star Wars characters can convince me otherwise.
What I had noticed, is that, well there's a distinct lack of things to actually do. Single player modes are very limited. With only Arcade, which is fun, but only there to earn money. Story, the very title is an overstatement, it consists of 5 stages & one unique cut-scene for each character, & Tower of Souls, which is actually pretty decent & challenging, but not enough.
Offline Multiplayer, if anything, has been downgraded from the previous installments, there's Standard & Special verses, that's it. Unless there's a mode I've not unlocked yet, & I certainly hope there is, that's just not enough. Character creation has been simplified, but I'm happy to report that there's loads of customisable options, & you'll be spending a lot of time there.
One of the main new additions is online play, this is, well, what it says on the tin, the lag is frustrating & it certainly slows the pace, but at least it's there.
The characters are varied & interesting, but I wanted there to be more new additions than given, & more with unique styles & weapons, but the roster is impressive nevertheless. The Star Wars characters are fun to use, even though Yoda is annoying battling against due to his height.
Overall, it's a great game, but it just feels like there's a load missing, maybe it was to save space, who knows, or to put more power into generating the beautiful graphics. If you're a fan of the series, you may be a tad disappointed, but if you're just looking for a decent fighter, this is the way to go.
It has soul, But lacks any real variety - By: mister superstar, 31 Aug 2008 Soulcalibur has always had stupidly high expectations to live up to, with the dreamcast iteration scoring 10's across the globe & ranking top on many players games of choice. Each subsequent game has failed to match the hype that surrounds it, but this hasn't stopped the guys at Namco trying.
For the latest installment they have teamed up with Lucasarts & managed to bag Yoda, Darth Vader & the apprentice, I'm warning you now... while worthy additions, they look & feel overpowered & out of place. Deep down, we are all here for the same reason & that is to pound the sense out of each other.
Soulcalibur 4 is the series' first foray into HD, & it is an extremely successful one at that. It looks slick & runs well, the audio is top notch & the game barely skips a beat. It plays just as well too. The control scheme is complex yet intutive & provides you with two different types of attack, a kick, a block & multiple kinds of grab, parry & counters... you get the idea. Unfortunately it isn'tin the gameplay that this game is lacking, it'sin the games variety. It completely lacks any kind of tag match, survival mode or team battle & what is included is short, shallow & very basic.
Story mode has you pitting your favourite characters against the usual competitors, with a few cut scenes that are re used for other characters, the same few lines of dialogue & about 6 minutes worth of total gameplay time. Arcade mode, again is the usual affair, 8 stages each increasingin difficulty. Depth is added from the rather robust character creation mode & the unlockable weapons & costumes. Art work also makes an appearance. But all this is just extras & adds little to the actual focus of the game.
It's saving grace comesin the form of online play. It's full of the usual LIVE crowd, but play without your headset & you will be just fine. You are given the choice of playing ranked matches or not, & can join or host them yourself. It is very minimal & may be full of people who love to mash the same button over & over, but it is buckets of fun none the less.
While the games foundations are solid, & at its core it plays almost flawlessly, it is still nothing more than a glossy, padded out version of the 1999 hit. New additions like the soul gauge & critical finish do make nice additions, & the game does obviously look & sound much better but after 9 years & 3 more installments but is this enough to warrant another full price purchase? I would argue that it is, but only just. I hope that this is the start of something & that the inevitable number 5 builds upon these changes & adds more depth to the options given to the player. oh... & maybe give Ivy a boob reduction??
Like I said, despite its shortcomings, as a stand alone game it does its job well, it just lacks any real variety... but if your willing to stick with just good old fashioned 1 on 1 without all the bells & whistles then you can't go wrong!
Same excellent soul but much much prettier - By: G. Miller, 24 Aug 2008 Having played most of the SC games on various machines this is up with the best ( ie SC2 ) . Having spent first couple of hours on arcade & wondering how Ivy can stand up let alone fight was very impressed. The create a character ends up experimenting with er hem hem er ladiesin very little , oh well boyz will be boyz. Online can be daunting as high level players wipe the floor with you as getting up once down is nearly impossible , so it can end up a random button bash to even get on hitin .. I suppose practice & a good character is essential. So not a five star game as it can get a little repeditive but allin all a worthy purchase.Plus I hear Darth Vader will be downloadable at some point , so lucky we are mmmm ..
