Pros: fast action, balanced characters, strong story.
Cons: Mastering all of the complex moves, and being beaten by a random button basher.
The bottom line: The greatest beat-em-up ever made.
Background Story
Namco are a company known for their popular fighting games, and yet they always try to offer interesting stories that give depth to the games and keep you coming back for more. Their Soul Calibur series is no exception. It all started years ago with a game known as Soul Blade (Soul Edge in America, I think) which featured a group of fighters each on quest searching for the mythical sword, Soul Edge. The Soul Edge was a blade supposedly forged by the spirits and with the power to grant it's bearer immeasurable power, some even considered it the sword of salvation. In truth the Soul Edge was a duel blade, and an evil blade that drew the unwary in with false promises before using them for it's own evil will. By the end of that game, Sophitia, a warrior sent by the Gods of ancient Greece was able to defeat the Pirate Cervantes, then defeat the spirit of the blade and shatter one of the 2 swords. The second Blade remained unharmed though, and was found by a good knight who gave into it's promises and ended up being disfigured into the feared warrior Nightmare.

In Soul Calibur that second sword started causing trouble in the world, and the warriors again quested for it. However before Sophitia was able to track it down, another warrior entered the fray bearing a second sword, The Soul Calibur, that gave off the positive energies of the spirits. In the ensuing battle the second Soul Edge was shattered and the Soul Calibur was left in the vortex of evil in order to stop the spirit swords power from returning. Soon these events were forgotten, but...

The fragments of Soul Edge still contained evil power, and scattered across the earth they soon started to give off their influence. Various characters soon noticed this, and with desires to restore the swords and make use of its power, the battle grounds were again prepared.

Now that may seem like a very detailed plot description, for a beat-em-up anyway, but the story is such that it adds to the games atmosphere. Every character in the game has an individual story, and the returning characters each have history together. It's those stories, that I can't go into here, that add a depth to the main game, forcing you to play through with each and every character so that you can see how each version of events ties up. There's also a bigger reason, but I'll get to that later.

Graphics
Very, very nice is the only real way for me to describe the graphics in Soul Calibur II! That comment is taken from the game as a whole, from the impressive backgrounds, to the incredibly detailed arena. Yet it's most impressive when you're seeing the characters themselves, more specifically their costumes that have been designed and animated to react to the characters movements in a realistic way. Yet the surprising thing is, that as frequent as this technique is now, Soul Calibur II features distinctly few of those annoying bugs that turn a part of a character invisible during bouts of some of the faster movements, something the game features a lot of.
Character animations are also superb, particularly during the sequences where characters are entering a fight and, or, celebrating victory, mourning loss. During these sequences the characters will dance on the screen, flailing their weapons about, most impressively a pair of Nunchucks, without once displaying any wooden movements or stiff limbs.

Sound
The soundtrack to Soul Calibur II has a wonderful, old fashioned, swashbuckler feel to it that garners the game with a real period atmosphere. Sound effects on the clashing blades are well done and sound authentic, and that's about all there is to say on the games sound.
Voice acting is something that I would mention, but, it's just, how do you judge a games voice acting when it usually amounts to nothing more than "Hyuck, Hyah..." and other such grunts. The voice actors do those, loudly, and the occasional times they get to speak they are fine, but I'm not about to accuse them of being full of emotion either.

The Game
The beat-em-up genre seems to go through a new revolution every few years, starting out way back when with classics like Way Of The Exploding Fist, (OK so classic is a strong word) which set the formula of 2 opponents, in a ring, trying to kick each others head in. Of course this was all before Capcom re-invented the formula with their genuine classic Street Fighter 2 (The original was somewhat of a cult classic, but was unpopular with more mainstream gamers) which was the first game to introduce the combo system, a bug at the time. That was the biggest leap forward, but the leap to 3 Dimensional beat-em-ups with Virtual Fighter was almost as large, and then Namco's Tekken took the next step with a control system that allowed for anything up to, and including, 10 hit combos, if you had the reflexes of a Jedi of course. Come to think of it, the genre is long overdue for it's next revolution and Soul Calibur II is, well it's not actually that game, not even close to be honest.

Soul Calibur II is, for all intents and purposes, a re-release of Soul Blade, a game that was released back in the early days of the PS1 and was, in all honesty, simply Tekken with huge swords. As such, any new features found in more recent games have been ignored for an old fashioned beat-em-up that is fun to play, rather than being excessively real. It's an arcade beat-em-up with 2 characters in an arena, each have 1 energy bar and they are required to continually hit each other until one of them has nothing left in their energy bar. If one player wins without being hit then they get a Perfect rank, and a very large bonus. If the 2 characters hit the final blow at the exact same moment then it's a double KO (Knock Out), which is OK because it's the best of 3 rounds and a double double KO is very unusual. In the normal game mode a player is required to fight against multiple opponents, around 10, until ending up facing the big cheese himself. This of course is what Soul Calibur II is all about, but it's also what most beat-em-ups are all about, it's a time honored tradition that dates back to Capcom's Street Fighter games, and is unlikely to be dyeing out any time soon. Of course no game can simply rely on doing what it's peers have done and expect to be the top of it's field, so why is it that I consider Soul Calibur II to be the top dog, despite it's wholly unoriginal demeanor?

The main reason is simply that the game has taken all of the traditional beat-em-up elements, and done them better than any other game to date. Bouts can be blisteringly fast, and can fluidly change from attack to defending in the blink of an eye. It works on a 4 button control system, a horizontal slash, a vertical slash, a kick and a guard, yet on top of these very simple controls are a number of different combinations, individual to each character. Some characters are small and fast, and as such able to link together extremely long combinations, whereas others are big and strong meaning that you require brute force to win. However on top of this are a number of different techniques, again carried over from other games, such as the throw that can't be blocked and a very special move that requires perfect timing. If you successfully manage to hit away and guard at the exact second an opponent attacks, then they will be rebounded leaving you with a few seconds to start your own all out attack.

Unlike most beat-em-ups released in this day and age though, these characters are very well balanced. Whether you choose a small but fast fighter like Sophitia, a strong but slow character like Astaroth or a middle ground character like Yoshimitsu (Yes, that Yoshimitsu) you never really feel like you can't win. However before you get to this point, you are going to require a certain mastery of the characters themselves, and it's this area that introduces the games depth and repeatability. Sure you can make use of medium characters like Yoshimitsu or the Toshiro Mifune look-a-like Mitsurugi, but the rest of the characters will have a serious advantage. The small but fast fighters will be the first you try, being able to scrape a win using their basic combos, but once the computer learns your basic tactics you'll need to start learning the longer combos if you even want a chance of winning. After that the stronger characters will come along; and on your first attempt you wont be able to get many hits in against faster opponents, but, as soon as you learn the art of knocking your opponent to the ground and then constantly hitting them while they are down, victory will be yours every few seconds.

This very nature introduces the games select few problems though. That is that those not willing to put in the time to master every character will find the game gets repetitious very fast. Then those that do put in the time and effort to learn every combo, every elaborate move and become Soul Calibur II masters are going to find it annoying when, more often than not, they are beaten by the random button bashing of a beginner. Thankfully I'm not at this point yet, but these are the same problem I would claim for nearly every beat-em-up since they moved away from the super powered tactics of games like Street Fighter II, (A game in which no random button basher can defeat me) so I wont let it effect the over-all score.



Play Modes

Soul Calibur II features a number of different play modes, some are traditional beat-em-up modes now, but one of them may just surprise you, as long as you haven't played any of the previous games in this series.

For the original modes you get the standard Arcade Mode which is the games most basic feature, and the one you will have played in arcade machines across the country. Simply choose a character, then fight the other characters Game Of Death style, until you reach a destined battle. The destined battle is the fight that ties the story into the arcade mode, you get a brief animated sequence where they share a little dialogue explaining why they are there, then they fight. This is followed by the final battle against Inferno, the spirit of the sword. This mode is fairly easy though, first time out you could probably win it by using just a few continues whichever character you choose.

There's also the Vs Battle, which let's you play a 2 player match up, a Time Attack where you see how fast you can reach the end, Survival where you fight to the end, but don't regain energy after a fight making it near impossible for beginners to reach the end. Team Battle is a little different from the norm. Instead of picking a large team for a battle against a large team, you pick a small team of 2-3 fighters and then fight multiple teams, arcade mode style, until your team faces inferno, with Vs Team Battle being the classic 2 player Team Battle. Then of course there's the Practice which lets you, erm, practice. Choose a character for yourself, then choose another character who will just stand there while you hit them. Good for learning moves, but not good for fun.

All of these come in an Extra form too. Extra Arcade, Extra Vs ect...
Yet I'm unsure of the real differences as I haven't given them much attention. I think they are just slightly harder.

The Weapon Master mode is my favorite though. It's been carried over from Soul Blade and sees you taking control of the story. It's this mode that makes the story as interesting as it is, and was the reason I felt explaining the story was so important. In it, you put your name and then play a character who's on his own quest in search of Soul Edge. However unlike the similar mode in Soul Blade this time round you don't get a different set of events for each character, which is why they are interchangeable, and the majority of attacks don't tie into the stories of the characters involved. This means that the mode is not nearly as in depth as it used to be, but, it's still the most challenging mode. As you work your way through the game each fight will be different. Some, such as the long treks through the dungeons where you get your energy back after each fight, are relatively easy, but others, such as one where you have to defeat Voldo by slamming him into the walls a few times, are extremely difficult. Especially after the halfway point, where you need to work through he various fights a second time and the AI has increased exponentially. Button bashers will not stand a chance in this mode, and those willing to put in the effort will be rewarded by opening up new characters in arcade mode, as well as new weapons and costumes for all the characters and most of the Extras modes. Beating this mode is immensely satisfying.

Final Word
The final thing I have to say, is in guidance with which version to get. The game is available on all 3 main consoles Gamecube, X-Box and Playstation 2 so obviously you'll get the version on the console you own. If, however, you own more than one console then the version you get will ultimately come down to your preference of the special characters. I got it on the Gamecube version because it features Link, the hero of Nintendo's Legend Of Zelda series. However on the PS2 you get the nappy wearing boss of Namco's other big beat-em-up Tekken and on the X-Box you get Image Comics hero Spawn, a demonic soldier fighting against the armies of hell, not my favorite character either.