Probably showing my bias against fighting games here, but this is another fighting game that I couldn’t get in to. I was actually pretty surprised about that as SC2 is one of my favourite fighting games of all time. I really enjoy the use of weapons as it increases the variety of the characters move-sets and makes the game simpler tactically. For example, a character like Kilik is quick and has great range with his long staff. This makes it pretty clear how to play as or against him as soon as you pick up the game and thus easier to get into compared to a lot of fighting games.

Soul Calibur IV brings back some of these characters and introduces some new ones keeping the weapon based combat and large character variety mostly the same. It also introduces some new characters including some star wars characters and a character creation mode. These additions didn't really appeal to me, the new characters are fine but the star wars characters really don't fit into the game. Another aspect of the game which is a let down is the boring game modes. The game has a very short and bland story mode, with little story and a tower of souls mode which is not as exciting as it seems. The tower of souls is just another multi fight mode, with all the fights set in similar boring square arenas. Now, combat wise SC4 is decent. The fights have a nice ebb and flow and are quite tactical if perhaps a little slow for my liking. Yet, this doesn't really make up for the rest of it's flaws. A fine fighting game that probably should have been a great one. In the end, I would rather just play SC2.