Soul Calibur 5 - Tale of Connection Errors

Soul Calibur has always been a series I loved while playing Soul Calibur 2...and pretty much just 2. It had an expansive single player mode, a large likeable roster of characters, and heck even my friends liked it and weren't even fighting game fans like myself. Soul Calibur 3 I skipped, and Soul Calibur 4 I only played for 2 weeks straight while I was drugged up after a hernia operation so I don't remember it that well.

What I DO remember is Soul Calibur 4 at least had a lot of characters I enjoyed using and single player options that were decent though nothing like SC2. This game, however, seems to be stripped of just about everything the Soul Calibur series has been known for. It has a stripped down arcade mode, a very short and lackluster story mode, and not much else. There's no challenge modes, no AI tower, really nothing else here.

But of course, we are in the online era of gaming now so the question becomes does the online aspect of this game outweigh the lacking single player content and content overall? Well...my title gives it away but isn't it more fun to read my bitching rants anyway?

Gameplay:

They changed quite a bit in the combat system for this game for those familiar with the Soul Calibur games. They added a meter for characters to perform EX moves that cost meter but combo easier and create more damage. The meter also allows you to guard impact which is a change I feel is for the worse. I loved in Soul Calibur 2 how you could get into these little guard impact wars back and forth but now in this game since it costs meter it becomes a limited option. Furthermore it's actually much harder to land a guard impact in this game which makes it all the more risky to try. It honestly doesn't feel like a viable option anymore as defense which becomes a REAL problem playing online! Also, with that meter they added ultra moves which I like for the most part. Every character has an ultra with the exact same input each. This is great except the disparity in usability for each ultra is quite wide. Like, I would argue Cervantes ultra is flat out useless, but Natsu's is amazing and comboable...AND does more damage than Cervantes! Why then are they the same input or require the same meter when one has WAY more usefulness over the other?

The gameplay has also taken changes for the worse as Namco decided to remove a large amount of the cast we have become familiar with over the last 3-4 games. Characters such as Talim, Yun Seong, Kilik, Takki, Amy, and more are all gone. Well, Kilik is in the game but he is a mirror character (ie he uses weapons of other male characters at random). Honestly the worst offense of this game is the needless insertion of mirror characters. There's like...3 of them! Why? It honestly makes no sense and they are wasted slots. I am also very annoyed 2 characters are only unlocked through pre-orders each at a different location. So there's no way that someone can have both of these unique characters on their game yet until Lameco issues DLC allowing us to buy them. If the game weren't already stripped of characters enough, THIS was a huge slap in the face.

As mentioned before the single player mode is bare-bones but thankfully they included a decent training mode. It isn't as robust as other fighters granted, but it gets the job done and hell we could have been without that as well considering the state the game is in as it is.

I even have a beef with the character creation system. While it is as good as ever in the ability to make just about anything you want, the problem with it is unlocking stuff. As far as I can tell there is no way to choose which items unlock for you. You have to play the game a considerable amount of time to see everything and then once all your options are open to you, you can start making decisions on what character to make. I can't remember how SC4 did this exactly but I do know Tekken just let you purchase everything with in game money. That was a much better system! I could look through and pick shit I wanted instead of playing the game for hours on end and then seeing a message saying "You unlocked more pants!" Thanks? Kinda wanted shoulder armor or belts but oooookay.

I saved my largest complaint for last, the online. When I first got the game I could not finish a match online, not one. Literally 20 matches in a row I got a connection error and the match was dropped. Now, as a disclaimer, I am keenly aware I'm in the general minority on this issue but there are others having this problem too. The fact that a "connection error" occurs at all is deplorable all by itself though despite poor connections. I have literally played EVERY fighting game that exists on the PS3 online barring KoF 12 and none of them disconnected me from my opponent outside of a power outage or rage-quit. But SC5 has that lovely distinction of being the ONLY online game I have ever played that disconnects me at a very reliable pace, as in all the time. While floundering with this game I managed to complete roughly 30 matches over the course of 6 hours trying.

I have recently re-tooled my connection and am able to complete 7/10 matches now. It is still awful that even ONE drops in a 100 matches though let alone 7 out of every 10. The worst offense of all though is how often I get screwed by connection errors. I fully admit I am terrible at this game, Street Fighter is my bag and generally I win there 70% of the time online. But this game I am hovering around 35% but what disgusts me is that this is NOT reflective of how good or bad I am either. I will lose legitimately 7 or 8 times out of every 10 matches because I am god awful, I readily admit that, but when I FINALLY get paired up with a guy as bad as me, and am winning what happens? Connection ERROR! I probably have a good 20 wins that have gone unaccounted for because of this bullshit. I should have a 45% win ratio at least, and yet here I am.

To its credit though, while I am in a match the game is relatively lagless. Sure there are a couple matches where there is noticeable input lag, but as a majority it feels quite nice online while you are in a match anyway. I still find SF4's online better in the lag department overall but for a 3D fighter this is by far the best quality barring the constant connection drops.

Graphics:

The Soul Calibur series has been widely known to push the boundaries of fighting game graphics and while Soul Calibur 5 looks great, it doesn't do much more than what SC4 did. I can't fault the game for not improving upon 5 year old hardware though. It still looks great however.

Story:

??? ......... ??? .......... uh..... yeeeeah....

Sound:

Probably the best part of this whole game is the music. Every track in this game is incredible and amazing. Even the Assassin's Creed remix is a joy to listen to and I have a track record of hating remixes. The only real downside to the audio is the lead female character has the most annoying voice of all time.

Conclusion:

Soul Calibur 5 does everything right when it comes to having an offline versus mode...everything else is utter garbage. From removing characters in place of mirrors to the atrocious netcode and lacking single player modes Soul Calibur 5 is rather offensive to every ounce of me that loved SC2. I bought the game already knowing the content was lacking, but I was unaware of the character roster being shitty and the disconnecting online. I had planned to enjoy doing marathons the game online and then the experience is so atrocious I just don't think I can do it. Which is really sad considering that was my plan for the game, and now it has become all but useless. I really thought it would be a worthy $60 purchase but like all Namco fighting games just wait a few months for it to be $30. Oh, and don't expect any netcode patches either....it's Namco we're talking about here.

*I was going to win a battle of SC5 online, but then I took a network error to the knee.*