What new ideas the game brings to the table and how well old ideas are presented.
How good a game looks, taking into account any flaws such as bad collision or pop-up.
Does the game’s music and sound effects get you involved or do they make you resolve to always play with the volume down?
Basically, the controller to human interface. The less you think aout the hunk of plastic in your hands, the beter the playability.
Flat out, just how fun the game is to play. The most important factor in rating a game.
I've always loved Soulcalibur's brand of weapon-based one-on-one combat, from its precursor on PSone to the amazing multiplatform sequel and the mediocre third entry on PS2. This latest iteration falls somewhere in the middle of the series' legacy. While it doesn't recreate the finely tuned excellence of Soulcalibur II, it sidesteps many of the issues found in III and adds a ton of single-player depth and lag-free online play. Plus, on an HD display, you really have to see this thing in motion.
Mechanically, Soulcalibur IV is nearly identical to its predecessors. Equipment breakage and a simplistic blocking gauge strongly discourage turtling, but otherwise you could easily be playing the first game with new characters and tweaked move sets. Unfortunately, sideways dodging in IV is just as bad as it was in III, with vertical attacks magically tracking to negate lateral movement on the defender's part. The flow of a round still finds that magical balance between combos, juggles, defense, and positioning more often than not, which is the most important thing.
Venturing outside of the traditional Arcade or Versus modes is finally worth your time here, and not just for unlocking the full roster of characters. The plethora of challenges, many of which hearken back to the totally unfair (in a good way) adventures in Soul Edge, will take even dedicated Soulcalibur nuts months to clear. Nearly everything you do works toward leveling up your fighters, unlocking new ones, and padding your in-game wallet. In most other titles in the genre, this would be an afterthought. Here, the introduction of an astoundingly deep character creator/editor allows you to customize the look and capabilities of created characters and stock fighters to an impressive degree. I normally don't bother with this sort of peripheral frippery no matter the genre, but I spent almost as much time playing with the character editor as I did beating the crap out of Miller or the CPU.
Skills like ''Auto Grapple Break'' and ''Invisible'' add a wacky element to the game, but it's all fun and games in single-player since setting up your favorite fighter to handle some of the more unfair challenges can be an entertaining metagame. Hardcore fans can relax, though – Arcade and Standard Versus modes still require unmodified characters, so you don't have to deal with the lack of gameplay balance these new skills present.
Online play, a first for the series, is well implemented. Most of the matches I played were lag-free, and the matchmaking system works well. It still doesn't beat having a couple of buddies over and passing off the controller between bouts of smack talking, but the option is nice.
Frame-counters and other savants will probably have issues with some aspects of Soulcalibur IV's gameplay, but the average player or fighting game enthusiast is well served by this title's array of game types and tight weapon-based duels. I know I'm more than satisfied.
The latest Soulcalibur is at its best in the first few hours of play. During this time, I marveled at the exhilarating combat, gorgeous visuals, and wide roster of fantastically varied characters. These features still shine even when some of the game's less enjoyable elements surface. The writing, which might seem charmingly quaint at first, is actually quite awful, with text crafted so poorly that it isn't even grammatically correct. An inability to customize the difficulty on most of the major game modes becomes increasingly problematic. All but the veteran player will find it difficult to progress very far in the survival-style Tower of Lost Souls mode, which would otherwise be the most enjoyable way to play alone. These issues are countered by an astounding character creator, silky smooth online implementation, and an addictive method of progression that allows for increased character abilities after a lengthy time commitment. Soulcalibur is rife with opportunities to expand the genre in terms of story and more varied gameplay. Those features don't come together this time around, but it's a breathtaking fighter nonetheless.