Soul Calibur 5 Review

Do you have friends? No, not normal friends. We mean friends who like games and mashing buttons, watching magical things happen as fire lights up the screen and a samurai slashes away at a ninja.

Or perhaps friends who know what Soul Calibur is, even if they can’t pronounce Kilik and will never, ever learn any moves because they might as well be looking at Egyptian hieroglyphs for all the sense a moves list makes to them. Because if you’re going to play this, you need those friends.

The fighting side of Soul Calibur 5 is brilliant and the best the series has ever been. It’s unlikely to pass the eye-test and, in fairness to the arms-crossed cynic tapping his foot with doubt, there’s nothing hugely different on the surface.

It’s still two people slapping each other with weapons until one of them falls over and can’t get back up. It’s still garnished with nuclear colours, and day-glo special effects. It’s still a fantastical take on historic fighting with crumbling forts, giant rafts and caged arenas.

Until the day Namco Bandai loses the plot and includes fatalities or dragons who fire rockets out the yazoo, this is what Soul Calibur is and always will be. It has its own unique feel and a real sense of identity as the fighting game genre becomes ever more cluttered and eccentric.

Yet the real genius lies beyond the lazy eye-test. Underneath its garish exterior, a series of tweaks, tucks and touches refine the experience to be as razor sharp as it’s ever been.

Without descending into technical moonspeak that only the hardest of hardcore fighting game players will understand, the biggest difference has been the addition of meter.

Nightmare returns. Ezio... yeah, we're sorry about him.

As you fight, you’re rewarded for successful hits and blocks with meter, which can then be spent on Critical Edges (supers), Brave Edges (enhanced normal moves) and Guard Impacts (parry attempts).

If it sounds complicated, think of it this way – it’s a system that mirrors what 2D fighting games have been doing for years and years and years.

It works for the same reason it works in those 2D fighters – it adds an extra layer of strategy beyond waving your sword around like you’re swiping at insects.

Do you save your meter for a big comeback gamble or spend it on parries to apply pressure? If your opponent has half a bar, what new options does he have that you need to be aware of?

It’s a simple addition but brilliant in that it raises the amount of questions you and your opponent ask of each other during play and creates more combo and comeback possibilities.

Add in some great new characters in Viola and Z.W.E.I. along with fresh takes on old favourites such as Natsu and Leixia and it adds up to a brilliant game, built on solid fundamentals while feeling zesty fresh.

“But,” you muse, stroking your chin. “What of this need for friends you spoke of in the opening paragraph?” Yes. That. We hate to break up the party, especially as Namco Bandai has just popped the corks on its champagne bottles, but it’s not just a brilliant fighting game the studio has created. It has, unfortunately, also created one of the most anaemic single-player games we’ve seen this gen.

Now Cervantes isn't a zombie. He's still a pirate though.

Single-player is split between Story, Quick Battle and Legend of Lost Souls. Story mode is another tale of the Soul Calibur sword and those affected by it.

There are some surprising characters who show up (or character variations, to be as precise as possible without alerting the Spoiler Police) yet cameos and cut-scenes aside, it’s over far too quickly.

You can rattle through it in a few breezy hours and we literally mean rattle through it, as mashing on the buttons with your sausage fingers is enough to steamroller through your opponents.

Quick Battle is better as it pits you against AI opponents with their own unique fighting styles and look, yet the AI is a poor substitute for human competition.

Only the novelty of seeing funny costumes really sustains it, though, while Legends of Lost Souls, designed for the hardcore, will lock 99 per cent of players out with its bastard tough, ball-kicking difficulty.

Single-player is something that no fighting game has done particularly well but that should be the excuse to break with tradition, not continue it.

It’s not even an excuse as valid as it once was since Mortal Kombat’s release, as its meaty story, wealth of challenges and Krypt unlockables show single-player should be more than an afterthought in fighting games. It’s a lesson Namco Bandai hasn’t paid attention to.

Most of the new characters are actually reworkings of classic Soul Calibur characters.

We’ve never seen a game that, in the space of just a few menu options, manages to be both So, So Right and So, So Wrong. The heart of Soul Calibur, the fighting game at its core, shines in Versus mode and should the online side of that hold up, the unlockable titles, custom characters and general play will find the perfect platform there, too.

It’s just a shame that while Soul Calibur 5 is one of the best fighting games we’ve played in years, it’s also welded to one of the worst single-player modes we’ve seen in years.