First, a retrospective: The pinnacle of the series, Soul Calibur II was one of the premierecompetitive fighting games in the early-mid 2000's, leading the fighting genrewith its innovation and incredibly deep gameplay engine. For the record, I was apretty hardcore Crimson skies fasa pdf. SC2 tournament player back in the day.. traveling toother cities to compete in tournaments with upwards of 100 players. Before the 'boom' of the fightinggenre in the late 2000's, these SC2 tournaments were some of the biggestfighting game tournaments I had ever seen. There's no denying SC2 hada lasting impact on the fighting genre, and there's good reason for that.
Before fighting games started featuring cushy comeback mechanics andinstant-combo buttons.. there was a time when fighters were 'difficult' by default. Soul Calibur 2 is from thatera(And it was a damn good era, if you ask me). Hell, even the Soul Calibur series itself has dumbedsome things down over the years. While this 'new approach' we've seenso commonly in the fighting genre has helped bring in many new players, something is'lost' from the good old days.. and SC2 might be the perfectexample. In SC2, charactermovelists have quite the learning curve if you're a new player. If you only learna mere 10-20 moves with a character and think you're going to do well byspamming, a skilled SC2 player will pick you apart in seconds. SC2 character movesets are incredibly deep and dynamic, which really allows players to cleverly trick up theiropponents.. in so many different ways.. and with vast amounts of style.

Soul Calibur 2's gameplay depth and clevercharacters offer an unparalleled gameplay experience.. an'exclusive' experience that can't even be replicated by some of the later iterations of theseries. As you may know, later on in the series (SC3-SC5), the gameplayspeed became slower and many returning characters were toned down and changeddrastically. Arguably, their SC2 versions are much faster,have tons more options, mix-ups & cancels, and in my opinion, are still among the most dynamicand fun-to-play versions ofthe characters. For me personally, SC2 made it difficult to return to'simpler' fighting games after experiencing all of what SC2'sgameplay has to offer. Yes.. SC2 spoiled me rotten.

I've always loved the freedom of creativity SC2's character movesets give you. If you've never played SC2 against a player who has truly mastered themoveset of Mitsurugi, Ivy, Taki, Xianghua, Maxi, Raphael, Yoshimitsu, Lizard Man, Heihachi,(insert any other character name here).. than in my opinion, you've never actually played SoulCalibur 2.. at least not 'competitively'. There's a huge difference between playing casually with friendsthat know a few moves (or fighting the CPU), and testing your skills against a player who Guard Impacts frequently,sidesteps properly, uses cancels to trick you, and uses a character to theirfull potential. Since online gameplay wasn't standardized backin 2003 like it is today, many players never got a chance to play SC2competitively. That's why this online-enabled version of the game is well-deserved and should breathe new life into this classic title.
Unfortunately, SC2 HD Online has a few underlying flaws when it comes tothe 'online' part. Theonline options are VERY bare bones andthe layout is shockingly clunky. When the game first launched, there wasn't evenan option to create an actual room, and there was no 'rematch'option.. you had to re-invite friends afterevery match. (Thankfully, that has been fixed). Sadly, there are NO replays in online mode, and players arealso forced to sitthrough character winning sequences every single round (not a huge issue).Another small flaw is that you can't make your characters 'taunt' onthe VS screen in online mode (it's funny how much I miss those one-liners nowthat they're gone). For a fighting game with'online' in the title, some of these fundamental flaws are pretty inexcusable. Thankfully, at least, the netcode is fairly decent when playing'somewhat local' friends, butit's nowhere near as good as TTT2's or SC5's. It actually seems like some 'other team' was responsible forthe netcode in this port, not theNamco we've been familiar with the last couple years.
The good news is.. as far as being a faithful port of the earlier consoleversions, Soul Calibur II HD Online delivers. The gameactually looks much better than I expected in 1080p and retains 60 FPS at alltimes. Character models retaintheir awesome detail, and only show the slightest signs of 'age' up close.Lighting effects and colors 'pop' like never before, and some of thebackgrounds actually look like they could be in a current gen fighting game(thanks to the superb anti-aliasing.. not a jaggy line in sight)! The revamped texture quality and weapon trailsare also particularly eye catching in 1080p. Some new or 'enhanced' hitsparks would've been a nice treat, but SC2's effects are nostalgic on their own andactually stand the test of time. And don't you dare judge the game's graphics byYoutube videos.. that's just stupid. You'll most likely be wowed with howcrisp SC2 HD looks on your HDTV.
Namco decided to present the console port of SC2 in all its original glory.. and I approve. The game starts you outthe same exact way as the original port - requiring you to unlock all the newcharacters, of course! Thismight irk a few players, but personally, I love the nostalgia of unlockingcharacters (especially in one of my favorite games). It reminds you of the glory days offighters, when 'DLC' didn't exist and everything on the game disc wasyours from the start! Load times are also super fast across the board, which is always a nice plus. The only major complaint I have is that there's no Japanese audio option.. which is prettydisappointing since it was something thatthe original console port had.However, I personally enjoy the English voices of SC2 (especially for thehumor they bring), so all is notlost.

Page Updated: February 28th, 2017 Developer(s): Namco Publisher(s): Namco Designer(s): Hiroaki Yotoriyama Artwork by: Takuji Kawano, Aya Takemura Platform(s): PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Release Date(s): Nov. 19th, 2013 (PSN) Nov. 20th, 2013 (XBL) Characters: Mitsurugi, Yunsung,Cassandra, Talim,Maxi, Ivy,Kilik, Taki,Voldo, Xianghua,Nightmare,Astaroth,Lizardman,Yoshimitsu, Rafael, Charade,SeungMina, Sophitia, Cervantes,Berserker,Assassin, Necrid, Heihachi, Spawn,Inferno Featured Video: Related Games: SoulCalibur 2, SoulEdge, Soul Calibur, Soul Calibur 3, SoulCalibur 3: Arcade Edition, Soul Calibur 4, Soul Calibur:Broken Destiny, Soul Calibur 5, Soul Calibur 6, Soul Calibur: Lost Swords, Soul Calibur Legends, Darkstalkers Resurrection, Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike Online, Marvel VS Capcom: Origins, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online, Tekken Revolution GameplayEngine 10 / 10 Story/ Theme 9.5 / 10 OverallGraphics 9.5 / 10 Animation 10 / 10 Music/ Sound Effects 10 / 10 Innovation 4.5 / 10 Art Direction 9.5 / 10 Customization 5.0 / 10 Options / Extras 6.0 / 10 Intro / Presentation 8.5 / 10 Replayability / Fun 8.5 / 10 'Ouch' Factor 9.5 / 10 Characters 10 / 10 BOTTOM LINE 7.7/10 Review based on PS3version Final Words: The original Soul Calibur 2 scored a9.9, one of the highest ratings on TFG.I was hoping for a robust online mode and maybe even some 'new'features, but HD Online sticks to basics. Nonetheless, Soul Calibur 2is still amazing game and remains in a class of its own. If I had to choose only ONE fighting game to play for the rest of my life.. Imight choose SC2. I could give 100 reasons why. That said, most of the points taken offof HD Online's rating are due to the bare bones online mode, which happens to be particularly important in thistitle.Thankfully, Namco fixed a few of the previous issues with online mode. I'd still like tosee 'VS Screen Taunts' and 'Extra Stages' in online. And Rankedonline should be 3 rounds (tournament standard). SC2 HD Online doesn't offer anything innovative over the original ports(besides Heihachi & Spawn meeting for the first time ever), but if newbells & whistles aren't important to you in an 'HD edition,' than you'll be happywith this port. My dream SC2 port would have some basic charactercustomization (at least color edit), some fun graphical filters, and a robustonline mode. It will remain a dream for now. After years of asking Namco for an 'Online HD' edition of SC2(over on TFG's original SC2 profile), the magical geniethat is Namco at least attempted to grant one of my biggest wishes. While I haven't been able to runinto too many new players online,playing local friends on my PSN friends list has been a mostly pleasant experience.Since I have some old friends that still play SC2, simply being able toplay against them online is worth the price of admission for me. In anycase, no doubtI'll be playing SC2 for many years to come. ~TFGWebmaster