SoulCalibur IV for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

I've always enjoyed the Soul Calibur series, ever since my introduction to the series with Soul Calibur II. (which is considerably the best installment to date) After playing Soul Calibur IV, I must say, I was a bit disappointed. Not with the combat, which is very fluid, despite the addition of critical finishes. (Which require a very rare sequence of events to happen before they can be performed.) What I was truly disappointed in was how the overall experience felt incomplete. I believe I may have felt this way because when I play any Soul Calibur, I compare it to Soul Calibur II. I don't make this comparison out off a shear bias toward SCII, but because I feel ever installment after II are not implementing things that were done so well in the prior game. One example of this being the tower game mode in IV. I found it to be very similar to the dungeon dwelling/loot hoarding that was in II but with less reward and appeal. Soul Calibur II made you anxious for your next encounter whereas, IV presents the tower to you as floors filled with waves of enemies.
Another area where SCIV suffers is in its story mode. The main reason its suffers is because there really is no story mode. The single player experience really consists of six to five matches and a boss fight against a character that is never fully realized. With this said, I know that fighting games are not really known for their deep narratives but what SCIV presents is ridiculous. I would also like to discuss the lack of depth in the character customization. The character customization mode involves applying armor and other clothing collected in other modes to template characters or existing characters in the game; what this really means is mix and matching the in game character's clothing on a generic template model. I just never felt that any character I created was really unique. In conclusion, strong fighting mechanics, lacking modes, and no story. Also there are guys from star wars, for what that's worth.