Metachronos overall score = 4.3 / 10
Positive
# Using the Wii-remote is fun
# Fair story events
Negative
# The worst Soul Calibur ever, if not the worst fighting game this year
# Cheap deaths in lieu of real challenge
# Boring, repetitive combat
#Lame tasks that masquerade as puzzles
# You muddle through the same short, linear, ugly levels over and over again
There comes a point while playing Soulcalibur Legends, after fighting the same boss you've already faced five or six times, when you're left wondering if the game will ever end. Yet against all odds, it keeps throwing one quest after another at you, sending you back to the same levels you've visited over and over again. Brevity is not often considered a strong selling point in an action adventure game, but this one would have benefited from a good pruning. As it is, Soulcalibur Legends is a boring, mind-numbingly ugly game that melds monotonous remote-waggling combat and cheap deaths into a single disappointing package. In an apparent effort to mix things up, the game throws a few traps and puzzles at you from time to time. Actually, calling these tasks "puzzles" is generous, since they essentially boil down to unnecessary busywork. You may need to slice through ropes to lower a drawbridge, knock some statues around until they face the proper direction, or fan the flames of a fiery goblet to open a door, but there's no inherent challenge to any of these chores. At least they're inoffensive, whereas the trap elements are inherently terrible and easily the worst facet of Soulcalibur Legends. Oftentimes, a collection of enormous boulders will come rolling down the stupidly narrow pathway in front of you, forcing you to backtrack to find a corner to hide in, dodge them (often entirely impossible, when there are three of them rolling at you), or simply take the huge amount of damage they inflict and hope there are some health orbs nearby. The rolling rocks are terrible ideas in and of themselves, considering the claustrophobic level design, but the awful, sluggish camera rubs further salt into this gaping wound. At times, you won't even know the boulder is coming because the camera hasn't turned yet to let you see the corridor you are entering. By that point, it's usually too late, and all you can do is let the stony hand of fate mete out its undeserved punishment.
Along with ugly gameplay, you'll have to put up with unattractive visuals. Character models are the only saving grace--they animate well and look like the well-known characters they represent. Otherwise, Soulcalibur Legends is an ugly game, featuring blocky geometry, dreadful ground and wall textures, environments often completely devoid of any objects (save the occasional barrel or urn), and the aforementioned repeated enemy and map designs. Sound comes across a little better, thanks to a pleasant-enough soundtrack and some decent voice acting during the interstitial cutscenes. The grunts and groans of combat wear thin very quickly, though the levels are over so fast, you will likely not grow too annoyed by them.
If all this droning hack-and-slash combat is your thing, you can join a buddy and play through the story cooperatively. Alternately, you can compete for high scores in one-off levels, or even swing swords at each other in the yawn-inducing versus mode. Don't let the title of the mode confuse you into thinking there are fighting elements to be found, though. You just hammer on your opponent using the same dull mechanics you use in the rest of the game. Considering most games benefit from the addition of a friend, it's just a further nail in Soulcalibur Legends' coffin that the addition of another player can't make the game more fun to play. It's too bad the revered fighting game franchise had to be besmirched in such spectacular fashion, but even if you're a Soul Calibur fan--actually,
especially if you are a Soul Calibur fan--you are better off pretending that this spin-off never existed.
Subject: Soul Calibur Legends 
Sat Jan 12, 2008 10:53 am
