Words Of Wisdom on 20 November 2007
Game Informer - 4 / 10
The biggest mistake you can make with Soulcalibur Legends (apart from buying it) is assuming that there is some strategy to the motion-based gameplay. You can make calculated, deliberate slices with the remote if you want to, but here’s the inside scoop: Holding the remote and nunchuk, just move both arms up and down like you’re dual-wielding knives and chopping the hell out of some vegetables. Several hours later, you win!
I wish I could say that the tedious gameplay was the only crippling flaw in Soulcalibur Legends, but the entire experience is an onslaught of miserable ideas and even worse execution. You play through the same handful of levels again and again – and I don’t just mean recycled textures. Entire layouts (complete with boss fights and poor excuses for puzzles) are repeated. The reward for your perseverance is usually a sequence of text boxes and character portraits outlining the fatuous logic behind your next attack on a location you’ve already beaten several times.
Of course, when this much goes wrong at the conceptual level, it is foolishly optimistic to think the game’s other components, like the camera and targeting systems, even approach adequate. As you slash through hordes of palette-swapped generic bad guys, you will routinely be hit by rolling boulders you can’t see and pierced by arrows from crossbows you can’t target. As a matter of fact, it’s kind of amazing how every mechanic is on the cutting edge of failure.
I wish I could say that the tedious gameplay was the only crippling flaw in Soulcalibur Legends, but the entire experience is an onslaught of miserable ideas and even worse execution. You play through the same handful of levels again and again – and I don’t just mean recycled textures. Entire layouts (complete with boss fights and poor excuses for puzzles) are repeated. The reward for your perseverance is usually a sequence of text boxes and character portraits outlining the fatuous logic behind your next attack on a location you’ve already beaten several times.
Of course, when this much goes wrong at the conceptual level, it is foolishly optimistic to think the game’s other components, like the camera and targeting systems, even approach adequate. As you slash through hordes of palette-swapped generic bad guys, you will routinely be hit by rolling boulders you can’t see and pierced by arrows from crossbows you can’t target. As a matter of fact, it’s kind of amazing how every mechanic is on the cutting edge of failure.
Soulcalibur Legends is a trap, luring in gullible gamers with the promise of two-player co-op and a cast of characters from the series. Once you take the bait, the whole rusty contraption snaps shut – and you will carry the scars of playing it for the rest of your life.
Ouch. That one hurts. Nail in the coffin perhaps?
Ouch. That one hurts. Nail in the coffin perhaps?
