Soul Calibur 3, while carrying over many components from Soul Calibur 2, still manages to feel fresh thanks to an engrossing story mode and deep character creation. With numerous gameplay modes, unlimited characters, and thousands of unlockables, Soul Calibur 3 will last for hours on end. Though Soul Calibur 3 is not revolutionary, it's a solid fight game with a lot replay value, that is worth more than a look.

Soul Calibur 3 boasts one of the sharpest and well balanced fighting engines in the market. With simple controls and balanced characters, both new and experienced players alike can enjoy Soul Calibur 3 passionately. Soul Calibur 3 offers characters of all fighting styles, while maintaining still maintain simple controls throughout. Main fighters range from a demonic warrior with a thirst for souls to a psychotic assassin with a hoola-hoop to a classic Japanese samurai. While these three characters are vastly different, they only scratch the surface on the near 30 character roster. Whether the weapon is a pole, gigantic sword, or a hoola-hoop, the controls maintain simplicity rarely found in fighting games. No matter which fighter the player chooses, moves will rarely take more than 3-5 button inputs, including directionals. This does not make the fighting too simple, because moves can easily be linked together to create infinite self-made combos. Characters can run in all directions, jump, and duck all on the battlefield; freedom of movement is unrestricted. One of Soul Calibur's unique traits is the guard-impact system. By timing a block and a directional input at the exact moment an opponent's attack is about to hit, the player can deflect the attack and go on the advantage. These guard-impacts can go back and forth constantly, adding a unique challenge to the fights, that separates the experienced fighters from the newcomers.

The battles are intense in any of the games 20+ stages. The stages are destructible, a new feature in this third installment. The fights range from very easy to impossibly hard, depending on the player's options. The aforementioned simplicity, combos, and guard-impacts make Soul Calibur 3 a fun and intense fighting game. There are numerous modes in Soul Calibur 3, such as the new Real-Time Strategy mode, Chronicles of the Sword, the story mode Tales of Souls, and a series of eight battles aptly named Quick Play. While the fighting doesn't change between any of these modes, each has a unique spin. Chronicles of the Sword starts off playing as a Real-Time Strategy game, in which the player must capture the main enemy base, without losing all his or her characters. When the player encounters an enemy character, a battle ensues, that will decide whether the player will lose a character for a set amount of time or if the enemy will perish. CotS requires the player to create his or her own character to use in battles, blending two brand new features together quite nicely. The CotS missions feel tedious near the end of the twenty mission, fifteen hour campaign, that when beaten feels more relieving than rewarding. Tales of Souls is the story mode for SC3. Each main character has their own tale, but since the tales often feature the same story/path, the mode feels redundant after three or four tales. Other modes include, the Soul Arena, in which players have to win fun fights with vastly different parameters, the World Competition, a tournament mode that is a feeble attempt to make up for the disappointing lack of online play, and a two player mode, which is basically single fights against human friends. While more of the same, the human competition will always be much harder than the computer.

One of the big aspects of Soul Calibur 3 is character creation. Players can choose the characters gender, fighting style, and waredrobe. Whether the player chooses to a ninja, monk, knight, or dancer, the created character will always have a significant amount of depth. Depending on the clothes and fighting style selected, the character will be good or evil. The only thing that differs between those two is dialogue, a rather minor consequence. There are thousands of weapons and articles of clothing for the player to select, most being either unlocked or bought at the store with gold earned in battles. There are an infinite amount of characters, so a player will be sure to create that fits him or her. Without this feature, the fighting would end up getting stale, limiting replay value to around twenty to thirty hours; however, character creation and the numerous weapons, clothing, and other goodies in the store keep the game fresh and enables at least a hundred hours of replay value.

Soul Calibur 3 is graphically superior to its predecessors in every way. The pre-rendered stages look sharp and realistic, creating an awe-inspiring backdrop to the fights. The fighter renders are smooth and highly detailed throughout; however, the created characters are not as detailed nor smooth, but still border the quality seen in SC2. Despite the intensity of the battles, the frame rate stays smooth throughout, with few graphical blemishes. One thing to notice, is that there is no blood in Soul Calibur 3, which earns a "teen" rating from ESRB. As for the music score, the soundtrack is roughly the same as SC2's. The problem with this, is that the soundtrack wasn't too upbeat in SC2. SC3's soundtrack, because it is roughly the same, suffers from the same flaws. Instead of being an upbeat soundtrack that helps attribute to the fighting intensity, it is a soundtrack that inspires more of an adventure, better suited for say Legend of Zelda, than a fight. I ended up listening to my iPod while I fought. The sound effects are the standard weapons clashing together, with the occasional scream of pain. There is nothing really special.

Soul Calibur 3 is able to improve on its predecessors in every way with new gameplay modes and character creation. The new gameplay modes are not without their flaws, since most of them end up being repetitive. The character creation mode is where this game shines. Not only does it have infinite combinations, but also has thousands of unlockables, that both add to this games replay value. This game is graphically superior to most, if not all, fighting games, but is hurt by its poorly planned soundtrack. Soul Calibur 3 continues the Soul Calibur history of fun, intense gameplay, that fighting game gurus and novices alike can enjoy.

Recommended: Yes