Soul Calibur V

I know it has taken me a while to get around to this review, so apologies for that.

Anyway, Soul Calibur V!

It’s the latest instalment of the popular Fighting Series where characters beat the living tar out of people with various different weapons. This in itself makes it different from your Tekkens or your Dead or Alives. That’s probably why it’s the only fighting game I’ll ever really get into, mainly because hitting something very hard with an oversized axe just seems more fun.

Before I go any further, I’ll point out one thing. I am TERRIBLE at fighting games. I’m a button masher or, if I find a move that looks good, I’ll repeat it until my opponent counters it and I get bashed into a pulp. I also don’t play at the ferocious pace you see in Street Fighter games as my eyes don’t work that fast.

With this in mind, I decided to try out the story mode – not expecting to make much progress. You play as the new characters, Patroklos and Pyrrah as you make your way through a rather weak storyline. If I’m honest, I’m glad the story mode is quite short – I find some of the characters in this really irritating, particularly the two you play as. So it was a case of grin and bear it and get it over with! Still, in terms of progression, the skill level required goes from easy to more difficult in a nice arc, so by the time I finished it I had an idea of how to play it.

After this I had a go on the Arcade Modes, which were much better for me as I got to pick my own character. I say “Pick My Own” I accidentally pressed Random, so I played through as some girl armed with a sharpened Hula Hoop. Anyway, throughout the Arcade, I battle past various enemies who got more difficult as I progressed through the various stages. On the 6^th and final stage, I had to fight Nightmare (that guy below) armed with his massively oversize sword. I attempted that bloody stage about 20 times and could not for the life of me beat him. I have never been so angry at a game before! Particularly because after giving up with Hula Hoop, I had a go with Samurai Mitsurugi and managed to beat him after only 2 attempts. No idea what went wrong, but in comparison with the other opponents in Arcade, this Nightmare chap was pretty much invincible.

Most Hated: This man his caused me so much anger!

When I’d chilled out a bit after the Arcade Fiasco, I decided to have a mess around creating various characters. As editors go, it’s not the most advanced thing out there, as you only get a series of presets to choose from, as opposed to the ability to sculpt yourself. However, I did manage to create a very large Sumo Wrestler type person (who had to be armed with a weapon, so I gave him an axe). There are a few bits of costume to choose from, and more is unlocked the more you play.

Graphically, the game isn’t that bad. The stages you play on are look good, and the character animations are quite smooth. The characters are modelled quite well and range from the unsurprisingly scantily clad to the surprisingly normal (which is suspicious in itself) and some of the armour you can equip your character with looks pretty good to. However, there are some issues – mainly with the creation aspect. When you are assigning bits of clothing to your character, the costumes don’t seem to stack up right. Wait, that doesn’t explain anything. I’ll give you the scenario. If you’re trying to give your character a cloak without a T-Shirt or a Jacket underneath it seems to hover unattached to the body. It’d technically be in the right place if your character had the other layers on, but if you don’t then it looks strange. Similarly bit of costume stick out through other bits, so you can’t stack up a lot of armour without noticing it.

I know it’s a minor thing, and when you’re prancing around the area trying to batter someone with some sort of weapon, you aren’t going to be looking at whether your cape looks nice or not. Still, it’s the little things that build up.

Ezio looking like he’s going to stab Annoying Fidgety Nunchuk Man (Maxi)

The sound isn’t too bad either. While it doesn’t stand out as an amazing piece of audio genius, it is not ear-bleedingly painful either. You get the stereotypical one-liners from all of the combatants which can be irritating from some of them, but thankfully not all. The music isn’t too bad either although sometimes the tracks (which are given the names like Wonderful Forest or something) don’t seem to fit into the environment of the arenas. Again, though – you don’t notice these things when focussing on fighting.

Overall it’s an alright game – pretty good for the fighting enthusiast, I would imagine. However for a casual gamer it can be the most frustrating game in the world. I’ve been the angriest at gaming while playing this and even the presence of Ezio Auditore (from Assassin’s Creed) in the line-up doesn’t really do much to make me like the game much more. I’ll still play it, though. It’s the sort of game you can play for a few rounds, batter someone (or attempt to) and then put it down again at any given time. For this reason alone it’ll have longevity – particularly because it’s not another shooter or sports game (which seems to be the bulk of my current games collection).

My advice: don’t pick it up. You’ve got SSX and Mass Effect 3 coming out soon, both of which promise more than Soul Calibur V did (in my opinion). It’s a nice game to have to fill in the time between releases, but not a great standalone game.

Overall: 4/10

Highlights:

+ Ezio is in it!

+ You get to beat people up in over the top manner with oversized weaponry.

Lowlights:

- Unlikeable Characters/Storyline

- Frustratingly Difficult at times

- Doesn’t have the lasting appeal of a long campaign, or career mode.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

The latest title to get the Rossinio review is Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, which is the fourth instalment of Ubisoft’s series.

 

Revelations is set in Constantinople (not Istanbul but Constantinople… OK, I may have to link that song somewhere in this review – See bottom). Ezio has travelled away from his homeland to embark on another adventure.

 

Much like the other titles, there’s a main storyline (Ezio had returned to Masyaf to find the wisdom of Altair, only to find it surrounded by Templar’s… the rest I’ll let you find out for yourself), but there’s also a lot of other things to do too, such as finding hidden books. Some of these books lead you to very impressive looking locations to complete mini-mission, which usually involve a lot of free running and a little bit of stabbing (for veterans of AC: Brotherhood, its like the Lairs of Romulus). Like the last game you can also buy property, armour, weapons and whatnot too to give you a decent income. You can also send Assassins off to foreign cities to complete missions. In a way, apart from the aesthetic changes that come with a new city (and new names for the Romulus stuff) there’s not a huge amount changed over the last one. I don’t mind that at all, as I really enjoyed Brotherhood.

 

There are a few changes that are worth mentioning though. Firstly, you now get bombs, which are fun and also slightly annoying. To accommodate lobbing a bomb at someone, they’ve changed a few of the controls around. Meaning, be careful when using Eagle Vision, it can result in you accidentally throwing grenades at people. You can craft your own bombs from a selection of different contents, casings and gunpowder. There’s a limited selection of ingredients, and only a small number of different bombs you can create in the first place, but it’s a nice addition.

There’s also a tower defence aspect of the game introduced. If you become too infamous, Templar’s will attack on of your Assassin’s Dens (towers you’ve captured to allow you to buy shops and recruit more assassins). When this happens, you are shoved on a rooftop and you have to organise the defence by putting up barricades, archers and other units around a small map. The enemy rushes in waves at different times, and you can assist with repelling them with your little gun. You can also manage your defence by adding more units throughout the fight. The final wave tends to be a “boss” wave, where they send a siege weapon against you. I don’t have a great record against these weapons, as they seem to march past my defences and set fire to my house, despite barrages of artillery. Fortunately, if you’re a good little assassin (like myself) and bribe people a lot, you don’t get that many Templar raids.

You also get a hook-blade attachment for yourself. In the trailer, you see one of your stabbing knives get broken, but that is quickly replaced by this ingenious little device which allows you to climb things a little faster, slide down zip-wire and grab onto things (when you accidentally fall off tall buildings) to stop you from hurting yourself. The integration of the new blade attachment is excellent and it feels like a natural process now.

 

The missions are quite varied, I’m about half way through the campaign (I think) and I’ve already had to perform varying feats to allow me to progress. It’s nice that they’ve diversified and I’m looking forward to seeing what I have to do for the rest of the game.

 

In terms of graphics, I’ve not noticed a huge step up from Brotherhood. Admittedly, some of the animations seem a little more fluid, but at times there have been some daft instances of clipping, where the weapons of dead people seem to stick up in the air and appear to be embedded in my spine. Plus, in general, the scenery of Masyaf and Constantinople seem very beige and colourless. If you go the richer districts of the city, you’ll see very colourful people, but there’s not as much vibrancy as Rome or Tuscany in this one.

 

I can’t find any fault with the in game sound effects, nor can I find any praise points too. They just appear to be a natural part of the game, which I guess is a big plus. If they stick out like a sore thumb then obviously it’s not a good thing.

 

I’ve not given the online a go yet. I was fortunate enough to get my copy quite early, and as such, didn’t reckon there would be anyone on Multiplayer. I really like the concept of Multiplayer on AC: Brotherhood, but the long loading times to get into matches put me right off; I hope it’s changed this time.

 

Regardless of my graphical beefs, I’m quite enjoying this game. It makes a very welcome change of pace from shooting your way around maps. I enjoy sprinting along rooftops, subtly poisoning guards and watching them go crazy before falling over and just generally getting into scrapes which require me to fight my way out of. It’s the sort of game I can pick up at any time just to torment a few bad guys.

 

Overall: 8.5/10

 

Highlights:

+ The Hook-Blade integration is seamless and is a really nice addition

+ Bombs are pretty funny too, although I keep forgetting about them

+ There’s a bit of diversity in some of the missions so far.

 

Lowlights:

- At times the scenery seems very drab, and only interspersed with colour when rich folks or Janissaries walk past.

- Clipping is a bit of annoyance, particularly when it affects cut-scenes.

- Janissaries are very irritating in combat!

 

FYI: It’s now ISTANBUL not CONSTANTINOPLE