Gameplay: 9
Visuals: 9
Sound: 8
Replay: 8

At first asking the question to any Dreamcast owner what their top three or four games are and chances are that they will mention Soul Calibur. The Soul series began on Playstation with the game Soul Blade which was for its time not a very well developed game. But the people at Namco pushed themselves and created the sequel Soul Calibur and Soul Calibur is of no exception.

Soul Calibur 2 is set several years after the original where the Soul Edge had been destroyed but it turns out that it hadn't been totally destroyed and the great fighters of the world have been sent fragments of the original Soul Edge and you begin your journey for the sword to uncover its power.

This is the story line that is told through the quest mode called Weapons Master. The weapons master in Soul Calibur 2 is a bit of a let down from the original Soul Blade where the Weapon's Master had a quest for every individual character where Soul Calibur 2 you are able to change characters within the quest mode. In some ways this is actually beneficial to new players so that they can pick a character that suits the mission. The ability to purchase weapons for your characters is a great advantage, with 200 weapons available they all have special abilities, for example excellent vertical attack's, and this allows the player to pick the weapon that suite their fighting style.

There are also many other modes whether you just want to pick a character and play through the Arcade mode or grab some friends for a Team Battle. Other modes include; survival, Vs Team Battle, Practice and Time Attack.

One feature that makes this game stand out as one of the best fighting based games is the hundreds of unlockable items. This includes arenas, characters, character information, artworks and even character videos.

Featuring all the original characters each platform for the game has a unique character based on the console. Gamecube version has Link from the Zelda series, Playstation has Mishima from the Tekken series and Xbox has the legendary Spawn. All consoles also feature the character Necrid.

The first thing you notice about any game is always the graphics if it's good you will continue playing, if it's bad you might play for a little longer but it looses its feeling of immersion. If this is the case you will be playing Soul Calibur 2 for the rest of your life.

Smooth character movements, beautiful stage design, characters clothing moving with the wind this game has everything that you would want.
The sound also makes this game stand out from the rest with an average of over 100 voice pieces for each character meaning that you will never hear doubles in the same fight. The musical score that is on this game sets it out as one of the best.

For the fans of fighting games with hundreds of unlock able features, difficulty settings, arcade mode, survival mode; this game will keep you entertained forever. The Weapons Master in some stages is frustrating and on the highest difficulty setting even some of the veteran's will find it difficult which gives the game an even larger replay value with you thinking "I'm almost there".
This game is truly a master piece and should be found in every fighter fans collection.