Soul Calibur Broken Destiny Game Critique

The game I am critiquing is Soul Calibur Broken Destiny for the PSP. I recently purchased this game and am enjoying it. I usually don’t by games that are new, but it was on sale for $5 and I figured my PSP collection needs more games. 

Game Play Mechanics-

This game has upheld the original mechanics from the past Soul Calibur games. You must fight and apposing character, the first one out of energy looses. Similar to other fighting games, you can attack high/low, block or kick. You can also throw players outside the stage, causing an immediate victory. The characters have different moves, allowing for players to choose their favourite and build a strategy with them.    

Sound-

The sound in the game is impressive. The games music sounds orchestrated, which is nice to have in a portable game. All of the 28 characters have different voices, which allows for distinctiveness in the characters.

Game Flow-

The game flow is very limited. In terms of progression, there is very little to do. All of the characters and levels seemed to be unlocked at the beginning of the game (although you can create new characters in one of the modes). Past Soul Calibur games had you unlock characters and stages, which allowed for an incentive to play. The majority of the game is simply to fight, there is not real way to progress. I personally find this to be fine, as I can have fun just by fighting with the plethora of different characters and stages.   

User Interfaces-

The user interface is very basic but works well. It allows of quick and easy navigation. One complaint is the character select screen. Previous games had the full polygoned characters appear when you highlighted them. Broken Destiny simply had an image of the character. I felt this was less exciting, but it might be a limitation of the UMD drive not being able to load all of the characters quickly enough.  

Level Design-

The levels are simply confined to the stages the characters fight on. Although small, these stages are well designed. Each includes a plethora of detail, such as leaves moving on trees or the cracks in walls. The levels are also beautifully rendered, showing the power of the PSP. On top of that they are also destructible. The floors crack when players are thrown onto them and railings collapse if they take too much damage.         

Story/Quality of Writing-

The story in this game is not very good. In past Soul Calibur games, there was a story mode. This mode was limited, but showed some back-story on the characters. In Broken Destiny, there is no story mode, which I find disappointing. There is mode called “gantlet” which serves as a trading mode. It has some story, but it is very poor. It is simply filler to keep the player interested when in that mode.   

A.I.-

The A.I. of the game is very good. When on easy settings, they allow time for players to attack and they rarely block. On the more difficult settings, they will pull of complicated combos and will never let their guard down. This allows for both new and experienced players to enjoy the game.