Has anyone else picked this gem up?
I haven't played around with the Strat RPG game-mode yet... mostly I've been going through the story mode with different characters. I find the difficulty scaling on this one is much greater than in the previous installments. The characters actually react much more intelligently to your moves now, and can't be 'cheaped-out' nearly as much (or if you can get a series of cheap hits in, when you try it again, you get molested!).
The graphics are beautiful. Not a vast improvement over SC2, but you can see how the characters and environs have more polish.
The moves are more refined for the returning characters, and linking combos seems to be more graphically seamless. There isn't quite so much jarring in the collision, or flat-out laughable collision detection (like there was with some of the more ranged characters previously). The control scheme seems to have been tightened a fair bit, becoming more forgiving in many respects.
The new characters are pretty cool. So far I've only tried playing around with Zalasamel (??), the Egyptian scythe-guy... and he is TOUGH to use. I could not get into a groove with him, and had to start relying on ring-outs just to complete the story-mode with him. I also tried the demon-girl, who uses the razor-hoop... she's pretty cool. She reminds me a fair bit of Taki, for some reason. Very quick, low damage, all about getting fast jabs in, and avoiding counters.
Kilik, my all-time personal favourite, is back, with all his moves from before, and a few new ones. I've also noted that some of the more difficult moves to pull off (from SC2) have been made a little easier this time around.
In true SC form, every time you pick up the game, you feel as though you've accomplished something. You get rewards, bonus modes, characters, clothing options, weapons, items, etc... pretty much every time you venture out to fight. Fighting games need incentives like this, and SC has always pulled this idea off magnificently.
Lastly, the character-creation. While it is very cool to be able to make your own unique character, I was a little disappointed with the editing options available to you. That is to say; if I hadn't played Tiger Woods 2K6, I probably would've thought the character-creation in SC3 was fabulous... but after spending over an hour and a half tweaking the look of my golfer in TW2K6, checking out the options available in SC3 left me wanting.
However, you do gain new costume options when you fight in tournaments, and other modes... and having the ability to edit the colours of every piece of clothing/armour/etc is also very nice.
I'd give this game a 9/10 so far. I've found no faults with it.
