A skilled beat 'em up is the best way of discriping SoulCalibur 2.
While in DOA3 you could button bash your way though the game and make your character flow in the same way.
The only way to make your character flow in this game is to actually know the moves and stances of your favourite character.
You've got to be a seriously bad player on this game to be beaten by a button basher.
The Graphics are lovely and the music is fine.
The story mode is more involving than in DOA3 and you can collect different weapons which increase certain ablities, (e.g defence or range). Lots to unlock, like areana's and more characters, and a nice touch is you can buy (using gold you win on story mode) video clips of each character practicing their form with weapons.
All in all it is quite a deep game, for there are numerous moves to work out for each charater, and even if you have strat guide, there are still more hidden moves that you can discover by mistake.
It's a serious version of DOA3.
One of the best fighting games out there good value for money.
Have Fun!

In the old days I used to play Soul Caliber on my Dreamcast and it was my most favorite martial-arts game, part 2 however(actually part 3, Soul Blade/Edge was the first game on PSX) is more of the same, all the usual characters are in this game, from Mitsurugi to Cervantes, one of the new things are the different weapons which you can collect for every character(an option that was already in Soul Blade/Edge), more game-modes, but nothing quite new, just more various arcade/survival/time-attack modes, a tag option like Tekken Tag Tournament would have been great, the visuals are absolutely great as are the backgrounds which are now fully 3D, the fighting system is awesome, with dozens of moves, counters, throws, supermoves and so on. The sound effects and music are great as well, with the usual oriental music and clashing sword sounds.
If you have never played Soul Calibur 1 on the Dreamcast this game is a must, it's awesome in every aspect, but if you already played Soul Calibur 1 till your thumbs were bleeding, like me, it will offer nothing really new and is more of the same.