Ready . . . FIGHT!
At the heart
of DoA4 is the story mode, in which gamers can go
through a series of about 8 stages while following
along a brief story of each character’s quest.
The gameplay here is fighting at its simplest form.
Enemies will be faced one at a time across an array
of environments. You don’t need to pay attention
to the story at all though because the battles flow
smoothly one after the other. The stages become
increasingly difficult, so while it’ll be
easy to defeat the first few foes by simply mashing
buttons, a little more finesse is required to make
it all the way through. The final boss is always
a mysterious translucent woman in a special arena
who is capable of teleporting very quickly. Even
on the easiest difficulty she can pull off ten move
combos with ease and slam you hurling into a wall,
but luckily you can die as many times as you need
to without being penalized. After completing the
story mode with certain characters new costumes
and playable fighters can be unlocked. Although
it would be nice for less challenging difficulty
levels to be present for newcomers, the sense of
accomplishment you can earn by completing each campaign
is certainly rewarding.
Another enjoyable
battle mode is the survival mode. After selecting
a character, you will be pitted against a nonstop
flow of enemies as you crush them one at a time.
The objective here is to simply see how long you
can survive. Every time you defeat an opponent,
some of your health is regenerated and an item will
be dropped, which can also give you more health
and add to your total score. In the end, you are
ranked based on your total score, so it’s
possible to have more wins in succession one time
while receiving a better score another time. Points
are earned slamming your opponents into the arena,
dealing heavy blows to them when they fail to counter,
and by pulling off lengthy combos. Killing opponents
quickly will boost your score, and if you don’t
get hit at all you can score a nice bonus.
Similar to
survival mode is the team battle feature, where
up to seven players on each team are put into a
reserve. Once one character’s health bar is
depleted, the next guy will jump in right away,
so there aren’t any dull moments. If you ever
have the desire to practice, then the sparring mode
is there to help you master a certain character’s
unique fighting style. Aside from being able to
control how the computer fights back, you can also
choose to go through the exercise routine that shows
you how to perform every single one of your fighter’s
attacks. A button log shows exactly what you’re
pressing so you can see if you make any errors,
and you even have the option to watch the computer
perform an attack. Of course, a basic versus mode
is included with single player or tag team battles,
and it can be a nice change to fight without all
of the frills.
Aside from
just fighting, a few other relaxing modes let you
sit back and enjoy this game in all of its magnificent
glory. The watch mode will let you view two CPU
opponents pummel each other, and you can take high
resolution snapshots and save them to a storage
device here. The battle viewer lets you watch saved
replays, while the movie theater has all of the
ending cinematics to the characters you’ve
completed story mode with.
The
Future of Dead or Alive 4 – Xbox Live
Easily the
most entertaining aspect of DoA4 is the online component.
Quick match lets you jump right into the action,
custom match will find the best game that meets
your preferences, and you can create your own lobby
if you just want to setup everything for yourself.
Zack’s shop is a comical feature that lets
you purchase different lobbies, avatars, and accessories
to help customize your avatar. Before the fighting
actually commences, gamers have to wait in the pre-game
lobby in the form of an avatar. Ranging from ninjas
and humans to pigs and penguins, the avatars make
setting up a game a lot more fun than ever before.
The online fighting system at its core is solid
and offers for a lot of customization as well. The
lobby creator can determine the length of each round,
how many victories are required to win, and they
can even setup a scenario where the winner of one
round will keep challenging enemies until he is
eventually defeated. While some may strive to achieve
the best grade to make it to the top of the worldwide
ranking list, players who obtain the “15 losses
in a row” achievement on a daily basis can
also spend a lot of time online.
Conclusion
Dead or Alive
4 is a worthy addition to the series that satisfies
the needs of skilled gamers and newcomers alike.
While initially the overly difficult story mode
might be a turn off for some, if you manage to take
the time to learn how to play this game it can offer
endless hours of entertainment. The fast paced brutal
action of the Dead or Alive series has made its
way to the Xbox 360, and we can easily say that
it contains enough depth (and partial nudity!) to
appease the most demanding fighting veterans.
| Game play |
18/20 |
| Graphics |
19/20 |
| Sound |
17/20 |
| Value |
17/20 |
| Preference |
18/20 |
| Overall |
89/100 |
DOA
4- Second Opinion - Stuart "Veridian3"
Davidson
Having played
DOA4 for the past month or so, even at the expense
of the excellent Project Gotham 3 I have to say
that I wholeheartedly agree with Andy’s conclusion
that the game whilst very fast paced is incredibly
deep and has potentially huge longevity both on
your own console and on Xbox Live. I was also very
impressed by how fluid the battles are despite their
tempo. Whilst the game is difficult to master for
a novice this actually makes it all the more rewarding
as you begin to master counters and various combo’s.
I still have a few recordings on my HD from early
battles where I found my first few really good moves
it still feels pretty good to look back and see
how cool they actually were, you’ll probably
find yourself doing the same as your technique progresses.
Where I would
disagree a little with Andy is the quality of the
graphics which you find in DOA4. For the most part
they are very impressive, the level where you start
fighting on the rope/wood bridge and drop down to
the valley floor is particularly impressive though
there are some levels where I was slightly disappointed.
Some of the background graphics such as part of
the crowd in the wrestling arena are very last generation
for example. The character models also have a few
rough edges such as clipping of some clothing and
blocky hair that doesn’t move as well as the
Xbox 360 specs should allow. I would go so far as
to say that I did feel a little let down and disappointed
by the graphics and felt it wouldn’t hurt
to have delayed the game for a month or two just
to add some further polish because really, when
you compare it to the overall sheen of the other
360 titles including Kameo and Project Gotham Racing
3, Dead or Alive 4 does come up a little short.
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