The fourth installment in the Dead or Alive series is much improved over its predecessors and a great game overall.
One of the first things you’ll probably notice about this game is the graphics. This, my friends, is what next-gen games are supposed to look like. Honestly, this is one of the best looking games I’ve played on the 360 (The only game that really looks better is PGR 3). The screenshots can only say so much. This game has to be seen in motion to be truly appreciated.
The backgrounds are insanely detailed and look almost photo-realistic at times. Great examples of this are The Waterfall valley and Kyoto in Bloom stages. Waterfall valley is amazingly detailed. Each leaf on each and every one of the trees looks as if you could reach out and touch it. The water effects are equally impressive. Some of the best looking water I’ve seen. The Kyoto in bloom stage is equally amazing. Cherry blossoms swirl around you as you duke it out with your opponent. Visually stunning. From lush rainforests to busy marketplaces to the Las Vegas strip, the backgrounds impress even more than the player models do (more on that in a sec). Many of the environments are multi-tiered and fully interactive. For instance, the Las Vegas themed stage features commuter traffic and they wait for no one. Since you’re fighting on the street, you have to avoid the traffic as you pummel your opponent. If you time your attacks right, you can also use the oncoming traffic to your advantage. As the cars are coming down the street they will change lanes to try and avoid you, however, if you jump in their way too quickly, then you will be hit. It’s a great way to spice up the fighting by adding a bit of strategy.
The player models do disappoint a little because at their worst they look like slightly polished versions of the characters from DOA Ultimate. That is not necessarily a bad thing. DOA Ultimate is one of if not the single best looking fighting game of its time, but given all the extra power the 360 offers it’s disappointing to see how little the character models have changed. They’re still good, but not as good as one would hope for in a next-gen game, especially when you consider how much of the original Xbox’s graphical power was tapped from the start with DOA 3. Another annoyance concerning the character models is how their hair animates. This is a problem particularly with the female characters that have long, flowing hair. Their hair animates like a piece of fabric that has been cut into ribbons instead of flowing naturally, strand by strand. Sometimes the hair seems to clump up even more and stick to the characters shoulders. The cloth animations look similar as well.
Graphics aside, the fighting engine is probably the biggest change in the game. Being a heavy DOA 3 player, I was kind of expecting more of the same from DOA 4, but if my early expectations had only been met and nothing more, it would’ve been a bit disappointing to fans of the series. Luckily, with the next generation of consoles comes a (mostly) welcome change to the fighting engine. In DOA 4 there is a strong emphasis on blocks and countering, certainly much more so than DOA 3 or Ultimate. At first I didn’t think I was going to have to change my playing style to adapt. After having my ass handed to me on a silver platter a couple times I realized I was wrong. Seriously, if you’ve played any of the previous Xbox games you’ll have to change your style to include countering maneuvers. It’s a lot to get used to, to be sure and it really shows how this series has evolved.
There are some low points in the fighting engine. The biggest annoyance of all is the combos that seem to stretch into infinity. This annoyed me to no end. One character in particular, Ayane, is the undisputed queen of such combos. Many of her combos end with the other character staggering, leaving them open for another combo. Again, annoying to say the least. Some might call the fighting engine “busted” because of this flaw but it’s not that big of a problem, just something to get used to.
Another annoyance is that the boss of this game is ridiculously unbalanced. Some of its combos can take away more than half of your health bar. Another problem is that almost every time you launch into a combo or rush in for a powerful attack it will teleport out of the way (most often behind you) and punish you while you’re off balance. Series vets could get frustrated and newbies could very easily be overwhelmed. Time attack mode is nearly impossible when you have to win two rounds against the incredibly difficult boss, even on the default difficulty. Only advanced players will come away unscathed, others will be frustrated and annoyed.
As a nod to all the legions of Halo fans out there, the developers have added a not-so-secret character to the roster. Spartan-458 (AKA Nicole) is a great addition to the game although she isn’t as fleshed out as she should be as many of her moves are lifted from the bigger characters in the game. She does have some nice special moves, one in particular has her grabbing the other character, shoving a plasma grenade into their gut and kicking them away only to have the grenade explode seconds later. Her character model looks great and really shows how good the real Master Chief could look on the Xbox 360. Her Halo-themed stage also impresses. It is visually amazing, in one corner sits a broken, battle damaged Covenant Banshee. Near the center of the stage sits another battle damaged Covenant vehicle, this time a Ghost. Both are simply amazing and show off the power of the Xbox 360.
The multiplayer is great fun, supporting up to 4 players both offline and on. The online multiplayer is an updated form of the mode first unveiled on DOA Ultimate. Each player gets his or her own little lobby area for hosting online multiplayer matches. Each of these lobbies is highly stylized and anime inspired. Each player gets their own customizable avatar to represent them within these lobbies. Both the lobbies and the avatars are cute but a little unnecessary in the long run. All you can do within the lobby is talk to the other players and watch online battles live on a small screen within the lobby. To actually join a fight you have to leave the lobby.
Joining a battle is simple and is reminiscent of the arcade setups. I remember my days in the arcade, lining up to play against people on the machine. The winner of the battles would stay on while the loser would have to go to the back of the line. DOA 4’s online matching is very similar. The winner of each fight gets to fight continuously until they lose. The loser would go to the back of the “line” and would have to wait until their turn came around again. Once your turn comes around, the online action is pretty good but not great because of a few lag issues. The battles are fast paced and fun. If you can ignore the slight lag then you’re in for some pretty intense action, certainly the best online fighting I’ve seen on any console.
All in all, DOA 4 turned out to be a pretty good fighting game. It’s certainly the best fighting game in the series thus far. It is certainly more challenging than any of its predecessors which could scare off new players. Series vets will feel right at home with it and will soon adapt themselves to the changes to the fighting engine. If you’re looking for an online fighting game to play on your brand new Xbox 360, then you can’t go wrong with DOA 4.