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DEAD OR ALIVE 4 XBOX 360 REVIEW |
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After
grueling months of delay, we finally got our
hands on Tecmo’s latest fighting game, Dead or
Alive 4 for the Xbox 360. Like any other DOA
game in the past, this one follows along Tecmo’s
high caliber tradition in showcasing the most
important aspect of a new console: The graphics!
The game blew us away with the attention to
detail, the sophisticated lighting effects, and
its stylish 3D presentation. It’s not just the
graphics that give Dead or Alive 4 the first
bait but the phenomenal gameplay help secure the
game’s fighting superiority. Dead or Alive 4
shares many of the same fighting mechanics of
last year’s Dead or Alive Ultimate, which
introduced players not only the ability to fight
in tag team but also compete in various battles
online. The fourth installment in the series
takes the best of DOA Ultimate and spices them
with a line-up of fresh characters, new moves,
and the most complex countering system yet. For
the Xbox 360, this could be as good as fighting
can get. If you have played any of the Dead or
Alive games before, this should be familiar to
you. It’s real easy to get into the action and
the gameplay has good flow of the moves.
Once you start the fight, everything moves
amazingly fast! A match could be over within 60
seconds. Of course, it’s all relative and the
techniques used for fighting depend mostly on
strategy and planning ahead. With that in mind,
players who carelessly button-smash their way to
victory often fall as the easiest victims. One
of the greater highlights in Dead of Alive 4 is
the counter system. It’s executed at a precise
time the opponent tries to hit you with a punch
or a kick. Reversing your opponent is much
smoother in this version and it’s very
satisfying being able to counter an attack
against you, and witness a spectacular display
of different bone-breaking throws take place.
The best part of the reversal process is that
the amount of damage that can be done to your
opponent. It’s usually twice the impact of your
regular attacks. Therefore, mastering the art of
reversal may just give you the necessary
leverage on defense against an aggressive
assault. One of our favorite features online is
the team battle mode that allows team up in
combat. You and a friend can help each online
fighting against the computer or human
opponents.
This latest multiplayer feature provides a
tremendous amount of replay value as it adds a
dynamic challenge to Dead or Alive's 4 gameplay.
The new line-up of fighters is another one of
the many appeals of Dead of Alive 4. In this
game, you have newcomer Eliot, a young kid that
specializes in kung-fu namely the praying
mantis; Kokoro, a martial artist whose expertise
revolves around open palm attacks; and La
Mariposa, a masked warrior who has killer
grappling moves and deadly kicks. The characters
of Dead or Alive Ultimate are all here including
Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa, Chinese Detective
Lei Feng, and a Bruce Lee look a like by the
name of Jan Lee. Their presence is much more
intimidating this time out and they’ve got new
range of combat moves to satisfy your beatings.
What’s interesting about this roster is that it
now includes Drunken Fist Master Brad Wong and a
sly assassin named Christie from Dead or Alive
3. What’s more is that you’ve got Halo’s most
prized possession, Master Chief Spartan-458! |
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PRODUCT
OVERALL RATING: 8.0 OUT OF 10 |
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We are very
surprised to see a Halo character make it
through this game. But before you get too
excited about this particular character, there
are a few things you should know. Halo’s Master
Chief is relatively underdeveloped in terms of
her ability to fight, and yes, she’s female. She
doesn’t have too many moves to work with and
most of them are borrowed from other characters
in the game. Her armor doesn’t even bring up any
special shielding during combat. So what’s left?
Well, she has this amazing grab that allows you
to stick a plasma grenade into the abs of your
opponent. And then Kaboom! Watch your opponent
chucked into the other side of arena. The one
thing we appreciate about Halo’s Master Chief is
having her own stage. Her stage is a fine
reproduction of the first level of Halo 2 with
intergalactic vehicles that you can ram
opponents into. Too bad, she isn’t the tough
alien slayer that she portrays to be; despite
the lack of prowess, her presence does make a
welcome addition to the game’s roster.
Another main attraction of Dead or Alive 4 is
the fighting arenas. Not only are they exquisite
in design but they are also made of multi-layer
environment in which players could fall onto. So
let’s say you start at the mountain top. You
push your opponent out the edge and falls onto a
second plain. He gets up and you hit him with a
special combo and falls off again to another
level below. Basically, he keeps falling off
until he reaches the icy abyss. That’s the
concept behind interactive multi-layer
environment. In Dead or Alive 4, you can do more
than thrust your opponent to the last ground.
You can now smash your foes into glass window,
fruit stand, kick them down a flight of stairs,
or straight into traffic. These are a small
sample of the interactive environments you can
expect in Dead or Alive 4. These surroundings
are not there just for the visual enhancements;
these settings are there with a purpose. The
game has several modes to choose from, but more
often than not, you’ll be playing the story
mode, tag team battle, and online mode the most.
In the story mode, you tackle your way through
eight rounds of one-on-one fighting. You’ll get
a different ending for each character you use to
beat the game. The nice part of the story mode
is that you get to unlock the hidden characters
as well as everyone’s costumes, some having up
to 10 outfits. We had a great time unlocking the
secret content, but it would’ve been nice if the
story mode went deeper with each character’s
history such as their relationship between each
other and to learn more about their disturbing
background. The greatest asset that makes Dead
or Alive 4 such a hot game is the online mode.
This is where the heart of the action is! You’ve
got a long list of variants that you can play
online including Kumite, where you (as a host)
take on foes successively whether you win or
lose. So far, our online experience has been
relatively fun. We haven’t seen any lag in
loading except some occasional hiccups between
matches overseas. Graphically, the game is
incredible, from the detailed composition of
each character to the vivid textures of the
environments. There are many things you want to
look at but you hardly have the time. The
animation is filled with so much life that it
feels like a movie trailer! Everything is so
razor-sharp it’s surreal!
To top off the incredible graphics are the great
sound effects. The game has you believing that
every hit is very painful such as smashing a
character into a wall, for example. You could
just feel bones crushing. Tecmo, the developer,
really put a heavy emphasis on punches and kicks
that create an image of physical force to the
action. The game’s voice-over works are great,
too! The Japanese actors fit their parts well
and this aspect gives Dead or Alive 4 a native
touch to it. In the music department, the game
has an upbeat flavor and features incredible
soundtracks for several characters we know. And
who could forget that Aerosmith’s theme? It’s
still part of the game's introduction. Dead or
Alive 4 is truly an awesome fighting game no
matter how you look at it. It may have a few
technical flaws like unbalanced AI and
occasional hanging online but they can be
forgivable. Those who are new to the Dead or
Alive series would have a difficult time
adjusting themselves to the combat system here.
At normal setting, the computer plays pretty
cheap. But a little practice will get you up to
speed. Tecmo’s slight tweaks to the fighting
engine make this one smoother, faster, and more
dynamic than any of the Dead or Alive games in
the past. The announcement of delays is very
frustrating, but because of the incredible
efforts put into this title, the waiting part
has certainly been worthwhile. If you’re looking
for a high caliber fighting game for Xbox 360
that delivers great visuals and solid online
experience, this is the best one yet. |
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