REVIEW: Dead or Alive 4

The latest installment in the Dead or Alive franchise attempts to uphold the “hardcore” label of its developer, Team Ninja. But after playing through this game, I have to say that I’m disappointed: hardcore game design should mean something better.

The concept for the game was good. Take one of the coolest, most badass (and most revealing) fighters and update it for the new generation. Team Ninja did this by adding full online features, more complex fighting mechanics, new fighters and levels (including a Spartan!), and of course a fresh paint job.

But somewhere along the way, the developers let their notion of “hardcore” ruin the game, bringing what could have been a fantastic game down into the realm of average. The big offender here is the rage-inducing difficulty. Rather than craft a game that challenges the player, Team Ninja made a game that knees you in the nuts, repeatedly, and then slams your dick in a door.

I consider myself a hardcore gamer, and I love a challenging game—the original Fire Emblem for GameBoy is one of my favorite handheld titles ever, despite its difficulty. But there is a difference between a well-designed challenge, and a totally-cheap chore of frustration. Dead or Alive 4 is the lattter.

Enemy characters can block anything you do, they can (and do) perform counters whenever they feel like it, and they can chain throws together to deplete your entire life gauge without you having a chance to retaliate. In Story mode, your attacks seem to do less damage than usual, while your opponents are unnaturally fast and st rong. And the final boss is the worst piece of f#%$@ cheapness I’ve ever seen in a game, with the ability to teleport at will, leap across the level in a single bound, and slam you endlessly into the damage-dealing walls and floors. Unfortunately, these are the modes you have to beat to unlock new characters and costumes. But once you’ve unlocked everything, you can leave the travesties behind and move onto better parts of the game.

The online modes are a mix of good and bad. Having the ability to battle your friends or the general public online adds greatly to the replay value, and means that more devoted players have a way to hone their skills. But the game’s depth, rapid pace, and abundance of air juggling and combos mean that casual players will quickly get pummeled. Which feels more frustrating when you have to wait your turn to even play a match, because the online mode simmulates an arcade by putting a number of players together in a room, the winner taking on the waiting players one by one. A faster matchmaking system, and one that takes player skill into account, would have been appreciated.

The game also features an extensive lobby and avatar system, with reward points and unlockable costumes for the avatar. But the entire setup seemed pointless, and only made the process of going online more confusing and time-consuming. The cutesy look of the lobbies & avatars also seemed inconsistent with the hardcore image of the game.

The best way to play the game, by far, is against a friend. Whether on the couch or over the net, this is where the game can finally be balanced, and you can finally appreciate all of the good things that the game has to offer. Which is quite a bit, despite the afore-mentioned problems.

The game features 22 playable characters, and while a couple of them are boring or look cloned (Ein & Hayate aren’t twins?), the majority of players are unique, interesting, and fun to play. New characters Elliot and La Mariposa were two of my favorites, alongside series veterans like Ryu and Hayate. And one of the game’s best selling points comes only after you’ve beaten it: a playable Spartan soldier. If the Halo fans aren’t already drooling, they should be: the female Spartan kicks major ass, and is my favorite character by far.

The levels of the game are also one of its strong-points, despite a few complaints. All the levels are interactive, featuring multiple-tiers or floors, breakable objects, and danger spots like electrical fences. The graphical detail of the levels is impressive, with sweeping backdrops, cheering fans, and many vibrant locales like a nighttime casino and a sunny street market. Unfortunately, these settings often have nothing to do with one another, or with any of the characters or plot. Levels like the dinosaur-filled jungle and the wild African savannah seem so out of place and random that they sometimes distract from the fighting.

Which is only part of an overarching problem in the game: its lack of cohesion and immersion. The game’s attempt at a plot is lame and confusing, and when combined with the randomness and frustrating moments you won’t play for very long stretches. The lack of any character progression or motivation prevents you from investing in the characters, and the cluttered and clumsy menus don’t help.

Another problem area for DoA 4 is its sound design. All of the characters speak in Japanese only, so if you want to understand what’s going on you will need to use subtitles. Although, you might want to turn them back off, as the poor translations result in clumsy and cliched dialogue. The untillegible rantings of your characters can get annoying. I see only two possible reasons for this omission: the developers were too lazy or they thought that leaving the audio in Japanese made it more “hardcore.” I’m not sure which reason is worse, laziness or stupidity. The music in the game is alright, but its too uninspired and generic to make up for the voice work. The sound effects are the best part of the audio, with ambient level noise and crisp combat sounds.

The graphics, of course, are fantastic. Those who know the game’s reputation may be surprised that I did not mention these yet, or that I neglected to mention the abundance of CG breasts. Yes, the game is chock-full of busty women, most of whom dress like they are auditioning for a Victoria’s Secret commercial, not competing in a fighting tournament. But its not just the ladies that look great, the attention to detail in all of the character models and levels is impressive. The Spartan’s shiny armor looks as good as Master Chief’s in Halo 3, and the gorgeous environments look ahead of their time for a 2005 game.

It’s a shame that all of these great components are balanced by problems, because the issues seem so easy to fix. With better balance, a ranked matchmaking system and English voice-overs, I probably would have given the game as high as a 90. If you can tough it out through the single player, and don’t mind the Japanese, there’s a fun game in here. Just make sure you know what you’re getting into.