Dead or Alive 4 brings everything fans of the series love back, along with some new faces and a much higher difficulty..
First things first, if you've played either DOA2 or DOA3, then you know what to expect here. DOA4 is very similar to its previous encarnations that have appeared on a number of home consoles at this point, though it does add a couple of nice touches and new characters that fans of the series will still enjoy in order to keep things fresh. A storyline that finally begins tying up the loose ends presented in the previous games, more powerful "charged" attacks, and blurred fighting effects are a few of the game's changes, though the most notable is easily the skyrocketed difficulty setting, where "Normal" now seems like DOA3's "Very Hard" difficulty.
Graphically, DOA4 and all its colorful characters are as gorgeous as ever. The environments seem more open and expansive than in previous games, and the character models look excellent - especially on a high definition display. The detail that Team Ninja includes in DOA4 is unsurpassed by any game in the genre, right down to the threads of fabric in a character's outfit. Dead or Alive has always had stunning visuals for its time, and DOA4 is no different in its presentation.
As far as gameplay goes, Team Ninja has changed a few things in the equations from previous games. Many of the simplified moves in DOA3 have been restored to their harder-to-pull-off counterparts from DOA2 (such as Hayabusa's Izuna Drop), and yet the character balance overall has been downplayed to the point where fans that known their specific character(s) inside and out may feel slightly disappointed (Ayane, for example, is much simpler to control than she used to be). The most noticeable change, though, is the difficulty of the game - even DOA veterans should expect to throw their controller at least once during the ultimately cheap final boss and her teleportation abilities. While the game is far from impossible, it definitely makes players work to earn their Achievements and costumes this time around, which is good for replayability but bad for casual gamers.
Multiplayer has always been one of the strongest points in the DOA series, and DOA4 takes the successful Xbox Live functionality from DOA: Ultimate and includes that in the mix for all Xbox Live Gold members. Players can actually earn credits while fighting to be used for a type of online lobby and avatar system too, though the whole thing seems kind of pointless when players are ultimately playing DOA to fight each other. Still, it's a nice touch that gives players something to shoot for, and the fighting online seems relatively lag-free.
The sound in DOA4 seems to be the least-changed feature in the mix, with most of the voice acting either similarly done or identical to previous DOA games. The music, as usual, is a collection of soft trance themes, with the fighters' original themes subtly included in the mix (most noticeable, ironically enough, on the club stage which remixes music into a dance-theme). Other than these, expect the usual blows and explosions from players fighting and colliding with the environments.
Overall, Dead or Alive 4 is yet another succesfully accomplished fighter in the DOA series, and provides enough new content to keep veteran players happy. While the game may serve as a better rental than purchase for many people, it is ultimately a strong fighter for the Xbox 360 that fans of the genre will enjoy having in their collection.