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Innovative fighting game that never gets repetitive.

User Rating: 8.9 | Dead or Alive 4 (Platinum Hits) X360

By makaelthosolcry | Review Date: June 16, 2007

I got Dead or Alive in a bundle pack when I bought my Xbox 360, and boy am I glad I did, otherwise I would have never discovered this amazing fighting game. It's hardly believable that DOA 4 was a launch game, seeing as it's graphics and gameplay are both top-knotch. Before proceeding any further, let me warn you : this game requires serious effort and patience at first ! I remember when I first played, it seemed difficult as hell to even get past the story mode on normal difficulty, and I honestly considered not playing the game at all. In time though, when I practiced and learned the completely different gameplay, it became more and more fun by the second. New players WILL find it hard to cope at first, but when you get past the initial task, the rest is just plain fun. The game is technial and fast-paced at the same time. The main elements of the combat are countering, stringing combos together and using the multi-leveled environment to your advantage. Whats noteworthy is that there are enough options for the variety of playable fighting styles is enough to fit any gamers interest, be it defensive, all out offenive or some mixture between the two. Unlike many other games, counters are a much more major part of the formula, there are specific buttons for each type fo move counter and learning the sytem is arguably imperative. ( or not, it really depends on how you use the game's mechanics) Remembering combos is not required as your own intuition of how attacks should be many a time actually turn out to string combos, but again, if memorizing combos is your thing, there are important advantages there too.

The games characters all are unique, but not as much as you may expect. They all look very nice and different, but controlling them in combat can sometimes be similar, which is a double-edged sword.Theres enough story depth to keep you playing every characters story, either for the details themselves or the unlockable costumes. The good part about this is that battles never get old. Each battle is unique from the next as the gameplay is so diverse. No fight is ever boring, though sometimes the little-unblanced difficulty may have you screaming your lungs out. At the end of the day, you find yourself getting past the trial and the sense achieved is extremely satisfying. The extra modes are pretty much what you would expect, theres Time Attack, Team Battle and Survival, which are playable either solo or in tag-team. All are balanced accordingly to fit the theme. Time attack can be especially scream-your-throat-dry when aiming for the Silver and Bronze medals. ( gold is pretty easy) The online is decent, too. Theres a cute lobby system that serves it's purpose but the actualy multiplayer is pretty good. The servers are satisfactory, there shouldn't be too much lag unless you're playing with someone accross the globe or one of you has a bad inetrnet connection, in which case theres screen lag which both of you get, but all in all it's still pretty fun. The DOA servers are smart, they arrange tournaments yielding prizes of points of grade accordingly depending on the number of players. There also always seem to be people online. The whole online structure is ultimately well designed.

At the end of the day, DOA4 is a very innovative and enjoyable fighting game, that, while would only arguable be called better than the others, puts a lot new stuff to the table. This game is a MUST for fighting gamers and a great place to start your fighting caeer if you haven't already. The achievements should keep youplaying for hundreds of hours, because they're damn tough !

Dead or Alive 4

Innovative fighting game that never gets repetitive.

Excellent Game.

The DOA series is upping the stakes