Many thoughts come to mind when the topic of the Dead or Alive series is brought up in a conversation. On the one hand, there’s a bunch of big busted Japanese ladies who dominate nearly every aspect of the game, and then of course on the other there’s the gameplay which has always garnered its fair share of criticism when compared to other fighter mainstays such as Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur. It’s important to note that Dead or Alive 4 is not the best fighting game available, as those previously mentioned still have it beat in terms of sheer depth and variety. Putting that aside, the series biggest achievement is that it steadily improves with each entry. Whereas some game franchises degrade with each passing installment, Dead of Alive 4 is an example of what happens when criticism is taken to heart and utilized.  

Those who try to keep up with the often insane storylines of the series will be pleased to know that DOA4 has no shortage of wacky, sweet and just plain badass moments (thank you Ryu). It’s not exactly the easiest plot to follow but let’s just say that series mainstay Helena has had it with the constant bloodshed and personal tragedy. So of course, she’s going to go postal and try to put an end to the conflicts once and for all. The main enemy that DOA4 seems to revolve around is the downright transparent Alpha-152, a supercharged clone of Kasumi. The story is revealed for each character in chunks with in-game cinematics in between matches and a slick cg ending after the completion of a characters tourney. While the story of Dead or Alive 4 isn’t anything to nominate for awards, the CG cinematic are enjoyable enough to persuade you to complete each characters story. And for fans, the story is bound to hold meaning.

 

Along with the story mode, Dead or Alive 4 is packed with a ton of features, often more than you could want or need. In time attack mode, you fight against CPU opponents in a string of eight single matches or 5 tag team matches in an effort to complete them in a new record time. The traditional versus mode is also here allowing you to fight single matches against AI opponents or to play against a friend. Survival mode is basically a non-stop beat down as you fight opponent after opponent until you’re finally knocked out. The tag team battle mode pits seven player teams against each other and this can also be played with a friend as well. All of the modes are fun for awhile and they all stay within the norm for a typical fighting game. There is a training mode and you can even watch two CPU players battle it out if you’re tired of getting in the field yourself. My favorite side feature is the Battle Viewer which allows you to watch matches you have saved both online and off. The ability to watch a classic match from where you were at your best is definitely a treat.  

The most important mode of Dead or Alive 4 is of course Xbox Live. While not exactly new to the series (Dead of Alive Ultimate takes the cake), DOA4 sports a fully fleshed out lobby and rankings system that definitely make an impression. The Live Lobbies featured in DOA4 are cutesy, child like playhouses that vary in theme from Halloween to the space age. When you enter a lobby, you will notice that you are free to run around with the other players waiting to get their turn at a fight. The lobby even has a big screen so that you can watch the current match while chatting away with the other players using a keyboard, the microphone or the neat little emoticons that were included. The match types online include Winner-stays, survival, Loser-stays, team battle, tournament and kumite. While the first few are fairly self-explanatory, tournament is a mode which has you winning based on how many of the matches you won from a string of fights. Kumite is the weakest match type of the bunch as it basically allows the match starter to continue fighting player after player no matter who wins or loses. Aside from pleasing show-offs and egotists, it seems to serve no purpose. In terms of lag, your results may vary. After playing several matches at a few different locations I noticed that some matches were silky smooth, while others would chop and lag worse than Doom 3 on an antique computer. If you get into a good lobby, you should expect quite a bit of fun playing against human opponents. Competing against complete strangers can even be quite a bit more fun than fighting with someone sitting next to you. Just watch out, quite a few of the players are obsessively good.



In terms of the straight up gameplay, Dead or Alive 4 is an improvement over its previous incarnations by its tightening of the counter system and making it both more difficult to utilize for beginners, but rewarding for those who can exploit it to the fullest. Some complained that Dead of Alive 3 could be summed up best as a counter party where basically every attack could be thrown back, turning the tide of a fight completely in the favor of the opponent. Dead or Alive 4 can still come down to a defeat by counter, but the initial damage and ease of use has been reduced. Pulling off counters requires more precise timing and things can get worse for you if you try and fail, allowing your opponent to take advantage of it. The throws, which are also commonly used moves in this franchise are a bit more difficult to pull off as well, but throws and counters are what prevent the game from simply becoming a contest of who can pull off the longest and sickest combos (it can still happen though). You are able to shift around the environments and you have your basic blocks (not always the best option), even a taunt for each character. It’s definitely possible for button mashers to complete the story mode, but as a clear warning, going online is probably a death sentence. Button mashing can get a player through quite a few things, but up against a player who knows exactly how to time counters and master particular characters, it’s all but over. It has to be said that the computer AI when playing against CPU characters can be quite challenging, but sometimes to the point of being cheap. It’s quite possible to be destroyed by the computer without ever landing a hand on them and to a degree, that’s pretty ridiculous. The environments in Dead or Alive 4 are much more interactive than in previous games. You can basically knock your enemies over wildlife, fling them through elaborate glass fixtures and there’s a bit of vehicular manslaughter to be had as well. It’s not exactly a crucial gameplay element, but it’s also important to note that the environmental conditions don’t affect the players as much as they may have before. Being knocked off of a bridge won’t leave you on the brink of death, but it will still give your opponent an advantage. This seems to be done in an effort to lengthen the typical match and allow you to experience more areas of each environment.  The final boss that many of the characters fight, Alpha-152 is quite challenging (others may say senselessly overpowered, which would be true) with her seemingly endless combo strings and counters. No harm done though, she’s practically like every other fighting game boss out there, why bother making a boss that tests your skills rather than beating you into the ground with the unrealistic ability to block and counter every single move you make? It’s the simple things that often blow over our heads.



 

At first glance Dead or Alive 4 may look almost too similar to Dead or Alive Ultimate in that the characters don’t look as if they’ve made some massive leap into the next generation. While this is true in many instances, it’s the environments and physics that make the leap this time around. The environments within DOA 4 are so full of life and sometimes that’s quite literal (dinosaurs and African wildlife anyone?). While also a part of the gameplay, it’s important to note how fluid the environments feel as interactive fields. Pushing enemies into food carts causes fruit and produce to launch in every direction and throwing them into traffic is definitely a visual treat (is it wrong that we enjoy such things?). Every environment is complemented by a rich color scheme and some great texture work. While one could argue even the environments lack the next generation flair, they still look great compared to most of the 360s initial batch of games. The cloth and hair physics have made a subtle leap in detail but in some cases not for the best. In some situations characters look beautifully fluid as their clothing matches their movements swaying back and forth, but at other times the clothes and especially the hair begin to clip pretty badly. It’s not a serious issue but on some characters (namely Kokoro, seriously she should need a permit for those wild locks) it can seem a bit extreme. If we’re going to be technical it would be proper to point out that the game seems to stick to a solid 60 frames per second and that load times rarely ever exceed four seconds. Yes, your read right, four seconds. If that’s not enough, the game comes pumped with two Aerosmith tracks (I still don’t see how they fit), Japanese voice overs and some great match music that will keep you going.

 

It seems fitting to end this review mentioning Spartan-458, the female killing machine that comes straight from the realm of Halo. As entirely mismatched as Spartan and the DOA characters may seem (calling her a female doesn’t lend any extra sense), her addition to the game is welcomed and fairly enjoyable. She comes equipped with her own level (complete with some familiar music) and she plays out like a mish mash of some of the heavier characters in the roster. She can take quite a bit to master, but can definitely be a deadly force in the right hands. Her addition along with new characters like La Mariposa add a bit more color to the series and allow long time fans to drool just a bit more. With a fully featured online component and improved fighting mechanics, Dead or Alive 4 is definitely a must have for fighting game fans who were lucky enough to acquire one of those elusive Xbox 360s.