Dead or Alive 4 (Xbox 360) > Reviews > DOA 4

Author's product rating:   

Playability & Enjoyment	A good game - playable and enjoyable
Addictiveness	Compulsive
Graphics	Excellent
Difficulty & Complexity	A difficult game - needs a lot of patience
Value for money	Good value

Advantages:	Beautiful graphics, many unlockables
Disadvantages:	Steep learning curve, laggy online play

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Dead Or Alive 4 is currently available to buy for the Xbox 360

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Story

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Dead Or Alive four follows the events of the previous game as DOATEC continues its attempts to produce the ultimate bio weapon, and reveal the existence of an Alpha project and a clone of Kasumi

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Gameplay
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There are three new playable characters in DOA 4, Kokoro who is a young geisha, Elliot a young English boy and protege of Gen-Fu, and La Mariposa a masked Licha Libre wrestler and rival fighter to Tina

DOA 4 has many different modes to keep players busy, the most common of these is story mode in which you play through the game with a chosen character doing so will unlock playable characters and various costumes, with survival as the title suggests you have to survive against computer controlled characters for as long as you possibly can, the survival and time attack modes can be played either on your own or in a tag team, in sparring mode you can practice your moves against a computer controlled character.

One thing that may effect the positive gameplaying experience for novice players and casual gamers new to the game will be the difficulty, this game is hard, really hard, even on easy mode i had moments where i wanted to just throw my controller at the telly and turn of the 360 console, the end boss is especially difficult considering she can do a massive combo attack that can take of 70% of your health, while this harder difficulty could be seen in a good way as making people use sparring mode more and to learn the best combos of a chosen character to be able to cope with the difficulty, it certainly alienates the casual gamer.

The game has many different items to be unlocked, as previously stated going through story and time attack mode costumes and extra characters are able to be unlocked, and the all the characters ending movies can be seen in a theater mode

I never liked the online play of DOA 4, once in a lobby you can join a game either for a single or tag fight, but i found it just took to long to start a match and then i always experienced severe lag, so for this reason i always stuck to ofline play

One aspect of DOA 4 i really liked which has been a staple of the genre since its birth is the ability to kick opponents into electrifide walls and other hazardous objects, characters can also be booted of large buildings and even run over by cars in some levels, this adds more fun to the game and the background action of the levels adds more realism.
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Graphics
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The graphics in DOA 4 are nothing short of stunning, even on my standard TV which isn't HD, the games graphics are brilliant, so i shudder to imagine the amount of detail on an HD tv, the backgrounds to each level are stunning, the leaves on trees rustle and slick rain can be seen on roads, the characters themselves while looking brilliant have not really been improved on much from the previous game, although this isn't bad as each character still looks great, with their hair and clothes reacting to the wind and the bustle of fighting, overall this is the best graphically brilliant game on the 360
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Music/sound
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To be honest i never paid much attention to the sound and music of the game, all characters speak in Japanese except for Spartan-458, while its not a big negative, i would have preferred English spoken characters, but as i said its only a small negative, the music ranges from a nice mix of dance music to heavy rock music.
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Conclusion
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DOA 4 is the only great beat em up on Xbox 360, despite an overly difficult learning curve which alienates the average and casual gamer, it is still a treat for fight fans alike, with stunning graphics and plently of unlockables to keep players busy, and considering this game has been out for over a year now it can found for between £15-£30.