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Review: Dead or Alive 2 |
I don’t know if anybody remembers the FMV intros to both the Saturn and Playstation versions of the original Dead Or Alive. Needless to say, they weren’t particularly good, by no means awful, but not great. Technology has improved immensely in the last four years, and Dead Or Alive 2’s *in-game* visuals far outstrip the FMV of it’s ancestor. It’s true.
Thanks to the strange time-warp that is affecting my local arcades – (they’re stuck in November 1999) I’ve never seen the arcade DOA2. I’ve seen all the screenshots, and downloaded the 20mb movie file from various game expos. But I’d never seen it in proper action.
The first time I put the disk into the Dreamcast and started it up — my jaw hit the floor. And is still there. DOA2 is a visual masterpiece, there’s no arguing about it. The characters are rendered at such a high resolution, and move so fluidly and convincingly…it’s really amazing. The backgrounds are astounding in terms of detail and solidity- I still can’t get over the three-tiered fort stage or the church or the waterfall. Such care and lavish, almost unnecessary detail has been put in, it’s pretty much the 3D equivalent of Streetfighter 3 in the way you’ll continue to notice things long after beginning it.
The game itself plays similarly to the original DOA (punch, kick, counter, back to block), but has also undergone several significant changes. First there’s full 3D movement, an essential ingredient in any polygon fighter these days and something I felt was sorely missing from the first game.
Secondly, the “counter” system has changed. It’s no longer a basic “parry” – in which after intercepting an incoming attack, you are free to counter with whatever you choose, no, now if you counter, your character will respond with a pre-determined throw or hold only. You also have to manually choose high, mid or low counters now. It’s harder to do, but way more satisfying to pull off. I like the learning curve aspects of counters – the way the more you play it, the more you recognise certain attacks and combos – and are able to counter them.
There’s also a greater reliance on staggering your opponent. There are a lot of moves that, if they hit will stun for a second or two, allowing a follow-up attack. I know there is staggering in VF and other games, but this is it at it’s most blatant.
The third big change is the arenas themselves. If you recall, DOA had flat “danger zones” outside the square rings and being knocked over in these areas meant a big explosion and big damage. In DOA2, the progression of processing power has allowed the programmers to replace the flat squares of the first game with much larger and more intricate natural/realistic-looking places to fight. Environmental hazards still feature – from being pounded against a wall to such amazing occurrences as being knocked out of a church window into the ruins beneath, or over a waterfall or off a opera-house balcony – this innovative and spectacular idea is one of my favourite features of any fighting game ever – and I will frequently take hits and damage in order to manoeuvre my opponent so I can knock them off such landmarks. There’s a wonderful feeling of exhilaration as you kick your enemy off a roof, then leap 200 metres down (ouch) to continue the fight below. Brilliant.
There are more cinematic moments. If you play in “Story” mode – you will fight through seven one-round fights, which are interspersed with real-time cutscenes and no loading whatsoever at all. Although the story aspect is weak, often nonsensical and extremely unoriginal (ARGH! Cloning in a fighting game! Run for the hills!) – I can appreciate what Team Ninja were trying to achieve, and despite the fact you can finish it (if you’re good) in about 4 minutes, it’s still worth a look.
To play “normally” (ie best of three rounds) you have to play “Time Attack” mode – and I must say this is the mode I spend most of the time playing.
There’s also a “Team” mode – where you pick a number of characters and have to fight KOF-style until the end.
Possibly the most fast and furious aspect of this game is the “Tag” mode. You pick two characters and face off against another two. Although the fighting is still basically one-on-one, you can tag out at almost any time, even during a combo. It gets a little crazy sometimes, as you do a 5 hit combo and tag as you are doing it and the second character comes on and is instantly controllable, so you can continue the combo! The switching is so instantaneous, it’s almost like controlling both characters together. This is easily the most fun, my only gripe is that all the fights take place on one stage. I don’t know if this is a programming or processing power issue, but those grey walls sure get boring after a while.
There’s also a training mode that doesn’t have a move list (doh!) a VS mode and a survival mode. Options are the usual ones, with the odd addition of a “player age” choice. So according to my copy, and for the purposes of this review, I’m a 99-year old man then. Right?
DOA2 also notably surpasses the first game in the audio department too. The intro features some great “thrash” metal stuff, and there are a couple of really funktastic in-game tunes, as well as a few good remixes of some of the originals. The voice acting is still in Japanese, but with English subtitles, which I feel enhances the whole “ninja” feel of the game and thankfully avoids the “Resident Evil” syndrome.
One criticism I’ve seen again and again is the fact it’s too easy to rely on PPPK style “canned combos” when playing. When you look at the helpful combo meter it becomes clear that over 95% of these pre-determined attacks *aren’t* complete combos – in a typical PPPKK attack – only the first two hits are actually “combo” hits, and the 3rd is reversible. So there, whiners – suck on that. PPPPKKKK-ing is a good way to get killed against better players.
The meter does more than count combos. It identifies “critical” hits and even tells you when to do the motions in a multithrow. How cool is that? Those of us who got pissed off with games like Giant Gram Pro Wrestling because the combo throws required insane timing will be grateful for this.
The characters are mostly from the first game (with the exception of Leon, who replaces Bayman and plays exactly like him…) alongside the two from the PSX version, plus two brand new ones. They’re pretty derivative in terms of design, with big slow grapplers, small quick poking characters and plenty of stereotypes. See if you can spot the Virtua Fighter rip-offs. Oh yeah, and the final boss is exceedingly lame. If you laughed at True Ogre or Inferno – prepare to fall screaming from your chair…
Dead Or Alive 2 is still pretty much a “must-get” for Dreamcast owners. It’s a perfectly judged package, with the music, graphics and playability all complimenting each other wonderfully.
I personally prefer it to Soul Calibur – I never really like Namco fighting games for long and I prefer the “quick martial arts” theme to the “slow swordfighting” one of SC.
It’s easy to get into, and there are tonnes of moves to learn. It’s also full of moments to make you go “oh my god!” every so often. I still can’t get over the Fort stage. I’m sure I’ll die being amazed by that one.
That’s really all I’ve got so say about DOA2. Bye.
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Oh yeah, and….I suppose some of the female characters could be considered …. fairly attractive. O_o
