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Review: Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore |
Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore. Wow, what can I say about this game? There are thousands upon thousands of subtle intricacies in the combo system, while it takes hours, nay, days, to find all the nuances of the free button, or counter button as some of the more…less educated, gamers opt to use.
Ok now that I’ve appeased those gamecombos.com assholes and given something to wank to, on to the nitty gritty of this review. I won’t deny it, this game is fun. Well, it’s fun for a while, unless you have friends to play against. The quest of the solo player however, gets old damnably quick.
I guess the first thing I’ll go after is the plot.
“Plot? It’s a fighting game, who cares about plot?!”
Most times I would agree, however, DOA 2 here attempts to put on in, one that makes absolutely no sense and has more loose ends and holes then the Matrix. Case in point, pre fight dialogue between Lei Fang and Punchinello…I mean Ryu Hayabusa.
Ryu-”Make up your mind!!”
Lei Fang- “Hello!”
Yeah, and this is pretty much the norm for the entire game as near as I can tell. Granted I’ve only beaten it with four characters so far, but bleh, this seems to be the norm. Still, plot isn’t surpremely relevant to a fighter, but jeez guys, the bouncing tits give the game enough of a porno feel, you don’t have to match it with a equal caliber plot. There is also the final boss. I don’t see how this thing that resembles something out of Ranma 1/2 has anything to do with the game.
Next up, graphics. This is where DOA 2 really shines. No, I’m not just talking about the chicks, although the are quite scrumptious for game images. But all the characters have a natural, fluid movement, clothes ripple and move realistically. Each attack of a combo is flowed into beautifully. Trust me, I’ve been around many years, I still remember how the old SF II combo of Jump in Roundhouse, Low Forward into Hadoken. Back then it was tres l337, now, it looks like jittery crap. Each character has their own unique look, and multiple outfits to choose from, more outfits are gained by beating the game with that character (Tina in leather kitty girl outfit r0wr). Also the last stage provides a neato psychedelic blurring effect, which is only offset by smacking the boss around.
Now sound. Well, the music is good background noise, but nothing memorable, and while the Japanese voices sound silky smooth, the English, well, sound nice and smooth too, but they suck. They suck bad. Kasumi sounds like she’s 12, and that just makes me feel naughty. Tina has this forced southern drawl, while her daddy Bass sounds like a bastard redneck trucker. The worst by far is the final boss though. In my humble opinion, he should sound deranged. This English voice actor sounds like he is trying for an Emmy or Oscar. It’s over pronounced and sounds like bad Shakespeare.
Last, and certainly not least since this is by far the game’s saving grace, the gameplay. The controls are very nice and easy to pick up. You have punch, kick, and free. Sadly you can button mash and get a bunch of combos out, but if you take the time to learn the actual combos it can be quite rewarding, especially once you can chain one combo into a juggle or five. The Free Button is where it gets a bit squirrelly though. Free is your all purpose block and counter button, plus I think you hold it down and move the joystick to sidestep around (I use the analog sticks for this, so I’m not positive on this aspect). Once you get a feel for it, the free button is great, but there are two sides on the issue.
1. The free button is very intuitive and creates lots of unique opportunities to counter and counter counter attacks.
2. The free button is a cheap piece of shit that allows you to just turtle and counter away and play like a cheap wh0re.
I’m a bit torn on that issue myself, I don’t think I’ve played long enough to judge for sure. I do know that the computer AI is quite abusive with it’s countering on the higher difficulty levels. Many a match have I lost when I would block the computer’s combo, only to have my own countered repeatedly. I would counter the comp at times, but for whatever reason it never seemed as effective, or worse it would slip out of the counter.
A brief side note here, I think almost all the characters have at least one chain throw. Personally, any fighting game with chain throws gains massive bonus points in my book. Ever since Tekken 1 where Nina and Anna first introduced the “Fuck me she killed me in one series of attacks!” chain throw system, I’ve loved it. Just how my mind works I guess. It’s like, ok, you just hip thrown your opponent by his arm. You are still holding the arm, now would be a great time to put him in a joint lock, or lift him back up for another attack. It just seems realistic to me. Of course, not all these chain throws are realistic, but still, fun stuff.
Overall, Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore is a fun experience. Overall I prefer Tekken Tag Tourney, but this is a worthwhile purchase on a fighter starved system like the PS2.
