The first time I’d played a Dead or Alive fighting game was way back on the XBOX. It was Dead or Alive 2 and I thought the game was pretty good. Not as good as say, Mortal Kombat or Tekken. But good. With this recent episode I have to admit I was more skeptical than usual. The game seemed to be focused on “fighting entertainment” which I guess means flashy crap that doesn’t really do much for the mechanics of the game. Which is more or less what I was afraid of. Most of my experience steams from Dead or Alive 4 and the MANY MANY hours I spent online. I believe that game was held back by many of the same things that are holding this one back. But in addition this game seems to have picked up a few bad habits of it’s own.
First and foremost. It must be gotten out of the way that this game does look great and does animate very well. With the exception of the breasts of course, which are more alien than anything I’ve ever seen in a modern video game. Whatever they are made of it seems to have a very fluid quality that is both strange and gravity defying. I don’t know what the problem was here, but it distracting at best and disgusting at worst.
All right now that we have that out of the way. The mechanics of Dead or Alive 5 seem to be a little confused. The blocking mechanic is terrible, because there is no feedback. The blocking character doesn’t have impact and the striking character certainly doesn’t have any. The little sweat drops that come off of the blocking character, are completely useless as they are usually practically invisible in every stage. Throws are also terrible, as normally if you are standing on top of a character and you throw them; you are either being teched(your throw has been blocked) or you do a throw. Not in Dead or Alive 5; all characters seem to be able escape throws so seamlessly that the animation is simply you missing the throw. It makes no sense. You can’t duck my throw if you have no frames to do so. I’ve watched on multiple occasions my characters being struck after they finish their throwing animation by a character who is using a mid-strike. How are they not being thrown? Low throws have the very same problem. I’ve been hit during my low throw animation by a low strike. Also, in previous Dead or Alive games there was some stun on all of counters. So that if you countered someone they couldn’t just get directly up and hit you. But not in Dead or Alive 5. Almost every time I counter held a character, they simple went into a combo directly after. Completely negating my counter hold and what damage it did. What convoluted tech roll, the game has never works and you are all most all ways hit on exit of the roll or even during the roll which kind of negates the having the roll completely. Too many characters have one hit, uncounterable strikes that send their opponent flying across the screen for 20-40% damage. This is too much. Tekken has similar moves but they are more reset moves than spammable counter hits.
DOA 5 doesn’t seem to be the least bit interested in balance or fairness. The danger zones in the different stages where the character shot into them incur extra damage is often done from a “Power Blow” which is a charge move that can shoot the character into a danger zone(which itself does extra damage). These Power Blows are like super moves. The problem with them is that for the amount of damage they do(50-75%) they have a very wonky hit box on them. So much so, that you can be doing a mid-combo and be just far enough away from the character performing the move to just whiff the whole thing. I suppose this is something one could get used to. But each character seems to have a different power blow animation and therefore a different wonky hit box while doing it.
Dead of Alive 5 has a tag mode. Which can be used in Arcade, Survival, Time Attack, and of course Online. The tag system is awful. Most of the time the tag ins are so late, that I often found the character that I needed to tag out had all ready lost all their remaining life by the time the move went through. The tandem moves, like Tag throw and Tag assault are also a hit and miss affair. Often, I just hit the buttons and hoped for the best. This is definitely the weakest part of the game, mechanics wise. A final bit on the mechanics. I have found two different infinites on two different characters. Completely by accident. They are both wall ground hits. But they seem to be pretty obvious to anyone using Christie or Mila. Usually infinites are EXTREMELY hard to find. But I found them while playing the Story mode.
The Story mode is a loosely collected group of fights that last an incredibly long time. Each Story fight has a bonus mission which if the player completes they get a reward. A title usually, sometimes a new costume for the character performing the move. The Story mode is SO BAD, that there is an Achievement for not skipping any cutscenes. The difficulty has a pretty steady slope and normally the player will be fine with it by the time they reach the end. However, considering how often they use different characters having a default one round fight is kind of a mistake. Also, having unskippable intros is absolutely ridiculous. I have NEVER played a fighting game with unskippable intros for each character.
The arcade mode is simply a collection of 8 fights and the prize for winning is simply a new costume for your fighter. There is no boss, even though the final character is skewed a bit more difficult than the others fighters. The Time Attack mode is the arcade mode where time getting from beginning to end is important. Survival mode is where you must fight ten fighters back to back with only one round each and no breaks, intros, or much of a health reset(although there is some). Training mode offers some good options with command training, and the ability to setup lots of situations. But overall it is no better or worse than most of the other training modes out there.
Online is the normal offering of Ranked, Player, or Lobby matches. There wasn’t any lag in the 10-15 online games I played. But I found that it takes too long to up your rank so many people who were the lowest rank had in fact played many games. This was not only deceptive for the new player but probably maddening to anyone looking for descent matchmaking. Considering the paltry offering the online pass seemed all most insulting. But I suppose that is the way of things these days. The last Ninja Gaiden had an awful online mode and it too had an online pass. Perhaps if these modes were WORTH paying for, the pass would no longer be necessary.
Dead or Alive 5 overall is a descent fighting game; and fun button masher for the casual player. But for anyone who is taking fighting games seriously this game’s mawkish mechanics and complete lack of mechanical polish will drive anyone serious about fighting games away quickly. It can be argued that the same mechanics that make the game fun to play for casual players are the very same mechanics that will make the serious player feel unfairly beaten or in an all or nothing situation far too often.
Perhaps after patching and balancing the game could be worth playing. But I’m not sure there will be anyone left playing it for such changes to matter or even be worth implementing. I had some fun with Dead or Alive 5, but fighting games have definitely passed this game by. 7/10.
Update: the Infinite I was talking about:
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