Dead or Alive 5 Hot

It's been quite a while since we last saw a new Dead or Alive game (3DS's 'greatest hits'-style Dimensions notwithstanding), and since the very public departure of creator Tomonobu Itagaki there have been some questions over what direction the series will take. Now, finally, we have our answer, and it's pretty much the same as before. Or is it? On the surface, this is Dead or Alive as it always has been. Fast, fluid combat with a strong emphasis on countering and use of the environment. Everything's been upped a notch, naturally, so the moves are a little flashier, the action a little smoother, and the stages a little more dynamic than ever before. But there's much more to it than just the surface. Dead or Alive 5 is actually the biggest overhaul of the Dead or Alive mechanics since DOA2, and the result is a game that plays and feels far more robust. There are two notable new mechanics that actually alter the flow of gameplay quite a bit. Critical Bursts can be used to enhance a combo, crumpling your opponent and rendering them unable to counter for a few moments, which can be used to mete out some staggering damage on your hapless opponent. Power Blows are a more simple introduction, a chargeable attack that only becomes available when you're reduced to 50% health, but is capable of taking a huge chunk off the opponent's health and sending them crashing into one of the series' famed Danger Zones. They're a tide-turning but risky proposition that nevertheless add a welcome additional layer of strategy to DOA's traditional triangle system of strikes - holds - throws. Elsewhere, the cast of characters has received a huge rebalancing, with characters gaining moves across the board and damage levels and attack speeds much better balanced this time around. Don't get me wrong; wrestler Bass Armstrong can still take off a huge chunk of health with every hit, and lithe Christie is still relatively weak but exceptionally fast, but the variation between the damage of respective moves is far less extreme - all holds (counters) deal roughly equivalent damage now; those that don't sport some secondary function, such as leaving the opponent open to attack for a brief few moments. The character roster brings back pretty much every character from the series bar the boss characters, the only notable exception being Bayman-alike Leon and Hayate alter-ego Ein. Otherwise the familiar faces are all here; Ninja's Kasumi, Ayane, Hayate and Hayabusa, wrestlers Tina and Bass, kickboxing comic relief Zack, drunken master Brad Wong, and chinese martial artists Gen Fu and Jann Lee. Two new characters make their debut; amnesiac construction worker Rig boasts a powerful taekwondo-inspired fighting style, whilst spunky Mila is an MMA fighting with a mixture of distance-creating power blows and complex, multi-stage holds. Both are natural and welcome introductions to the series, with fighting styles that offer something different from the rest of the cast. Equally welcome are the surprising guest characters, a trio of Virtua Fighter combatants in the form of Akira, Sarah Bryant and Pai Chan. They fit the DOA mechanics easily; not overly surprising, perhaps, given that there is some level of similarity between the two fighting series, in spite of Virtua FIghter's much more reserved nature. DOA5, meanwhile, embraces the wacky and over-the-top with some gusto. This is apparent pretty much across the board; from the outlandish alternate costumes (Hitomi and Lei Fang's safari gear proving a personal favourite) to the explosive environments which set battles in a completely destructible chinese house, in the middle of a middle eastern warzone, and atop an oil rig which, if damaged, results in a colossal explosion and swathes the level in fire. It certainly doesn't hurt that the series has never looked better. Indeed, it's hard to think of a fighting game that even looks as good as DOA5 - the characters are incredibly well detailed and the environments are huge, dynamic, and dramatic. It's the fine details that make the difference, though - characters now sweat, get splattered with dirt and dust, and their clothes even get wet as the bouts progress. Of course, DOA has long been famed for it's female characters, and it'd be difficult to argue that the sweat, dirt and wet clothes aren't primarily intended to excite the male audience. That said, it's still an impressive looking effect, and does add a level of realism to the game's appearance. So there's new mechanics, new characters, and new visuals. But these don't really mean much if there's no content to experience them within - a complaint that can be levelled at many fighting games. DOA5 is actually pretty well-served in this regarding, offering up the series standard Arcade, Time Attack, Survival and Tag Battle modes. Unlocking alternate outfits for the characters requires completing each mode on different difficulties, which should take a pretty long time to unlock them all, even if you start on the lowest tiers. There's more, though; there's a training mode (completing the move challenges for each character unlocks their system voice), replay viewers, and a handful of online modes including ranked and unranked matches as well as fight lobbies, and an optional challenge system pairs you up with other players whilst you're battling through the single player content. The matches I've played on line were mostly lag free, though the old DOA 'treacle' effect did rear it's head once or twice, though never disconnected me from a match. Rounding all of this off is the new Story mode, which is a series of around 70 battles encompassing most of the character roster, linked by fully voiced and animated cutscenes. Admittedly, the story is a bit all over the place, but the dialogue is decent, it's consistently humorous, and does a decent job of introducing each of the characters for newcomers to the series. Mercifully, the characters are fairly well voice acted, too - most of the characters have been recast, universally for the better. The Story mode only lasts a handful of hours, but that it exists at all is something to celebrate -  at least Team Ninja bothered to put the effort in at all. It all adds up to make this the best Dead or Alive game to date, and a strong fighting game in it's own right. The balancing tweaks maker the game far more competitive and relevant, and there's more content than you'll find in most fighters; although it's still a long way off boasting a truly killer single player mode, there is at least plenty of content to go at and enough unlockables to give you reason to play through it, and the online functions seem solid. Is it the best fighting game around? Not quite. But it comes very close.