Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

Okay, I have never really played the DOA series earlier, so I thought I'd give DOA 4 a try, and different opinions kept popping up into my mind as I played the game.

The pros:
+ Nice graphics (stages)
+ Interactive stages
+ Combat

The cons:
- Boring Achievements
- Difficulty

The biggest thing which makes the game "suck" is the difficulty. I've seen many people complaining that the AI is ridiculously over powered or that it's impossible. That's pretty much the same impression I had when I first started playing the game. There is no "Easy" mode, only Normal, Hard, and Very Hard. When I first played Story Mode, I beat the first 3 stages without much struggle, but stage 4...The difference is world's apart. I was stuck, fighting the same character for about 30 minutes... It was frustrating, whether I won or lost all depended on luck, either I land a hit on her first, or I'm a dead duck.

In the end it took me about 2 hours to complete Story mode with 1 character! Ridiculous, no? Well, at first the game does seem really frustrating, and trust me, it was hell... I'm a fan of fighting games, but I never expected THIS. The computer kept counter-holding every move I made, stunning me, and their combos would take 1/3 of my life!

Anyways, that's what I thought at the beginning. When I did a lil' bit of "sparring" and learned a few moves, then that's where the fun started. I went back to play Story Mode and, well, I got the hang of it. I finally understood the beauty of the combat. The game was fast paced, but it's also a mind game like SC 4, except, faster. The point isn't to combo mad, but to combo when the enemy is thrown into the air, and throw hits after the foe "attempted to" perform a Counter-Hold. You have to vary your moves from high, to low so that the AI wouldn't be able to predict your movements, otherwise you'll get counter-held non-stop. Another thing is predicting enemy movements, when they stun you, they'll unleash a devastating combo (duh), that's when you use the "block" (Also called Free) button to counter-hold your opponent. So when you're stunned, and the opponent delivers a high kick, you press up-left on the D pad (When you stand on the left side of the screen) and the Free button to counter hold. The counter-hold system is one of the game elements which makes the game fun, if you know how to use it. Why? Cause you're not helpless when you're being pummeled continuously by the enemy.

Another element which makes combat fun, is that the stages are interactive. On the streets, cars can hit your opponent, in the safari, animals can ram you and in the market place, wooden crates with fruits can be destroyed. All those deal extra damage if you or your opponent fly into one of those things. You can even throw the enemy out of the window or kick them out of the bridge! Not only that, the stages look beautiful and colorful, which brings it to life, in a way, so the game is also graphically good.

DOA 4 offers 16 playable characters plus a few unlock-ables, survival mode, DOA online, sparring, team battle and other game modes. You can even take a snapshot of the game and view it in the album (Although I don't see any point in it) and save replays of the battles.

Okay, now the bad stuff.
I'll start with the achievements. What. The. Hell. Is. This? Seriously, "get all costumes"? "Play 10 hours"? Who'd be bothered to play Story Mode several times, and each character has 5 till 7 costumes! And the reward, how much was it, 20G? It's time consuming, repetitive, boring, and not really rewarding. And almost half of the achievements are "secret". More creativity please! They could add something like "Throw the enemy out of the window 10 times" or "Perform a 15 hit combo" or "Win a battle without getting damage on Very Hard".

Also, the story doesn't tell you much. That's maybe cause I haven't completed Story Mode with all characters yet. But for example, you play as Kasumi. DOAtec, a company, creates a Kasumi clone to destroy the world. Why? What's the purpose? Motivations? And then you play as Kokoro, and her story has nothing to do with DOAtec, and Helena says "did our blood bring us together?", what? Are they sisters? Most of the time, I was confused. Well, most characters join the DOA tournament to make their goals come true, but the story just lacks something to it. Whereas in SC 4, all character stories have something to do with the Soul Swords and fight for their own purpose. Or in Tekken 5, they take part in the Iron Fist tournament, some for their own purpose, some to take over or destroy the Mishima Zaibatsu, and they have their reasons. I think the story is just too shallow, no depth to it unless you play as the Ninjas.

Another thing I'd point out is to lower the game difficulty, and Team Ninja should also add an "Easy" difficulty for new players, to encourage them, not discourage. I played Bloody Roar 4, SC 4, and Tekken 4 and 5... None of those games are as hard on Normal as DOA 4. I mean, personally I find Hard mode on SC 4 way easier than the last 3 stages in DOA 4 on normal...

So, all in all, DOA 4 is a good fighting game, with fast paced action, and a good counter system, but only for those who have the time and patience to get used to the game system and to cope with the ridiculous AI difficulty. Otherwise, you can give this a pass and get your hands on better fighting games.

Final score: 7.0