This may be an old game but I think it's worth reviewing the famous fighting game known as Dead or Alive 4.
I admit, I'm a fan of the Dead or Alive series because it looked really cool watching my super-ninja kicking everyone's ass, but as I matured I realized that I really was just watching and my button mashing was nothing more than a continuous "win".
Dead or Alive 4 has a few differences, for instance, the AI now actually reverses your attacks, which is incredibly annoying and pointless as now every single move in your arsenal is made useless by a single button and a joystick movement. However, being the massive Halo fanboy that I admit I am, I had to beat the game and unlock the special spartan character, so I kicked ass with every single character. Forcing me to fight the final boss again.
And again.
And again.
And a-freaking-gain.
(I understand that David doesn't like swearing on this forum.)
This is the first game I've ever played that caused my to choke on my own throat due to disbelief that this is the 31st time I've fought this freaking boss. The boss can do more damage to my character than I can in a whole freaking 24 hit combo, and even if I manage to start that combo the incredibly annoying little glowy "female dog" manages to block any of my moves at any given time, throw me across the room, slam me into a wall, then teleport over my corpse and proceed to rape me until the afterlife rejects my character on account that god finds it funny.
The ending to the game, without revealing anything, was one of the most cinematic endings to a fighting game I've ever seen, it was brilliant.
BUT
NOT
FREAKING
WORTH
IT
I must admit I was so happy I almost ate my hand at the sight of a spartan in my character menu, but when I attempted to take said spartan into time trial mode I found myself in a situation I could not win.
Let me explain.
One of the characters, uses the fighting style of Drunken Boxing, my fighting style is.. I honestly don't know. I pretty much list the spartan's fighting style as "Punch you in the face until you stop moving." anyway, the Drunk uses dodges, grabs, throws, and generally the kind of moves the makers use to piss off the testers. This was especially annoying considering the spartan was a slow but strong character, meaning my every move was seen from a mile away, dodged, then counter-attacked, normally resulting in a 99 hit combo that could kill chuck norris. I find it hard to believe that a drunk guy could kill a ninja, an ex-millionare, a super-clone AND a fully armored super soldier with an energy shield, while flailing his arms around like a constipated monkey.
But as much as the game pained me, to the point I didn't notice I was trying to eat my arm from the shoulder down, I admit that it was fun in some parts. And when I used the character I was actually good at, rather than that armored punch-bag, the game was easy as mashing a potato while watching a good anime fight.
FlagPole's ranting reviews.
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Grayswandir
- Short end of the stick
- Posts: 3655
- Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:37 am
- Location: Robbing the cradle.
Were you playing on Easy, Survival, or Time Attack mode? The AI tends to be easier in those modes to prolong survivability. I've found that when playing the story mode (I've been playing "DoA 4.1" updated via XBL, could explain the differences...) the AI tends to start off easy but then learns what your favorite moves are and how you fight and counters accordingly. The computer also tends to get desperate when its health gets low and it just starts unloading on you if you let it. The AI will go easier on you if you start losing...unless you fight Alpha-152...then she just unloads on you.
DoA (in general) uses a partial rock-paper-scissor system. Punches and kicks are beaten by counters, counters are beaten by throws or counters, throws are countered with punches and kicks or counter-throws. Yes, since DoA3 the AI has been given the ability to counter your moves more often, you also don't have as long to counter moves and the chain throws now require you to learn the button commands (rather than repeatedly mashing A like in DoA3). DOA4 was apparently built for fans of the series (well Japanese fans...the producers had tournament winners help with some of the game design), so its one of the harder DoA's to play.
Alpha-152 (the gelatine-like final boss pain-in-the-butt...) was built from the ground up to be entirely offensive. If you note, she's constantly on the attack and rarely lets up. While yes, a good offense is the best defense, you can beat her if you stay on the offensive. Don't rush her (she'll just counter you or do one of her horribly over-powered doom throws...) but learn the character's multi-hit combos and which moves auto-track the opponent. If you can figure that out you'll automatically turn to where Alpha-152 appeared and she'll warp into your fist (Spinning attacks work well). While I did say don't rush, running and ranged attacks work very well on her...Just don't miss with anything. I know its about as helpful as "Don't get hit", but if anything falls short, she'll just rip you a new one. Do counters and throws work? Yes, they do...but you can use them...running throws (that don't make you jump into the air too much...she'll just kick you in the spine) work fairly well and some of her combo starters can be countered in the beginning (its not worth it to try and counter her spinning kicks, just block...)
DoA (in general) uses a partial rock-paper-scissor system. Punches and kicks are beaten by counters, counters are beaten by throws or counters, throws are countered with punches and kicks or counter-throws. Yes, since DoA3 the AI has been given the ability to counter your moves more often, you also don't have as long to counter moves and the chain throws now require you to learn the button commands (rather than repeatedly mashing A like in DoA3). DOA4 was apparently built for fans of the series (well Japanese fans...the producers had tournament winners help with some of the game design), so its one of the harder DoA's to play.
Alpha-152 (the gelatine-like final boss pain-in-the-butt...) was built from the ground up to be entirely offensive. If you note, she's constantly on the attack and rarely lets up. While yes, a good offense is the best defense, you can beat her if you stay on the offensive. Don't rush her (she'll just counter you or do one of her horribly over-powered doom throws...) but learn the character's multi-hit combos and which moves auto-track the opponent. If you can figure that out you'll automatically turn to where Alpha-152 appeared and she'll warp into your fist (Spinning attacks work well). While I did say don't rush, running and ranged attacks work very well on her...Just don't miss with anything. I know its about as helpful as "Don't get hit", but if anything falls short, she'll just rip you a new one. Do counters and throws work? Yes, they do...but you can use them...running throws (that don't make you jump into the air too much...she'll just kick you in the spine) work fairly well and some of her combo starters can be countered in the beginning (its not worth it to try and counter her spinning kicks, just block...)
Lately I've been having fun with a few games. Then I had the misfortune to get back into a reviewer mood and bash them to hell and back.
Now, I realize how old this game is.. But I got it recently, being the huge fan that I am.
Matrix: The Path of Neo.
PoN acts like a good old fashioned brawler, press buttons until the enemy dies, some enemies are annoying and can block, others can shoot you instead of fighting. It has the useful addition of the focus bar and the inventory system. The focus bar slows down time and enhances your moves and reactions, however, it drains itself pretty quick at the beginning of the game. The inventory is just for holding weapons (like guns and swords).
Now, before I even finished the tutorial I found some problems. The guns were probably the worst and most useful part of the game. They were the worst part because the aiming was unresponsive at times, and glitchy all the time, often, I would end up aiming at a corpse that has long since disappeared or an enemy in another country. It was the most useful because, well, come on. Guns. Who needs guns? Everyone. Not only that, but I found the pistols didn't like my finger, as they would only fire if I pressed the trigger all the way down, all the way back up again and then back down. It didn't take long before I had a serious cramp in my finger. Like right now, I've been typing for ages..
Thankfully, soon after it gave me more focus stuff, so I didn't need guns, I could just dodge all of the bullets and use super kung-fu to beat them up.
But then came the agents. At first, I was happy to see it. But then the game refused to tell me how to kill him, as melee did nothing, it told me that "teamwork was the key". All trin did was get herself thrown off of a 40 story building, so in the end I just threw the agent off myself. THEN I had to deal with hundreds of soldiers, many of which would turn into agents within a minute of arriving. Safe to say, it was as hard as freaking brick curry.
Now that I've completed the first film and can fly as well as stop bullets with my mind, I find that every enemy is no longer a challenge. Because my focus meter is so large I can take down hundreds of enemies without having to stop focusing, and even if I do stop for some reason, I have so many ways of killing enemies that everyone dies at the sheer sight of me.
This game is a mix, of the incredibly easy, and the incredibly hard. There is no learning curve, a nice stroll up a hill can quickly turn into a cliff, then a parachute will save you and you land on another nice calm slope.
While the aiming sucks, the focus is overpowered, and the learning curve is a learning dodecahedron, I don't care. It may just be my love for the matrix films talking, but this game is FUN. It is either fun and easy enough to satisfy those who love godmoding, or challenging enough to make them go away and bring in the real players.
As negative as the review itself is, this is a good game and I want to end on a positive note. So I'll just stop typing now before I cock it up.
Now, I realize how old this game is.. But I got it recently, being the huge fan that I am.
Matrix: The Path of Neo.
PoN acts like a good old fashioned brawler, press buttons until the enemy dies, some enemies are annoying and can block, others can shoot you instead of fighting. It has the useful addition of the focus bar and the inventory system. The focus bar slows down time and enhances your moves and reactions, however, it drains itself pretty quick at the beginning of the game. The inventory is just for holding weapons (like guns and swords).
Now, before I even finished the tutorial I found some problems. The guns were probably the worst and most useful part of the game. They were the worst part because the aiming was unresponsive at times, and glitchy all the time, often, I would end up aiming at a corpse that has long since disappeared or an enemy in another country. It was the most useful because, well, come on. Guns. Who needs guns? Everyone. Not only that, but I found the pistols didn't like my finger, as they would only fire if I pressed the trigger all the way down, all the way back up again and then back down. It didn't take long before I had a serious cramp in my finger. Like right now, I've been typing for ages..
Thankfully, soon after it gave me more focus stuff, so I didn't need guns, I could just dodge all of the bullets and use super kung-fu to beat them up.
But then came the agents. At first, I was happy to see it. But then the game refused to tell me how to kill him, as melee did nothing, it told me that "teamwork was the key". All trin did was get herself thrown off of a 40 story building, so in the end I just threw the agent off myself. THEN I had to deal with hundreds of soldiers, many of which would turn into agents within a minute of arriving. Safe to say, it was as hard as freaking brick curry.
Now that I've completed the first film and can fly as well as stop bullets with my mind, I find that every enemy is no longer a challenge. Because my focus meter is so large I can take down hundreds of enemies without having to stop focusing, and even if I do stop for some reason, I have so many ways of killing enemies that everyone dies at the sheer sight of me.
This game is a mix, of the incredibly easy, and the incredibly hard. There is no learning curve, a nice stroll up a hill can quickly turn into a cliff, then a parachute will save you and you land on another nice calm slope.
While the aiming sucks, the focus is overpowered, and the learning curve is a learning dodecahedron, I don't care. It may just be my love for the matrix films talking, but this game is FUN. It is either fun and easy enough to satisfy those who love godmoding, or challenging enough to make them go away and bring in the real players.
As negative as the review itself is, this is a good game and I want to end on a positive note. So I'll just stop typing now before I cock it up.
I was fortunate enough to "find" a Ploy Stotan Tree a while ago, I also "found" the most talked about exclusive to the PST.
The only way to accurately describe the gameplay in Heavenly Sword is by watching an anime fight with a single woman as the starring role, while pressing random buttons on the controller or making wine out of a bowl of grapes.
The game, like all mash potato games, tries to be fidderent by making certain enemies invincible unless you use certain attacks, however these enemies are not distinguishable from normal baddies until you attack them and it doesn't work, or they've already hit you. They probably have something on their armor but since every baddy in the game is pretty much the same guy it just adds to the stupidity this game possesses.
But before I get into the- press 1 to not die -more detailed flaws of the game, let me move on to the part I really love. Instead of just moving a digital face until it smiles, the developers stuck needles in actors faces and made them act out the characters, then copied the movement of the needles into a computer and made the characters follow that. The cut scenes rock to the point that a boulder fell on my house when I first met the starring villain, who treats the hero like a jester with a knack for killing his soldiers.
The first cut scene where I met him he put on a menacing grin with legions of soldiers behind him, along with (SPOILERSPOILERSHOTBEFOREITGOTOUT) the main character was pissed off by (spoiler) so she screamed at him in typical anime style, he screamed back in a pitiful "aargh", humilating the player in front of legions of foes with significantly less friends. Another funny moment involving the villains is when one of the villains broke into evil laughter, the others joined in, and the big stupid one gleefully cried- "I like laughing."
The lines of the game characters seems to be split into two worlds, the Hero's world where she's pushed out by her tribe and it's all serious, sad and badass, and the villains who repeatedly make fun of themselves by accident. This split in the dialog only works to make the funny dialog hilarious. After fighting a large amount of enemies and generally kicking ass, who wouldn't laugh at the sound of the villain, telling his recently deceased soldiers to "get up and fight!" in the same manner I would tell my cat to get off of the table.
I'm getting bored with this review and I've dragged it out for a while now but I can't stop there...
The main character's sister, who I can't remember the name of, I just call her "freak", freak is a girl wearing make up and a hat designed to make her look like a cat, and she follows the role of cat very well, instead of running along a beam on her feet, she runs along on all fours, gets up and slides the rest of the way with the momentum of running on all fours. However, she scares me with her strange practices. Near the beginning of the game she's holding her hand up in the air and waving it around, grasping thin air as if she was holding a ball. When the main character tells her she needs to play "twing twang" (I couldn't help but laugh) she replied "We're going to have alot of fun!" then turned to her invisible ball and asked- "Won't we?".
Speaking of the sister, her parts are HARD AS FU-..UDGE. Freak has a fancy crossbow thing that fires arrows with remote controls in them, the basic idea of shooting an enemy clearly isn't good enough, you have to fire the bow, then guide the arrow through the air so it can hit it's target. the problems with this are that it's pretty simple to shoot a guy who is standing right next to you with this tactic, and secondly that it's easier said than done. It's easier watched than done. It's easier imagined than done. It's easier to replicate this by inventing a device that can both defy gravity and the laws of physics, built into an arrow and then fire it than doing it on the game.
There are certain enemies which have armor so thick they cannot be shot through it, luckily their clearly small brain needs air constantly, so their heads are exposed at all times. The only way to kill one is to shoot it in the head, but guiding the arrow through the air is done with the 6-asix. Problems with using the axis for this- ONE: You don't know which way it's going to go at the first shot. TWO: THE OTHER ARCHERS HAVE TELESCOPIC EYE SCOPING LAZER TECHNOLOGY AND CAN SEE YOU FROM OVER NINE LIGHT YEARS AWAY AND GET A DIRECT HIT AS LONG AS YOU DON'T MOVE IN THE NANOSECOND IT TAKES FOR THE ARROW TO GET THERE. THREE: The axis is FAR too sensitive! The slightest twitch and your arrow flies out the window in Buckingham palace rather than landing in the head of the enemy that's 5 FREAKING FEET AWAY. FOUR: The enemies move in slow mo, so either, they take a step, making your "perfect shot" not work anymore, so you have to move, (and if you try then the sensitivity won't let you without a couple hundred misses) or another enemy sneaks up behind and smacks you in the back, so you have to run the hell away, which is especially annoying when the layouts of the levels seem to have been built for the wrong characters in most cases.
For instance- One of hero ladies levels is a huge open areas with 2 archer loaded castle fort things on either side of you. If you were Freak, you could shoot the archers down without a sweat, solve the puzzle and move on. As the sword hero lady, you have to run up BOTH forts, kill them all by sword (and they all freaking hide until your far away enough to shoot) and then solve the puzzle. Another example, as Freak, you are in a small enclosed space with a hell of alot of soldiers. How the hell is ANYONE supposed to use a fu-dging crossbow in close combat. If the 2 levels were switched round so Freak had open spaces for more arrowy death and the sword hero had enclosed spaces for more sword massacre fun, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the game more than I almost didn't.
The game is fun. In the same way DDR is fun, once you know when and where the buttons need to be pressed you can get perfect all the time and never have to play again, but for everyone else it's pretty much the game smacking your face around with it's own balls.
-FlagPole
The only way to accurately describe the gameplay in Heavenly Sword is by watching an anime fight with a single woman as the starring role, while pressing random buttons on the controller or making wine out of a bowl of grapes.
The game, like all mash potato games, tries to be fidderent by making certain enemies invincible unless you use certain attacks, however these enemies are not distinguishable from normal baddies until you attack them and it doesn't work, or they've already hit you. They probably have something on their armor but since every baddy in the game is pretty much the same guy it just adds to the stupidity this game possesses.
But before I get into the- press 1 to not die -more detailed flaws of the game, let me move on to the part I really love. Instead of just moving a digital face until it smiles, the developers stuck needles in actors faces and made them act out the characters, then copied the movement of the needles into a computer and made the characters follow that. The cut scenes rock to the point that a boulder fell on my house when I first met the starring villain, who treats the hero like a jester with a knack for killing his soldiers.
The first cut scene where I met him he put on a menacing grin with legions of soldiers behind him, along with (SPOILERSPOILERSHOTBEFOREITGOTOUT) the main character was pissed off by (spoiler) so she screamed at him in typical anime style, he screamed back in a pitiful "aargh", humilating the player in front of legions of foes with significantly less friends. Another funny moment involving the villains is when one of the villains broke into evil laughter, the others joined in, and the big stupid one gleefully cried- "I like laughing."
The lines of the game characters seems to be split into two worlds, the Hero's world where she's pushed out by her tribe and it's all serious, sad and badass, and the villains who repeatedly make fun of themselves by accident. This split in the dialog only works to make the funny dialog hilarious. After fighting a large amount of enemies and generally kicking ass, who wouldn't laugh at the sound of the villain, telling his recently deceased soldiers to "get up and fight!" in the same manner I would tell my cat to get off of the table.
I'm getting bored with this review and I've dragged it out for a while now but I can't stop there...
The main character's sister, who I can't remember the name of, I just call her "freak", freak is a girl wearing make up and a hat designed to make her look like a cat, and she follows the role of cat very well, instead of running along a beam on her feet, she runs along on all fours, gets up and slides the rest of the way with the momentum of running on all fours. However, she scares me with her strange practices. Near the beginning of the game she's holding her hand up in the air and waving it around, grasping thin air as if she was holding a ball. When the main character tells her she needs to play "twing twang" (I couldn't help but laugh) she replied "We're going to have alot of fun!" then turned to her invisible ball and asked- "Won't we?".
Speaking of the sister, her parts are HARD AS FU-..UDGE. Freak has a fancy crossbow thing that fires arrows with remote controls in them, the basic idea of shooting an enemy clearly isn't good enough, you have to fire the bow, then guide the arrow through the air so it can hit it's target. the problems with this are that it's pretty simple to shoot a guy who is standing right next to you with this tactic, and secondly that it's easier said than done. It's easier watched than done. It's easier imagined than done. It's easier to replicate this by inventing a device that can both defy gravity and the laws of physics, built into an arrow and then fire it than doing it on the game.
There are certain enemies which have armor so thick they cannot be shot through it, luckily their clearly small brain needs air constantly, so their heads are exposed at all times. The only way to kill one is to shoot it in the head, but guiding the arrow through the air is done with the 6-asix. Problems with using the axis for this- ONE: You don't know which way it's going to go at the first shot. TWO: THE OTHER ARCHERS HAVE TELESCOPIC EYE SCOPING LAZER TECHNOLOGY AND CAN SEE YOU FROM OVER NINE LIGHT YEARS AWAY AND GET A DIRECT HIT AS LONG AS YOU DON'T MOVE IN THE NANOSECOND IT TAKES FOR THE ARROW TO GET THERE. THREE: The axis is FAR too sensitive! The slightest twitch and your arrow flies out the window in Buckingham palace rather than landing in the head of the enemy that's 5 FREAKING FEET AWAY. FOUR: The enemies move in slow mo, so either, they take a step, making your "perfect shot" not work anymore, so you have to move, (and if you try then the sensitivity won't let you without a couple hundred misses) or another enemy sneaks up behind and smacks you in the back, so you have to run the hell away, which is especially annoying when the layouts of the levels seem to have been built for the wrong characters in most cases.
For instance- One of hero ladies levels is a huge open areas with 2 archer loaded castle fort things on either side of you. If you were Freak, you could shoot the archers down without a sweat, solve the puzzle and move on. As the sword hero lady, you have to run up BOTH forts, kill them all by sword (and they all freaking hide until your far away enough to shoot) and then solve the puzzle. Another example, as Freak, you are in a small enclosed space with a hell of alot of soldiers. How the hell is ANYONE supposed to use a fu-dging crossbow in close combat. If the 2 levels were switched round so Freak had open spaces for more arrowy death and the sword hero had enclosed spaces for more sword massacre fun, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the game more than I almost didn't.
The game is fun. In the same way DDR is fun, once you know when and where the buttons need to be pressed you can get perfect all the time and never have to play again, but for everyone else it's pretty much the game smacking your face around with it's own balls.
-FlagPole