If you’re a big fighting game fan then 2015 is definitely the year for you and the addition of Dead Or Alive 5: Last Round is only going to sweeten the deal, giving you even more choice when it comes to big move fight action. Mortal Kombat X, Street Fighter V and Tekken 7 are already on the agenda, each with their own pros and cons, so here’s our preview of the latest challenger to throw its hat into the ring, to help you decide which one is for you.
Developed by Team Ninja, who were also responsible for Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge and Hyrule Warriors on the Nintendo Wii U, Dead Or Alive 5: Last Round follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, providing a fight game that’s as much about irrepressible fun as it is about fighting action. For any fanboy/girl pervs out there, you’ll be happy to see that this makes it the game with by far the most scantily clad women fighters in it, and the latest iteration of the series is in a league of its own where this is concerned (check out the trailer below to see for yourself).
Release date
Published by Koei Tecmo Games, DOA5: LR is scheduled for a release date on the 17th February 2015 in the States and 20th February in the UK, bringing with it everything that the previous edition of 5 did when it was released in September 2012 on the PS3 and Xbox 360. It also contains all of the DLC packs that have been released for the title bundled together in one for free, as well as a fair bit more thrown in to boot, including additional playable characters, which you can find out more about below.
It’ll be available as a download title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions, but as the first next generation title from the series it’ll be getting a full disk release for both PS4 and Xbox ONE. As it’s essentially a port of a previously released game, combining DLC costume packs, it’s a little cheaper than your average game, so it’ll have lot of action without having a big price tag, making it the least expensive of the year’s releases.
Storyline
The story for the game centres loosely around the grueling battles of the fifth Dead Or Alive tournament, which is ostensibly located on DOATEC’s oil platform out in the middle of an unspecified ocean. However, as ever, there’s a whole lot more to the fight competition than meets the eye as a series of plots merge to form the overarching direction of the game’s main storyline.
Weaponised clones, military battles and mysterious figures combine in the run up to the tournament as Donavan once again tries to manipulate all of the pieces in his dangerous game of chess. With a new organisation called MIST and a plan that threatens global peace, but a lot of personal gain for Donavan, the villain of the game is just as vicious as he’s always been. He’s also got a new ally in Rig, a Canadian Taekwondo master, who adds to the seemingly unstoppable power, leaving the other challengers with their own agenda to to play out amidst the mayhem.
Gameplay
Dead Or Alive 5: Last Round is a 3D fighting game that allows characters to move around in a wide ranging ring with 360 degrees of movement, as opposed to the side to side motion of Mortal Kombat X. It’s fight system is similar to previous installments of the game series, and obviously as a direct repackage of the previous DOA5 game it’s system is identical.
There’s an impressively simple rule set that governs fights, where a strike beats a throw, a throw beats a hold and a hold beats a strike, which you can use to help pull off epic Hi Counter attacks that dishes out a much increased amount of damage. It also makes holds incredibly important as you’ll be able to whip these out when an opponent initiates a strike (punch, kick etc.) to not only stop them getting a hit in, but also to use their energy against them, get them into a crazy hold and unleash crushing damage of your own.
The initial 18 stages, which include everything from Zack’s palm tree tropical island to the arctic tundra and a flame ringed circus tiger show, have been added to by two new levels; The Crimson, which returns from Dead Or Alive 2, and The Danger Zone, a classic from the very first game in the series, which features blue panels, suspended high in the air with the floor plates booby trapped with explosive lightning strikes that go off whenever you floor your opponent.
Each stage is massively interactive, and this is a big part of the fight mechanics, as it allows you to use the environment to your own advantage. They’re scattered with Danger Zones that cause extra health depletion for your opposition when you send them crashing into them, whether it’s a leaping tiger, stone wall or explosive electricity shocks from neon signs. These are even more dangerous if you happen to find yourself in one of the Blockbuster stages, where everything around you is either crumbling or exploding, giving you a lot of opportunities for inflicting damage.
If that’s not enough, there’s also cinematic Cliffhanger sections to some of the stage that have upper and lover levels. If you manage to hurl an opponent into them they’ll have a chance to grab onto the edge, but that just gives you the time to unleash a massive Cliffhanger move to send them crashing to the level below with even more ferocity and damage.
All of the stage interaction is helped on with the colossal force of Power Blows, which you can initiate to set a direction to hurl your opponent in to specifically target the Cliffhangers and Danger Zone damage. Once landed, you can use the direction stick to choose your spot and send them hurtling into even more damage potential to close out matches pretty rapidly.
Another important mechanic to be aware of is Critical Stun, which leaves an opponent incapable of blocking your moves for a short period of time, once you land the right moves to initiate it. You’ll then be able to pummel them with Critical Combos, but there’s a limit to the amount of damage you can deliver, despite the extended stun state that they allow.
If you manage to pull off the right strike moves that takes the damage you inflict on your opponent over the damage limit of a Critical Combo, then you can set off a Critical Burst. This leaves your opponent as a shaking and defenseless pummeling post, so it’s a very good opportunity to get in a big combo, set a Power Blow in motion or land your favourite high-impact throw.
In terms of game modes, you’ve got the classic story mode, which sees you choosing a character and working your way through single player tournaments against CPU opposition in your fighter’s specific take on the overarching plot of the game. There’s also an offline fighting mode, which lets you pit your skills against opponents in Versus, Arcade, Time Attack and Survival scenarios, either 1-on-1 with a computer generated opponent or with local multi-player.
Online you’ll be able to test out your skills with the whole world with options to just battle it out in simple matches or organise massive tournaments with up to 16 players. Although, if you find yourself struggling with stringing the moves together quickly enough to pull off the wins you can always head on over to the Dojo for a little training and to work on move combinations and controls.
Characters
The character roster is pretty impressive, totalling 34 playable fighters, the biggest in the history of the series, including two new characters. The first of the new characters is Raidou, who has been recreated by Donavon in cyborg form, following his death in the first DOA tournament. The second character is scheduled to be announced later this month. The big character pool gets even more interesting when you see all of the costumes that you’ll have to play around with, ranging from bikinis and saucy Santa outfits to ninjalific costumes and formal wear (check out the trailer below to see some of these in action).
Graphics
While the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the new game will look and feel exactly the same as the last time the game hit the consoles, the Xbox ONE and PlayStation 4 editions will be boosted by improved graphics and detail. However, the reality is that the game looked pretty impressive in its first incarnation, so any improvement on it will only make a stunning game even more beautiful.
First impressions
We’re pretty excited about the prospect of Dead Or Alive 5: Last Round, as it’s got a mountain of fun and action wrapped up in a relatively inexpensive game. With mounds of DLC wrapped up for free from day one the improved visuals for next gen consoles, it’s a pretty powerful concoction for PS4 and Xbox ONE gamers. We’re not entirely convinced that this will be a big draw on previous gen consoles, but for current gen tech and PC gamers it’ll be one to add to the wish list.
