Dead or Alive 2

"A great fighting game, but some replay flaws"

An excellent game or a pervert’s paradise, or maybe a bit of both, Dead or Alive 2 has attracted a lot of attention for it’s real life “movement”. Unfortunately having this attention has meant a lot of people have brushed aside what otherwise is a great beat-em-up.

I will start by explaining what has attracted the most attention for the game. The female characters breasts bounce a lot. This has become a trademark for the series and has given it a bad reputation. The character models in Dead or Alive 2 are so well made that this area has been noticed a lot more than in the previous game. The level of “bouncing” has been toned down and is now more realistic, which, in my opinion, just adds to what is already a great game.

Dead or Alive 2 has great graphics. The character models are superb with each limb moving realistically and of course the “bouncing”. The animation is great with hair and clothes moving when the character walks. The backgrounds are, on occasion, also great in graphical achievement. The water effects on one stage are amazing and this really draws you in to the game. I felt though that this graphical quality was not in every level that was made. I felt that some of them were more bland and boring than others. There are also great graphical effects in Dead or Alive 2, like explosions when the character hits the pipes.

Sound effects good within the game, the music is good. Unfortunately I feel that neither of these were as good as they could have been. I never found myself wanting to listen to the music, which I have with other games. It wasn’t that bad that you had to put a CD on in the background but wasn’t good enough to get me humming.

Game play is where Dead or Alive 2 excels. This is a grappling fighter, there are a lot of throw moves to learn and this makes it differ from the likes of Tekken and Soul Calibur. The tag option is where Dead or Alive 2 is best as no other game has done it better. The premise is simple: Choose two characters to pair up and take on either the computer or a friend’s pair of characters. This option is great fun and has a good learning curve. It can get very annoying if you aren’t very good and keep getting beat but is great once you know what you’re doing.
The single player non-tag mode is good but could have done with a more story involved mode. There’s an arcade mode, which is standard beat-em-up round after round fighting. There is a very weak story line involved but I found that this confused more than excited. There is also a team-based section, which is where you choose a set amount of fighters and battle against this same amount of fighters, controlled either by a computer or a friend. Unfortunately you cannot tag in this mode, which I feel was a disappointment.
There is also multi player, which is for up to four players. You can only have two players in all modes except tag. In tag mode then each player controls a character. I feel this is a great idea, but unfortunately it is very hard to work out. Your friends will not know when you have tagged them in and it all becomes very confusing. In standard two player the game is very good and is very effective.

The level design in Dead or Alive 2 is revolutionary. Each stage is made up of three layers and you get to these by throwing your opponent off of the stage. An example of this is when you punch your opponent through a stained glass window. This area of the game is implemented very well and has become a standard for beat-em-ups. Unfortunately in the tag mode there is only one stage, which is only one layer, but around the outside there is an electric fence, which hurts the character if they are slammed into it. This also occurs in the single player.

Replayability is where Dead or Alive 2 falters. With the absence of the story mode there is only the arcade mode for major single player action. There are around two to six costumes for each character to unlock, although that depends on the version of the game available. In Europe it is as I said, but in America it is different. This small amount of costumes is still not enough to make this game have great replayability, but it is still a great game when it lasts.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/01, Updated 08/07/01