DOA2: Hardcore

""Hey Seller, I Want DOA2 por PS2 not for DC!""

Now a couple days after I received my playstation 2, my friend came over and showed me some of the games he got. I was dying to see this one, because I was excited to see what the already great game would look like on a more powerful system, however sadly I was left with a rather big disappointment.

Developed by Tecmo,

Number of Players- 4

Number of Discs- 1

Genre- fighting

Graphics

Now I love my Sega Dreamcast, and I love my Dead or alive game that I have for it, but when I played this game I honestly expected the graphics to be better than the Dreamcast’s since the Playstation 2 has a significantly better graphics card than the Dreamcast. However sadly it doesn’t look better than the Dreamcast version, it doesn't even look equal to the Dreamcast version, it looks worse, and this was a great disappointment. The backgrounds I would have to say are fairly equal to those of the Dreamcast's, so I really don't have a complaint there, what I do have complaints with however is the characters themselves. Standing next to the Dreamcast's smooth and bright character models the more powerful PS2 should be ashamed. The characters in this game have rough edges, and just don't look as detailed as the Dreamcast's for some reason, it basically just looks sloppy. I was expecting the backgrounds to increase in detail in this version, for the people to be smoother, but instead I got the exact opposite, and I know damn well PS2 can handle graphics higher that the Dreamcast quality because Tekken Tag Tournament looked beautiful, obviously Namco cares more about it's games that Tecmo does and doesn't release unfinished garbage like this.

Bottom line for graphics

As I said, Tecmo should be embarrassed, especially when their rough graphics are compared to the smooth colorful ones of Tekken Tag Tournament als9o found on the system. There's no way this game should have looked worse than it's Dreamcast's counterpart, at least if the PS2's graphics had looked the same as the Dreamcast's in this game I would have been slightly disappointed but able to live with it, but when a game that could’ve looked so good looks like this, well the score drops drastically.

6 out of 10

Sound was pretty much the same thing as the sound for the Dreamcast version, which is by no means bad. The background music really helps the game get going, although I enjoyed Tekkens music slightly better. And you hear the occasional grunts and short phrases from the characters as they fight and win. Basically this category has no improvement over its Dreamcast’s version, but why fix something that's by no means broken.

Bottom line for sound

Good music, voice-overs same as Dreamcast version but still good, overall it could've been better but it was good enough.

8 out of 10

Gameplay
Definitely the best part of the game, but it's not perfect. There are many parts of this game in which you can play:

Story mode

This is where you go through the whole game with different characters, while doing this you encounter little stories, be it something about the characters past, a desire the character has, exc, these things are told as you battle through this mode. Now this mode was also featured in the Dreamcast’s version, however this is actually one of the things that's done better in the PS2 version. In this version you actually get rewards for completing the story modes such as extra clothes for a character, extra arenas, and even extra characters, unlike the Dreamcast version, which gave you nothing for completing the very tough mode. Definitely a notable improvement. This mode will last you from a day or two, to a week, to a month depending on how fast you finish the stories.

Time attack mode

In this mode your character races against time in order to defeat a certain amount of characters. The more characters you defeat, the higher you place among the rankings. This mode is fun, but will only catch your attention for a couple days, don't worry though, there’s more things to do.

Versus mode

This is designed especially for two player battles. Both players pick characters and fight, then you have an option whether to quit the game, start another fight with the same people, or re-select your characters. Depending if you have people to play the game with this modes longevity varies, some people may never even play this mode.

Tag battle mode

Got more than one friend over, or just want to have some fun? Well this is definitely the mode for you. In this mode you and three other people, be it human or computer, have to pick a character, after this is done a battle starts where the four men are pitted against each other in a tag like manner, two on each team. Only two guys are allowed on the screen at once while the battle is taking place, to get your other partner in you must tag him. It is cool because other than doing single moves to your opponent, you can set it up so that your partner comes in and performs double team moves with you against the opponent, or so that your partner finishes the combo for you. In order for a team to lose both member must be defeated, if you are playing al0one on a team you control both members. This mode will last you at least a couple days with or without friends, of course having people to play with will expand the games longevity however.

Survival mode

This mode is basically similar to Time Attack mode, however instead of racing against time, you are simply just seeing how many people you can kill without dying. The more kills, the higher the ranking you receive. This mode, like the time attack mode, will last you a couple days max on the average.

Team battle mode

In this mode you set how many people you want on each team, from one to five, and then you fight with those people against the opposing team. This mode plays out by when one guy dies then your other teammate comes in, this repeats till you run out of team mates. I didn't care much for this mode, but I admit that it probably could provide another couple days worth of entertainment.

Other modes that weren’t in the dreamcast version but could have been left out were a memory card mode in which you pick what memory card your using, couldn’t they have put this in options? And a raking mode in which you see you rank, another useless feature.

Bottom line for Gameplay

I found the gameplay very good, especially with the story mode extras. Also they have added many new levels, none very impressive, but they are a nice addition.

9 out of 10

Control

Basically very easy, there are reversals you can do, double team moves, exc. The only thing I found wrong about this game was, it moved slower than it’s Dreamcast’s counterpart. I am getting kind of sick of this, the more powerful system losing in graphics and speed to a year old less powerful system, this is pathetic. The dreamcast is a great system, but there’s no way it should be beating the PS2 with speed, or graphics, it’s horrible. Also being it has no improvements over dreamcast and again is worse, this will get lower ratings.

6 out of 10

Bottom line for overall game

Now please don't anyone think me biased for giving this game's low scores in some categories because I'm not. I like my Sega Dreamcast and Playstation 2 equally, but in this case even though playstation 2 is supposedly the more powerful system, the Dreamcast one-ups it in many areas. I would recommend getting Tekken Tag rather than this game, because obviously it wasn't Tecmo's best effort, and I'm sure they'll be a sequel of some sort, maybe then they'll use the systems full potential.

Now the score I gave was what I feel the overall game deserves despite the good or bad scores I gave the individual categories. This overall score is not an average, and I gave it this low because it is really a poor excuse of a game for the playstation 2, especially when the PS2 has many other better titles that actually use the systems potential. Granted the games not bad, but it should have been much much better.

Overall ratings summary

Graphics- 6

Sound- 8

Gameplay- 9

Control- 6

Overall- 6

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/21/01, Updated 07/21/01