DOA2: Hardcore

"Its a good game.."

Well upon playing 3, I decided I wanted the game, but soon came to find out it wasn’t for the PS2. I research a bit and found that I could get Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore instead. Boy was I glad I did.

Graphics:
Not to far off from 3 might I add. The levels are really in depth, but they could have been done a bit better. Still though, the fact that you can knock your AI opponent or friends off ledges or through walls and such makes them worth while to play on. As for the characters, they move fluent and are done very well, that and they look just as good as 3's and that’s saying a lot since the Xbox has a bit more power than the PS2. Beware though, there is a lot of underwear and bouncy bosoms to be seen in this game, but do not use that as the only incentive to get this game. It is a good touch though. 8/10

Game Modes:
While not a strong point, Story mode is at the same level for any other fighting game out there, you do get a small sense of what is going on, but not the whole story in its entirety. Time attack mode is what its name says, and is good for practicing your speed at taking down opponents. Survival mode is good for seeing how long you can survive, hence the name, against an onslaught of enemies that get tougher as you progress. The Tag modes? Well I can tell you one thing, they are nothing like Tekkens, and that’s the beauty of them, your two characters each have their own life bars, making the battles strategically intense, meaning, you need to switch off in order to keep your characters alive, since when one character is sitting out, their life bar slowly replenishes, also making the battle bits longer. Versus mode, is the usual, 2 humans against each other, and there are also more types of versus modes, such as tag mode, and even 4 players can join in for matches such as these, but only if you have the Multitap 2. There is a watch mode where you can just sit and watch two computer opponents duke it out with infinite life bars until you get bored and want to play yourself, and then there is the replay mode, where you can fight, and save the replay of that fight. All these modes should give you something to play around with whether it be beating your own records, or beating your friends. Have fun here since there is a bit to play with. 8/10

Controls:
Although fun and easy to use, they do make it possible for a 3 year old to beat someone who has been playing the game for months on end. It does seem just like any other old button masher game, but you've got the counter button to remedy that. Catching your opponents moves and using that as a way to hurt them is a good way to win, and it even works on the AI opponent. All in all, the controls are far from complex, meaning that you press a certain direction, and press punch or kick, and you do some cool move that hurts. Not bad for beginners, and a deadly weapon for those skilled enough to use them that way. 7/10

Sound:
The music, for this game is good enough. The beats are something you can fight along with, or not depending who you are. Some of the scores are good, some are not, but that all depends on what kinda music you like. As for the sound effects, They aren’t to shabby either. Screams and yelps are where they need to be, and ''Kya's'' and such are in there place and aren’t done too badly either. There are also some nifty things you can do with the language the characters speak in. The default makes the characters speak in English, which is pretty neat and the voices aren’t too bad, but some are off. Then you can switch it and the characters talk in Japanese, there is also an option to have subtitles if you don’t speak Japanese. Sound is a bit over the par for this fighting game. 8/10

Difficulty/Replay Value:
Well, the difficulty of the game all depends one what you have it set on. The default, Normal, isn’t too tough. It can get frustrating since the AI can be cheap to beat you simply by doing killer combo's that tend to make your character lose life. The other settings have names that describe the difficulty, such as very easy, easy, normal, hard, and very hard. All in all, you can change them as you see fit, as well as time limits and others. The time its takes to beat the game in story mode is really short, 7 matches to be exact, and depending who you are playing as and the difficulty setting, well its still not very long. The other modes make up for this shortness some what since time attack is for times kills and survival is for fighting endurance and skill. The good part about the game though is that there are things to be unlocked, and it can take time to get these. Costumes and some other modes or goodies are good little presents for playing the game, so its not a game to just play through to beat. As for coming back to play it again after unlocking it all? That’s all up to you, and its really fun to go up against friends since battles can get really heated. 7/10

All in all its not a bad game. If you like fast, furious fighting games, here you go. But if your not into games such as this then I guess you should rent it first before anything. (As for the Score I rounded up)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/14/02, Updated 12/14/02