The fifth and last installment of the Dead or Alive series was multiplatform for the first time in over a decade, the last one being Dead or Alive 2. It also came with a few tweaks in the gameplay and character roster, with the addition of Power Blows and characters from Virtua Fighter due to an agreement with Tecmo Koei, publisher of the Dead or Alive series, and Sega, who would publish the game in Europe. It has also seen a couple of updates, in the form of new games, one and three years after this game’s release, respectively.

Dead or Alive has become famous over the years not only for the tag battle system it has included since the second installment, but also for the incredibly large costume selection it offers. This has gone up to the step in which you can select different hairstyles or accessories to be worn by the character by simply pressing an extra button when selecting the character in any mode. Of course, this also means it has a ton of DLC content, with many different themes, ranging from Christmas to school uniforms and ninja costumes.

Graphics: 10

Team Ninja, the developers of the game, paid attention to every single detail when it comes to graphics. As usual in modern games, the fighters are almost real, even more in this game where, not counting Ayane’s purple hair, the characters have realistic hairstyles. The environments are spectacular: the construction site as it is demolished, traffic crashes, flowering trees having their flowers swept away by the wind… Not to mention the stages when you are inside a house, with very detailed ornaments in each room. The best point is, without a doubt, the consequences of the battle: characters being covered in mud, sweat or water as they celebrate the victory, or if the battle lasts long enough, you can notice these aspects while still battling. In the endless struggle to see who makes the most realistic fighting game, Team Ninja with Dead or Alive 5 has demonstrated why they are in the lead.

Sound: 8

As always, I don’t consider the music, since I deem it unnecessary in games like these, and because I personally dislike being distraught by music. The sound covers much more aspects, like the character voices. Forgetting about the guest characters from Virtua Fighter, specially Sarah Bryant (sound is absolutely awful and is the only one that talks in English while everyone else talks Japanese), the rest of the roster has amazing voices. I personally love Bass, his voice really fits his bear-like character, and Zack is overly funny. In-battle, the fists clashing and the environments being destroyed also have a realistic sound, not overly flashy like could happen in Tekken.

Addictiveness: 4

This game doesn’t offer much to play. You can always rely on multiplayer, and thanks to the tag battle system, there are a lot of combinations of fighters you can try out. But honestly, having to resort to online multiplayer as the only reason to keep playing makes this game boring. Sure, you have to work your way through the game to obtain all the hidden characters, but going through the game just for one character (the other four are relatively easy to obtain) isn’t worth it.

Story: 4

Two years have passed since the last Dead or Alive tournament. Helena, being the illegitimate daughter of the previous head of DOATEC, the company which organizes the Dead or Alive tournaments, takes her spot as the new head of the company, planning on rebuilding it for the better and deviating from the evil purposes of the former head, Victor Donovan.

Donovan, however, doesn’t give up, and creates a new organization called MIST to continue his experiments and obtain the perfect Kasumi clone for his evil machinations. Meanwhile, Helena, to renew the image of DOATEC, plans on hosting a new Dead or Alive tournament. At the same time, Hayate, Ayane, Kasumi and Hayabusa are all in a quest to destroy Donovan and his plans once and for all.

Not a bad storyline, but I’m rating it low for two reasons: the first is that it constantly repeats itself game after game with little variations, and the second is that the storyline shares a lot of similarities with Tekken, which by the time the first Dead or Alive came out was already on its third installment. Thus, the storyline is anything but original.

Depth: 4

As I mentioned above, there’s not really much to do in this game. The story mode is ridiculously short, a few other battle modes like arcade and survival aren’t outstandingly good either, and only five unlockable characters, with three of them unlockable through story mode.

Difficulty: 6

A total of four difficulties in arcade and the other variants of battle mode, with the chance of being either single battle or tag team battle. Not something an average player can do, if you want to attempt all difficulties, of course. Plus, the incredibly overpowered Alpha-152 in story mode is a heavy obstacle in the road. Maybe I should rate this higher, but I don’t like overpowered characters, it could be equally difficult with other characters, so basically no point in making such a character, and thus the rating goes down as well.

Overall: 6,5

Not the best fighting game I’ve ever played, but well, I only acquired it for the memories I had from Dead or Alive 2, and I must say that I’m pleased in that aspect. However, the game is mediocre in most aspects, so I can safely say I’m not going to acquire any new Dead or Alive game from now on, even less with Tekken 7 trailers all over the place.

Positive:

-Extraordinary graphics, the fighters covered in sweat and dirt after a battle makes the game overly realistic.

-Incredible environments, not only realistic but also quite flashy in some occasions, fitting the extreme battle theme the game wants to offer.

-Danger zones are very well designed, with a lot of spectacular effects like in the Circus stage.

Negative:

-Not the largest character roster I’ve seen, it falls short to any other fighting game I’ve ever played for PS3, and even some titles for the PS1, which is ridiculous.

-Gameplay. This game is an absolute button masher, the same button pressed like 6 consecutive times can pull out a combo. While it could be positive the large amount of holds for expert players, a novice player button mashing can clear up several stages in story mode. There’s almost no strategy whatsoever, you don’t need to remember how to perform combos because you can perform them by pressing just two buttons and, if needed, any direction.

-Storyline. The same example as in Tekken: a powerful organization launches a worldwide tournament every 6-24 months. In other instances, they even copied the rule of Tekken: the winner receives the company as prize. Really, can’t they just go for something original?