(DoA2:H) Impressions?

Curious towards those who have played Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore for the PS2. I figure Jeff might have played it. I've personally played DoA2, DoA2:LE, and Hardcore and I enjoyed them all. The next one more than the previous.

Anyways, curious about your impressions on this version/update on the game. Improvements or otherwise? DoA2 is still an intense game to play (any version of it) when playing with people that know a thing or two about the game. Thought I may as well bring it up again.

-Chanchai

 

The really weird thing about DOA2, IMO, is that even though technically it is an excellent, integrated, cohesive, and just overall well designed game, I get bored of it really easily. I don't know how to explain it, but my theory has always been that DOA2 is simply "too clean."

Kind of ironic, since one of the things I've always said about VF in regards to Tekken is that its gameplay is "cleaner" and hence better to my tastes.

ice-9

 

Fun to play at high level

Not fun to play against a Aqua

But, not a game I pay any attention to.

<font color=red>SummErs' 'mibu's lone wolf'

 

I have to agree with you Ice. I like DoA2 quite a bit, even on a "theoretical" level in terms of its design. But at the same time, the matches get stale after awhile... Maybe because it has TOO MUCH of a basic guessing game aspect? I don't know. I love guessing games in fighters and I do like them in DoA2, but the "raw" feeling is somehow lacking. Like it's too finesse, too clean-cut, too polished... something like that.

Nonetheless, I enjoy DoA2, but even I can't go on with the game for too long. However, at the same time, I can't play Tekken for too long despite how much I like the game. VF2&3 as well as SF3 series are just about what I can keep on playing for a long, long time.

Anyways, have you played Hardcore yet?

-Chanchai

 

having played each version (aside from jap ps2 or jap haedcore) quite a bit, I feel hardcore has it's ups and downs.

most people probably know the main differences, but some that i've noticed are that while hardcore has more extras, the dc versions play a little faster and are more responsive. Some magazines pointed this out, and I didn't believe it while playing hardcore, but when I switched back to the dc, it was a little different i felt.

the dc version also seems somehow brighter, even on the same tv, and when playing hardcore with the component video cables on my wega, the anti-alaising problems were very evident (i.e. patterns on players clothes were almost indecipherable). this problem makes me worry for the ps2 vf4 (i feel team ninja are very talented and they had plenty of time to make this game, so i'm wondering how big a problem this is to overcome).

if you like bayman, he is further developed over the jap. dc ver. with more moves and further refinement from leon (but sadly he is still denied some of his original moves that leon has, so the real bayman still exists somewhere between the two); much more of a different character now.

if forced to play with the pad, i like the ps2 pad better for it's 4 shoulder buttons which can be assigned to the different button combinations, but it's lame that with analog on, you can perform the throw combos by pushing the buttons firmly; is this for children?

I think the boredom that arrives quickly when playing doa2 is due to the fact that the game has little depth in terms of actual technique. there are no really difficult commands, and not much complex defensive play such as command throw escapes or a real escape system, so people switch to different characters quickly, then become bored because they've seen everything and can do every command.

I also think that people can do pretty well using just a few commands, so there's no real need to go beyond the basic guessing game. it's like they wanted to make the mind games the most important feature, but when they did, it was just too simple to be really interesting. the game gives you no real incentive to keep playing, hence costumes etc...

i like playing it with people who don't play fighting games a lot, because it's so exciting to watch and beautiful to look at, and people can play pretty easily & do really violent, dynamic things, more so than in other games; but i usually try to get them to play vf after.

I prefer it to tekken, but still a very distant 2nd to vf. lastly, i feel that even though the graphics suffer, hardcore is the most complete version of the game, if not the best looking.

spotlight