Dead or Alive 3

There are eight modes of play in DOA3, including Story mode, Team Battle, Tag Battle and Sparring mode. The latter mode is customisable and is a nice way for new players to learn how to play the game, while Story mode lets you take one of the 16 available characters through a series of matches, culminating in a fight against the über -powerful Omega. Once you defeat Omega, a short movie specific to your charaue is laughable) but the end-movies are pretty cool and it's fun playing through the game as each of the characters.

The real meat of the game, though, is its combat, and DOA3 delivers in spades. Each character has specific attacks--such as Zack's Devil Elbow or Bass Armstrong's Stun Gun Chop--and once you get the moves down, the entire affair can unfold like a carefully choreographed ballet with combatants blocking blows, counter attacking and landing devastating punch-and-kick combos. Adding to the game's appeal are the massive and detailed multi-level arenas (which were introduced in DOA2), where a precise kick or punch can send a combatant plummeting through the air down to the arena's next level.

It's obvious that DOA3 was designed to be a showcase for the Xbox's graphical prowess and it shows--the game's graphics are awesome. The character models look amazing and feature highly detailed clothing and accessories, and the animations are extremely smooth. The environments are also outstanding, and feature lots of little touches such as fluttering leaves, snow-covered ground that can be torn up during the course of a fight, great-looking water and superb background structures. So while DOA3 doesn't rewrite the rules of the fighting genre, its great graphics and intense fighting--especially in multiplayer--make for an enjoyable gaming experience. --William Harms

DOA isn’t bad but I found it quite boring. Games like Soul Calibur and Killer Instinct are brilliant fighting games and offer you great gameplay as well as graphics. It’s a shame DOA missed one of them out.


Best multiplayer game available   August 15, 2005
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

People calling this game shallow, flashy, or "a game for quick cheap thrills" are wrong. I apologise for my bluntness, but it is obvious to me that they have not put in the time nor the effort to get to know this game. My friends and I play this game a lot, together we probaly own around 100 games (all top notch of course ;-) ). I challenge anyone who thinks this game is a simple button basher to face me and i'll show you how deep the game gets!


Uninspiring and very average   April 11, 2005
 3 out of 9 found this review helpful

I like fighting games but found this very irritating. The controls aren't good and difficult to master if you can be bothered perservering that long. The characters aren't interesting, I don't think the multi-tiered environments work well and in my opinion it is generally overrated. Games should also be fun to play as well as look at. There's not much else to say about this which illustrates how ultimately shallow it is. Buy Tekken, Rocky, Soul Caliber etc instead.


Big and flashy! Like Jackie Stallone...   January 31, 2005
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

The best fighting game available. Am I mad? No, but let me tell you why. For many a year Tekken was the game of choice. University saw some serious Tekken and Goldeneye play and it was hard to ever envision a fighting game knocking it off the top spot. The depth of moves, well balanced characters ... qualities that DOA3 just doesn't have. So why so good? Have you ever been on a night out, got a few mates round afterwards with fast food of choice X winging its way round to your domain and then tried to explain the subtle timing needed to kick off Jin Kazama's 10 hit combo? Its not fun. Cries of "How do you throw?! What buttons together?!" ensue. Where DOA3 comes in is with its easy to access gameplay. All the depth in mastering characters as in Tekken and Virtua Fighter goes right out the window and in comes a more 'button masher' friendly gameplay structure. Soon all your mates will be fighting in Snake & Crane, Drunken Boxing ... luzzing each other out of skyscraper windows down neon signs. Thats where the fun of this game lies. Instant gratification.

To be honest, I don't have the time to sit down and learn a character inside out ... and once I have, who to fight against? I'm afraid my girlie is more of a Mario Kart head ... and anyway, she hits me (HARD) whenever I beat her at something. Unless something like online Tekken comes on, this will be the game I'll keep on hand to drag out at a party. Even then, I'll miss the flashy wow factor that DOA brings to the table.

Aside from that, the single player game is admittedly naff with an atrocious final boss and there isn't much there for dedicated combo freaks. You know where to head for that. This is just a glorious indulgence. Wonderfully flashy visuals, frantic fights, and, um, 'bouncy' women.

DOA Ultimate is soon to surface so you may with to hold onto your cash until that appears, especially with its online play being a talking point, but this is a pure cheap thrill if you need a quick fix. Still great laffs though!


Dead or alive 3..good game? don't think so!   January 26, 2005
 0 out of 5 found this review helpful

had this game for about a week now..and i have to say that it's not impressing me. From the people who brought ninja gaiden i expected more.

the control system is unnecessarily difficult to master..and some say a there is a learning curve of upto 2hours. 2hours! who can be bothered to sit around trying to play a game for 2 hours before they get the 'sort of' hang of it!

admittedly the graphics are sleek..and the 3d interactive, multilevelled environments are all brilliant. But the control system wrecks all this.

Someone said that this game had a storyline.. err no it doesn't - the game barely even implies relationships etc that the characters all have with each other.. and the final boss is ridiculous. This is not helped by the fact that they put a stupidly confusing camera view on the fight with him. very unhelpful.

Bring on Tekken 5 and lets hope that they port it to the Box. I maintain that there are no good beat-em ups for xbox so far - WHAT's GOING ON!?