After trying it at E3 and after the experience of the open beta, we had a last meeting with Dead or Alive 6 before the release scheduled for next March 1st 2018. The opportunity was perfect to finally get our hands on the story mode, on quest mode and to get a taste of the complete final roster.
The story mode, as you can imagine, revolves around the sixth edition of the Dead or Alive tournament, where each of the 26 wrestlers who will take part in the competition will have their reasons to aim for victory. Among these we find the two big news of the series, namely Nico and Diego. Nico is a young 18-year-old scientist who works for MIST, a well-known secret society within the Dead or Alive universe, who fights using an unusual martial art called Silat, of Indonesian origin, powered by devices on the hands that make his attacks are electric. Diego, on the other hand, is a street fighter from Mexico who moved to New York to find the money to treat his sick mother.
The other 24 characters are already all old acquaintances, but among these it is good to mention at least Raidou, the boss of the first chapter who here returns to have a key role in the plot, and Nyotengu, who will be a DLC character obtainable for free for all those who have booked their copy of the game. In the character choice menu there is a hole for 3 other fighters, but we don't know if they too will be available through DLC or if they will be revealed later.
The story of Dead or Alive, as well as for the other titles in the series, has never represented anything to get excited about, and in this sixth episode, barring surprises, we do not believe it is legitimate to expect any change of course. The plot is divided into chapters, each made up of different scenarios that focus on certain battles and certain characters. Each completed scenario gives access to the next ones along a kind of chronological map that allows you to understand the order and flow of events. We have completed those of the prologue and those of the first chapter, but they did not seem particularly inspired and the idea of fragmenting the plot often risks breaking its rhythm, especially where the game seems to take itself seriously (i.e. in the events related to Kasumi, Hayabusa and all the other Ninja).
As for the quest mode, it is a series of challenges in which the player will have to face clashes and complete specific objectives: among these we point out, for example, having to hit enemies on the ground a certain number of times, perform a combo that do a certain amount of damage, hit enemies in the air and so on. Each challenge has 3 objectives, which if completed allow you to obtain an in-game currency with which to unlock costumes, accessories and much other extra material. The personalization of the characters seemed to us a bit limited when compared to other realities belonging to the same genre, but it has improved significantly when compared to Dead or Alive 5. Moreover, it seems that by playing you can raise your player level beyond than that of the character you are using, but it is not yet clear what kind of benefits and what content (apart from the Titles) they will unlock.
On an aesthetic level, the new graphics engine is excellent as regards the characters, with details such as sweat and bruises that show themselves progressively during the progress of the meeting, as well as the facial expressions that show the pain of each blow suffered, above all during slow motion. We were instead a bit disappointed by the scenarios that are approximate from a technical point of view (especially due to a strong aliasing), but which fortunately shine in their interactivity and in the ability to always give some twists, such as the appearance of a Kraken that crushes the unfortunate or from angry Pterodactyls for breaking the eggs of their nest. We hope that in the final version there is a lot of variety in terms of stage: it would be a source of pride for this sixth chapter.
Obviously the story and quest modes are not the only modes present in the game: the classic training, survival, arcade and multiplayer modes (both local and online) will obviously return. Incomprehensible is the absence of the Tag Team mode, or the pair fights: we hope it is due only to the build we tried and that it has not been intentionally removed.
From the first real new chapter of this generation of consoles (DoA 5 was cross-gen) perhaps it was legitimate to expect something more, but the reality is that fans of the series have long been asking for a new chapter and Dead or Alive 6 does that. that he does best: entertain. More approachable by newbies thanks to some precautions and enriched with many small news, it will also make a lot of veterans happy. We came out of our test eager to get our hands on the new chapter of the successful Team Ninja series and we hope that the title will have a long life even and above all after the release of the game, followed by constant support and continuous balancing. On the other hand, the development team has only worked to bring Dead or Alive 6 to the esports stage and perhaps this could prove to be the right opportunity.
► Dead or Alive 6 is a fighting game developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 01/03/2019
Dead or Alive 6 is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 81%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Review of Dead or Alive 6
