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The Kick. The most useful tool in Dead Island

As I fired the game up, I immediately took note that not much seemed to change right out the gate. I was able to fire it up and jump right into the arcade mode and basically it felt like all the other installments of the game. First thing I really want to make note of in this review, is that the graphics in this game have been immensely improved from the previous installments. All of the characters have have lost kind of the animeish looking eyes that they used to have to favor a more realistic and human looking facial features. I actually really liked the change. 

Although, the ladies in this game still move around like they stuffed a pair of water balloons down their shirts and they are standing on the deck of a boat in the storm. The devs actually wanted to tone down the jiggle physics in the game to try to give it a more realistic an serious bent, but the fans pissed and cried about it till they changed it back (something I will now refer to as "Mass Effecting" the game and devs).

I would like to give a  massive thank you to the people at Tecmo for adjusting the difficulty a bit in this one. Dead or Alive 4s was downright murderous on pretty much any difficulty setting you chose. Now at least in this game you have some options. 

For all the major play modes outside of story mode, they are broken up into courses ranging from Rookie to Legend. With each step up in rank, so does the difficulty and in the case of the survival mode so does the number of people to fight.

Thank you to DOA5 for bringing that back, by the way. In one on one fighters if you dont play games online like I do, then you will find yourself getting bored sooner than later when you complete the story. Survival mode should be a standard that is in on every one on one fighter. It should be executed like DOA5 does it where as soon as you beat an enemy, the next one jumps in immediately  No load times, no screen transition, the action just keeps moving. 

All of the other modes are fairly unremarkable. Arcade mode, which is just 8 fights in a row 2 rounds.  Time attack mode: which is the same as arcade but it keeps your total play time. Both of which of those modes you can play single or tag team. And the aforementioned survival mode. There is also a spectator mode where you can watch too computer players go at it as well while you take pictures. But lets face it, people use this mode to get upskirt shots or freeze them in peculiar positions, such as Kasumis face straddling throws. 

The actual combat of the game hasnt changed much since DOA2: Hardcore but they have polished and sharpened things up. The game is ideal because any button masher can pick the game up and start wailing away on people, but every character has a massive repertoire of moves that you can run through in training mode. So there can be a lot of technically pleasings ways to play as well. Im a big fan of using Helena because her combos switch from low to high constantly and they are tricky to counter.

Speaking of which, the countering system is probably the most polished its ever been. In DOA2  you could pretty much hit back and hold and it would reverse pretty much any move the enemy threw at you. Fun against the computer but in 2 player it just resulted with two players constantly grabbing at air. 

Now their "Rock, Paper, Scissors" system of combat actually as some substantial balance to it. You can actually fling some punches or kicks because the countering system requires more precision to execute, namely by hitting a direction to correspond to high, med, and low attacks. They had this in DOA4 but it always felt more like a roll of the dice. I feel like I have better control here.

Its roster is bigger than its ever been. With pretty much all of the 17 main characters returning for the 5th installment, it introduces 2 new characters in Mila: the foxy MMA style fighter and Rig: who uses Taekwondo. Both of them bring in fighting styles not previously in the game, which make them both fun alternatives to the already extensive cast.

Also, this edition of Dead or Alive marks another first as it started to cross over with competing fighting game Virtua Fighter as some of that series established veterans in Sarah, Akira, and Pai Chan make an appearance. I havent unlocked Pai yet but Sarah and Akira both fit in seamlessly. It had been a while since I last played a Virtua Fighter but it took little time to re-acclimate to using Sarah. Where is Jacky though?

This is kind of a nit picky thing to keep complaining about, but seriously? Fuck downloadable content. Im really getting tired of pissing and moaning about this but it makes me angry each time. One of my favorite reasons for playing DOA2: Hardcore was all the of the cool and different costumes you can unlock by continually playing your favorite characters. Some of the girls have upwards 6 or 7 different costumes a piece. That to me is awesome, fun to do, and gives me a reason to keep playing the game.

And while DOA5 boasts a pretty sizable number of costumes, a lot of the nifty and fun cosplay types arent in there. Why? because you have to pay extra for them in DLC. Doing the math? To get all the extra costumes for the game you have to pay upwards 5000 or more Microsoft points, which is like an additional 50 bucks. Im sorry, but thats absolute bullshit. Costumes for characters shouldnt be anything more than 50 cents tops.  

Make DLC have sizable and significant changes to the game. I will download the free ones you have offered (and I might bite on the maid pack since I dig that look, {Dont judge me}) you can go fuck yourself with your stupid downloadable content. 

Now, youll notice that I didnt start this review going into the story line like I usually do. There are two reasons why I did it this way. One, the story in this game is so muddled up and complex that I cant really find a way to narrow it to one paragraph. And two, its because I wanted to save this for last because this is the area of the game where DOA5 has made some DRASTIC improvement. 

Usually in fighting games, the story mode usually consists of some small prologue when you start then you play the game via arcade mode. Occasionally youll get a cut scene mid game and then an ending after you beat the last boss. I would say the Tekken Series and the Street Fighter Alpha series probably perfected this style. For this genre of game, it worked for the most part. But if you really wanted the whole "story" of this type of game, youd really need to play through it with every character. For some of these games, thats pretty daunting. 

Persona 4 Arena did an interesting try with the story where it functioned a lot like its RPG roots where you had a lot of character interaction and story telling between the fight sequences  Ill admit it did a great job in telling a story, but there was WAY too much of it for the amount of fighting you do. Ended much too quickly and it could get boring. 

Dead or Alive 5 has shaken up this formula. Since many of the characters in the DOA universe are connected you dont get to select a character and jump right in. The game sets you on a timeline, and shows you many animated fully voice acted cut scenes that pick up after the end of 4. It gives the story some real meat to it, and none of the cut scenes run on so long that it gets too excessive between the fights. At least not like Persona 4 Arena did. 

The timeline jumps from character to character and you play about 3 fights with each of them. Some of them are looking to win the DOA tournament, some are looking to hone their fighting abilities, but the real linchpin of the story focuses on the ninja characters and their battles against DOATEC. 

To give a brief summary, Helena tried to destroy DOATEC for their work with weapons at the end of 4 before she was rescued by Zack (who still sucks). Two years later she has assumed control of the company and is trying to right its goals to more peaceful aspirations and has partnered up with Kasumi on her hunt for the clones of her(Kasumi) created by DOATEC to be sold as elite ninja weapons. Hayate, Ayane, and Ryu Hayabusa continue their hunt for Kasumi for abandoning the clan, although there appears to be a desire amongst them and Helena to see this misunderstanding come to close so Kasumi may return home.

Some of the cut scenes can drag on. If you watch the youtube of all them cut together (see below if you dont wanna get the game), its the length of a full feature film. That being said, this is probably the best story telling that this franchise has ever done. Now the dialog between the characters actually makes sense because I am getting the exposition to explain what the fuck is actually going on. I still dont know what project epsilon is or why it was a failure, but at least I have a better idea than I did in DOA2: Hardcore.

Basically the story picks up from the events of the first Dead Rising following the original protagonist Frank West. After being the journalist who uncovered the zombie infestation in Willamette, Frank was on a rocket to super stardom. Best selling books, hot girlfriend, meetings with the president, tv appearances, etc. But as his rise to fame inflated, it eventually had to burst. His TV show gets cancelled and he begins to bottom out, spending his time alone and drowning in the bottom of the bottle. As zombies become more common place he makes the decision to get his life back in order hed make some money by going to Fortune City and fighting on a reality show apparently hosted by the Rock called Terror Is Reality, where he uses his zombie fighting skills to earn money. After an empty feeling victory, as he leaving he sees the Rock (actually called TK) make an a suspicious transaction with someone before fighting off some thugs who have cornered him. As he leaves the building there is an explosion that releases hoards of zombies and begins killing innocent people. After making his way to the saferoom with other survivors, a news story runs pinning the explosion on an zombie support activist group called C.U.R.E and their leader Stacey. So Frank and Stacey take to the zombie infested casino resort to discover the truth....

Did some of that sound familiar? Yeah, it did for me too. Almost like I have played this game already. Probably because I have, but then it was just called Dead Rising 2. Originally I thought it was intended to be an alternate timeline, like the game would follow along with the events that took place with 2s protagonist Chuck Greene. But as I found out right out the gate, its more along an alternate reality because aside from the story pretty much following the exact pattern of the first one, the first 2 that is, there is a cutscene and boss fight very early on where you actually have to fight Chuck Greene on his chainsaw motorcycle. Really, it was the most interesting scene because it painted an interesting picture and let me imagine how Chuck failed between Dead Rising: Case Zero and Dead Rising 2 and makes it a believable reality. Thats always been an interesting concept to me, to take the hero of one game and make him a villain in the next, something that I believe was tried in Tales of Symphonia 2 and the now scrapped but being reconsidered Final Fantasy VII-2.

Im getting off topic. Originally with this idea, I wasnt bothered that this is what they did. It fits well and its fun to see Franks reactions to somethings.  But what bothers me is that it feels like in some of the scenes, Frank is just repeating the same lines of dialogue that Chuck delivered in the original version. I might have to replay 2 to confirm this. Frank does add to end of some fights some terrible cheesy one liner when he wins, and yes at one point he brings back his infamous catch phrase, but he delivers it with a smug irony, like he knows the humor of it now. However, when I feel the game starts to become something its own, sometimes someone will just say "Hey youre Frank West! Original dead rising 2 dialogue line!". This to me is somewhat irritating because it feels half assed. While the setting was the same, I hoped that the way the story played out would be different. Sure some scenes change subtly, but just call this what it is: Dead Rising 2: The version people wanted and we should have released first.  

Bibi is one of my favorite Pyschos. Just an aging showgirl who just doesnt get it. both Chuck and Frank act like their being hit on by their mom. Hilarious.

So for the most part, most of what made DR2 good is still here. Most of the controls havent changed so its easy to pick up and start playing. Leveling up Frank functions the same way as the previous Dead Rising games, The best rewards are found from saving survivors who, like in DR2, are generally much smarter and braver than in the first DR game. So keep a handgun or shotgun handy for when saving people and order them ahead. They dash to the point and then huddle up and shoot anything that comes by. Much easier to save them in groups now. Bosses provide fairly decent PP as well and most of them can be found in the same places and times as the previous DR2. In addition to that, It wouldnt be Frank West if you didnt take pictures as well and taking them at the right time offers big PP opportunities, (lol, big PP.. It may be juvenile but its still funny). And yes the timed mission mechanic is still pretty annoying but at least you can just use the zombrex at the hour you need to than running back to the safe house to do it.

They have added some new weapon combinations and all of the old designs still work. The Bowie Knife + Boxing glove and the Broom + Machete combos are still the same arbiters of zombie decimation I grew to love in the previous game.  Some of them are good for a laugh but youll basically stick to one or two powerful weapons and then if you are smart, youll get the entertainment and blade magazines, when you get the Katanas you can pretty much the ride out the game with two swords that never break. Another good tip is when you find bars or coffee places, try to collect Wine or Coffee Creamer, combining 2 of each of those in a blender make a quickstep drink which covers a lot of ground quickly. So when not saving people its good to know where to make those because when saving people, they get the quickstep ability too, makes some rescues a breeze.

The soundtrack rocks my ass off. Dead Rising always has a kick ass soundtrack. The ambiance for the casinos and malls is the same plasticy "muzak" you would hear in actual malls. But when you would fight the psychopaths or other bosses, you get some kick ass hard rock, hardcore, or metal soundtrack that really amps up the fight and makes them very fun and entertaining. These soundtracks kick ass and totally make some of the fights and if you dont think so then you are brain damaged. Go to youtube and check out Celldwellers "Own Little World" or Chucks boss theme "Firewater". Capcom understands boss fights and making them feel awesome.

There is also a sandbox mode, basically you get the freedom to browse the map and try to do various challenges that rank you online and reward you with money. You can carry this over to the actual story mode but It really isnt necessary as there are many was in the actual story mode to build money, its a neat little time sink though for the completionists.


The presentation in this game is what you have come to expect, graphically nothing has changed from DR2 to DR2:OTR. The survivors and zombies are pretty generic looking save the showgirls but not horrid. The major characters and bosses though, are all pretty well designed and have been polished up for the release, and with the proper HD sheen the characters could look downright lifelike, especially Rebecca Chang who admittedly I rule 34d (dont judge me). The Boss characters are generally well designed and diverse as well, some of them just downright hilarious. A few of them reference some throw backs to previous DR games as well. I dont know why I didnt notice this before but something with the voice acting didnt settle with me. While most of the male characters act reasonably normal given the situation, all the of major female speaking roles with the exception of Stacey seem to be like they are all delivering their lines like they were hired by the soft core pornography actors association. All the dialogue they give is over sexualized and drenched in innuendo, and you barely get a feel for an actual character until much later in the game.

"Your performance was a little limp tonight, Frank. At that age you need pills for that." I wish I was making that line up.

Rule 34: Its not always a bad thing... (seriously, Dont judge me)

One thing I wanted to specifically address about the presentation is Franks actual appearance. When I first started playing the game I watched the intro cinematic and even the beginning play through, I thought little of it at first. "Oh theres Frank! This is gonna be awesome." But as I played on, in one of the first cutscenes the Rock mentioned that Frank sold baldness remedies, and it reminded me about the cover. I couldnt help but notice when I looked at it that Frank was definitely balding on the cover. It just looked strange, and now that they mentioned it I couldnt help but notice it. Then I started looked at his actual appearance as I played. I noticed Frank doesnt really run as much as he has kind of a waddling shuffle. He had that in the first DR but it definitely was more noticeable in this one, he also looked a bit more heavy set as well. I thought it was just design of the suit but nope, Frank got fat. At first I was somewhat off put by it, but then something clicked. Frank is an actual everyman. Hes not a superhero, hes not some well cut trained soldier or a well traveled adventurer like say Nathan Drake. Hes a dude who let fame get to him and lived a fast paced lifestyle that crumbled around him and fell into some bad vices. That topped on the degenerative nature of being bit by a zombie in the first game, it was completely natural and believable that he would let himself go. You tend to hear a large number of female gamers complain how women portrayed in video games are just over sexualized bombshells with massive chests. Now you are starting to see women in gaming starting to have more normal and regular appearances, but you dont really notice this kind of thing about men. I am going through the list of games across from my bed here, and aside from games with create a character, most of the male leads all have the same generic hero archetype. I stumbled upon this article that describes this realization pretty well. Perhaps this is a bit liberal arts douchey of me to make note of, but I thought it was an interesting point and I think I would like to see more actual average joes as game protagonists.

Sorry about that, let me get back on track here. So if the game seems to be the exact same game as the one I played before, and not much of it seemed to just seemed to show any other variance the one before it, why would I continue to play it? Well, thats just the inherent beauty of this games design. Its just fun to run around to mash zombies into paste. And as I played through, the story does eventually start to branch off from the original path about half way through, making the game an alternate timeline as well.  I guess it still somewhat fits but the last boss is nothing short of ridiculous. But as soon as I finished, even having like 3 other games to play, I wanted to keep playing this one because I wanted to save all the survivors and keep leveling my character, keep discovering new weapons, want to rip through with my stronger character to see all the endings. I ended up playing this back to back just so I could rip through with all the levels and abilities Ive earned. My same reaction to the other Dead Rising games.

Its a cool little add on to Dead Rising 2 but really it didnt need to exist. I, like most people, was pretty disappointed when Frank wasnt the star of the sequel but it was cool that Capcom listened to the fans and eventually gave them what they wanted. 40 Bucks for this title seemed a bit steep for something they didnt add all that much to, but Im glad that I have it and its added the to play life of a game I was done playing. If you are a fan of Dead Rising, I would say it is worth a pick up but I might recommend waiting on it coming down in price a little bit.