The online beta for Dead or Alive 6 is available now for PlayStation Plus members and it gives us a small preview on what the gameplay will be like.
It’s been a long time since I played Dead or Alive 5, but Dead or Alive 6 feels similar with some notable changes. If you have played any other Dead or Alive game in the past, you should not have any trouble getting used to the controls because most things have been kept the same.
What I like most about Dead or Alive 6 is that the game caters to gamers of all skill levels. The combos are much easier to do compared to other games like the Tekken or Street Fighter series. The game also persuades people to parry attacks giving matches more unpredictable outcomes.
The reason combos are easy to execute is because most moves are done by pressing down on the face buttons. You don’t have to do much additional directional button presses or anything too complicated like in Tekken 7.
As of right now, the beta only allows players to play as five different characters. The characters I chose to play for the majority of my playthrough were Ayane and Kasumi. Both girls have the same moves from other games, but they do have some notable new moves in their repertoire.
The notable downside to the beta is the fact that there is no training mode. There’s no command list, so I had to guess what the juggling combos were.
Other characters available in the beta are Hayate, Hayabusa and the newcomer of Diego. Diego is quite hard to fight as some players know of his move sets already. He even has a special cool finishing move that slows down when the opponent gets punched.
Actually, all the characters have finishers in this game called ‘Fatal Rush’. They’re similar to the Rage Arts feature that has been included in Tekken 7. Fatal Rush moves can turn fights in your favor because they deal a lot of damage if your opponent fails to block it.
Another thing I liked about Dead or Alive 6 are the much improved graphics. The character models look more detailed and the game is much brighter compared to Dead or Alive 5. I cannot wait to see the rest of the game because it looks gorgeous on my 4K TV.
During the majority of my playthrough, I had great matches with other online players and I even had a five match winning streak at one point. That being said, the beta is not perfect because the game crashed a lot of times and some matches ended in a lot of lag. Since this is only a beta, hopefully these technical issues get fixed when the game releases on March 1st, 2019.
Overall, Dead or Alive 6 is shaping up to be an awesome fighting game. I cannot wait to play the full game in a few month’s time!
