I don't play fighting games much these days, but back in the day used to enjoy them, and Dead or Alive 3 on PS2 was one of my favourites. Dead or Alive 6 built on what the older games in this series were good at. The fighting feels fluid, each impact can be felt, you can string some impressive combos, and there is a nice parry system. And as a bonus, there are lots of beautiful female characters. ;)

Now, I don't really like playing games such as this online, so my entire review is based on single player experience. And gladly there is plenty to do if you don't wish to play online. There's story mode of course. Then there's a quest mode, where you're given certain tasks to perform during fights. Then there are the usual modes that you can normally expect in fighting games - arcade (fight through a series of battles and try to get as high score as possible), time attack (fight through a series of battles and try to win in as shortest time as possible), survival (keep facing new opponents with the same character till you're defeated), and versus mode (fight 1 on 1 against another player or a computer). There is also training mode where you can practice moves and get a hang of the game or a particular character.

In many of the game modes where you face computer opponents, you can choose between multiple difficulty levels, so you can get enjoyment from the game whether you're new to the genre or a veteran. Playing on higher difficulty modes gets you bigger rewards. The rewards are usually in-game coins and also costume pattern points. These are mainly needed for unlocking new costumes for characters - and there are plenty of those. In the versus mode, you can set additional options to make it more fun - number of rounds, amount of health, round time, etc. Oh and you can save a replay of the whole fight here if you want to re-watch it later.

Ok, let's address the elephant in the room - the massive list of DLCs the game has. Many people frown upon this sort of thing - having to buy many DLCs for a game that already has a high price point. However, vast majority of DLCs for this game are merely character costumes and aren't necessary to get. Only 7 DLCs are additional characters. But that's only 7 DLC characters in a game that has a total of over 30 characters. So the base game already provides you with almost 25 characters, and the DLC characters are not necessarily stronger or better (though having them sure can add more to the game; they're not particularly expensive). As for the costumes - many of the costumes can only be unlocked in-game, while others are paid DLCs. There's no necessity to buying them all. Most are fan service and sexy costumes for female characters. So if you really want some of that, you can get a few of them for characters you use frequently to spice up their look a bit.

There are lots of fighting games out there, and each series has its own distinct strengths and features. Mortal Kombat is all about gore and maximum brutality, Soul Calibur is great for its variety of fancy weapons, Street Fighter for faster-paced fights with lots of flashy effects, and so on. Dead or Alive to me is more grounded in reality, with more realistic moves and combos (aside from a few elements of fantasy and sci-fi in the backstories and abilities of some characters), no over-the-top blood and entrails, and no "10 punches in less than a second" kind of thing, but its pacing is still fast and fluid. And as mentioned before, Dead or Alive has hands down the best-looking girls, in quality and quantity.

One thing that's been a little on the annoying side for me is that in some stages, there is a large number of humans in the background and/or special effects, so the game can lag a bit on those stages. Wish it was possible to switch off those parts of the environment to improve performance.

I recommend it to those who enjoy fighting games or who are new to the genre and want a satisfying and not too complicated game as a good entry point. It's certainly a good relaxation to just whack a few enemies with impressive combos after you've had a long day.