Dead or Alive 6 Deluxe Demo

We are a not far away from the scheduled launch of DOA6 here in the US. I was excited, but in all honesty that excitement has waned a bit. The game has been delayed once before. Likely for pre-order reasons. In that delayed time period the team at Koei Tecmo has been gracious enough to give us two goes at the online beta. Having played the first time around, and this weekend with a more complete online experience, and roster I have to say that despite knowing things may supposedly change before release I'm left not wanting to buy into DOA6 right away. The game, from what I've experienced, is promising. I'll give it that much. It seems at least a little better than DOA5LR, but at the same time the online component is once again plagued by gamers who would exploit lag, and possibly even use mods to win.With online being one of the biggest reasons I buy into a fighter I'm left not wanting to buy into this one.

In my extended time with the open online beta I did note that there's gonna be some sort of quest mode, and the returning survival mode I'd hoped for (leaked in the tag listings), but it's not really enough to make me want to pass up two other games I have my sights set on in March. Though I was impressed to the point it might have been one of my game purchases for March the more I played the more obvious it became to me that other less than appreciative or considerate players were also testing the waters, and finding ways to manipulate the experience. It's a problem I've talked about many times before. The releasing of online betas to the public without screening said players. This never fares well, and ultimately leads to the release of day one mods, hacks, and exploits. There's nothing that can be done at this point though as the damage is already done.

I'm seeing perfect pings be anything but perfect online. I'm seeing harassment from groups of players gangbanging legit players once they've noticed they can cheat against them, or when they realize they've been reported to the PlayStation PoPo. Usually they are community friends connected through console or hacking/modding forums who do this sort of thing, and it's noticeable when they start harassing you with the same characters, same ping, and same lag. It's targeted harassment that is sometimes done through routers that allow matchmaking manipulation. All of this is reason enough for me to pass on the game. At least initially if not indefinitely. As a fan of DOA it does bother me choosing to not buy in at launch especially seeing the effort Koei Tecmo put into the core experience, but for someone who doesn't have local competition it's online leaves enough to be desired that it's gonna be a smart choice on my behalf.

I just wish developers could figure out a way to tackle all these player borne problems. The fighting games themselves are usually alright offline, but when it comes down to online competition players really do ruin things. I'd suggest to any fighting game developer going forward not to release a public open beta. Keep the testing among gamers you trust. Whether it be game reviewers like myself or people in the industry. Don't let the bad gamers get enough early access to create the day one mods, and exploits that will eventually kill off the game's community focus. Not everyone has access to local competition options, and online in those more commonplace situations are why gamers buy into your game. Don't ever shrug off the quality of online play as unimportant, and for the love of all things sacred apply an in-game player reporting option so that players that would run off other players with their trolling and griefing can be banned from the game. Trust me. Doing so will extend the longevity of your fighting game tremendously.