This was my second time playing this game, and while I have enjoyed it a fair bit more this second go around, I still just find myself continually losing interest in it. It just doesn't give my me that same shot of goopy gamer brain feel good juice that Doom, Blood, and more recent boomer shooters like Dusk and Hrot have.

I respect that this is a legendary/historic game and what it'd go on to inspire and how much would be innovated from this, but the gameplay just doesn't satisfy like I wish it did.

Killer atmosphere for sure though.

First off this is a pretty damn good-looking game. The stages and character models all are pretty great-looking (and yes, they're hotter than ever). The character cinematics too also look pretty decent still today for the most part and still have a lot of charm in the places that they don't age the best.

Unfortunately I think the overkill on some of these visual are what also tanks the framerate in about half of the stages, making some of them just outright unenjoyable to fight in. X Octagon was by far the worst offender though, fighting there was like fighting in a pit of molasses, just awful. DOATEC HK as well would chug like crazy if you knocked your opponent through/got knocked through to the basement or the street area. I am willing to concede that this may be some kind of weird quirk of playing this on Xbox 360 instead of original hardware or emulation though.

One thing I KNOW isn't the fault of playing on 360 though is the Omega boss fight. Like yeah, he's SUPER fucking easy, but that's kind of my problem. Also I despise the weird perspective thing they did for his fight/stage. I do not like it at all.

All of that mess aside though, pretty much everything I enjoyed from DOA2 on Dreamcast is here though, so that's pretty nice! Survival Mode and Time Attack were still really fun to do, and I enjoyed playing through the Arcade mode as Kasumi, Tina, and Lei Fang once again. And even though I didn't hate my time with this game, I definitely still enjoyed DOA2 on Dreamcast more overall.

This was such a blast to play!

I played this for way longer than I originally thought I would; DOA3 hasn't got shit on this! It doesn't suffer from the same framerate dropping issues, the costume unlocks don't have psychotic requirements, and I know it's the same engine, but I swear it even looks better. The redone stages look GORGEOUS and the new stages are very welcome as well. Simply put, this is everything I loved about DOA2 but better in pretty much every way. The gameplay is still super fun, smoothe, and GOTCHA-ing your opponent with a well-anticipated Hold to turn the tide of the fight has never felt more amazing.

I played as Leifang a lot this time around; enough so that I unlocked (almost) all her costumes. I really like Costumes 3, 9, and 18 for her. I played some Kasumi, Tina, Hayabusa, and Ayane too, as well as dabbling with Bass and Jann Lee. It was pretty fun branching out with different characters in this entry, as opposed to playing the same 3 as I had previously.

After ignoring it for a while, I dipped back into the Tag Battle mode this time and I rather enjoyed it. It's still not my favorite, but the Tag attacks you can do with your partner are really fun. And while I didn't even come close to getting all the Survival Mode items, I can easily see myself coming back to this game to do just so I can get that so I can unlock everything.

I do have some complaints though:
1) The screen blurring + the white flash that happens during Tengu's boss fight (the same blurring effect was also used in Omega's fight in DOA3). It sucks. I hate it more than anything else; it makes Tengu's fight harder than it already is because you're just blind for half a second while he rushes you.

2) There's a weird rubber-banding kind of effect going on with the game's difficulty. Generally, I felt the game is quitea bit harder than DOA2 on Dreamcast. Now, this would've been fine in and of itself; I adjusted just fine, even though Tengu is pretty bullshit this time around, he's much harder than before. However, the real problem is that the CPU (ESPECIALLY Tengu) will outright read your inputs on Normal sometimes and even moreso on Hard. It's kind of just such a crock of shit that can result in you losing the same fight 3~7 times in a row before the CPU decided it's had enough of obliterating you and then lightens up.

Despite my problems with it, I can safely say this is my favorite entry in the series so far, even moreso than DOA: Dimensions.

Simply fantastic and way beyond cool. The art style and soundtrack are utterly wonderful, and the gameplay just feels so, so, so good. This is a game that is just really damn fun. I must add how much I really love that you get rewarded for exploring around with all the collectibles to grab. The story is compelling enough, to keep you going and has a fun lil' mystery as things go on. I just can't GET ENUF of this game.

If you're just playing through the story, then a playthrough will take maybe 4-5 hours tops. But if you take your time, explore around and find neat lil' nooks and crannies with collectibles, you can easily triple that playtime (as I have!). I say all this because I initially felt that $40 was a little bit steep of an asking price, but with how much fun I've had with this game, it feels insanely reasonable. I've put nearly 16 hours into this and I'll still probably put another hour or two at least more in as I clean up (or rather spray up?) grabbing the rest of the graffiti spots and maybe unlock a few more characters.

Pretty good fun that is bogged down by some annoying bullshit enemies and fairly frustrating camera control. Yet somehow despite my issues I still finished the game with a Head Ninja rank. I rather enjoyed the music and visual flair, as well as the openness of Tairon and how almost Metroidvania-y it could be at times. I found the boss fights particularly to be really fun too, but most of them were too easy (I HATED those worm fights though, especially Magma Worm).

I also enjoyed Rachel's missions. Her playstyle was fun and distinct enough from Ryu's to be a nice break, but I wish they a bit longer and that she had more to do plot-wise.

Overall, I had a pretty nice time. I want to try playing NGB sometime in the future though to see if I end up enjoying that more.

This is such an insanely fun game with an insanely killer atmosphere! I love the crumbling castles and unique enemies. The platforming is so tight and the amount of freedom you have to explore around the way you wish is great. Early on, you feel like you're wandering aimlessly, but as you explore more and circle back, you start to form a kind of mental map in your head of the general location of some rooms. I love how you can get around puzzles and rooms, many times without the "intended" power up, just with the powerups on hand and your own skill. It's so cathartic. The final boss fight is also a joy to fight. I love this game!

Ever since Patch #13 dropped, this game is COMPLETELY different now and absolutely for the better. On launch? It was pretty stanky. But now each character essentially having 3 subclasses is such a literal game changer, never mind all the different adjustments they've made to effects, damage, extra skills added, Plasteel and Diamantine being much more abundant, and so on. However, I still do really wish it had a single-player campaign with a loose story of some sort like Left 4 Dead did. This is a much better game now than it was at launch though; very good of Fatshark to keep at it, and I can't wait to see what else they inject into this game.

An utterly fantastic remake of the original game. It does a splendid job keeping the same atmosphere while adding new touches and even better sound design. For the most part the game is just damned good to look at too. The lighting is so damn well-done, and the Intensity Director always kept me on my toes with flickering lights, fog, or complete darkness encompassing areas I'd been to previously. I also REALLY appreciate that all the weapons are actually worth using now. The Flamethrower is a force to be reckoned with and the Pulse Rifle has really nice DPS. Plasma Cutter still the GOAT though.

I won't discuss story changes here, but I will say I didn't mind them, and I also appreciated the Side Missions that are included. The only thing that didn't really gel for me is how they changed Hammond (he was better before) and how everyone's voice acting can sound at times. The mocap too for the video calls also has some uncanny valley effect going on with the characters' faces and it just isn't quite as good as the original in that regard.

I really, really loved playing through this. If we get a Dead Space 2 remake, I can only hope they give it as much love as they did this one.