The basics of the fighting system is a rock, paper, scissors mechanic where certain moves defeat others. Say if a user throws a punch at the same time another user tries a throw, the punch will win. While there are more layers to this, this is the basic way the system works, which is easy to grasp, even for those that do not often play fighting games, making this one accessible.
Players can push others up against walls and there are areas in each stage called danger zones that make for an area where one can fall down to another part of the stage. When in the danger zone the player in trouble also has a chance to grab their opponent, thus allowing for a way to switch situations. This all adds a level of complexity to each stage and each players tactics that can make the game more interesting over a game with static stages.
Being that this is basically a "game of the year" release all previous DLC is included with the game making for a definitive edition of Dead or Alive 5.
Dead or Alive has always had stances built into the game, unlike other series like Street Fighter where one or two characters may have a stance that can change, Dead or Alive has this for all characters, and multiple stances at that. The stances allow for different moves to be pulled off depending on which stance the character is in. This makes for a great way to mix up the gameplay as there are so many choices and moves to be pulled off.
While the English voice acting is pretty bad, the game does allow for players to switch to the original Japanese voice acting with English subtitles. This makes for a better experience as well as allows for those that prefer to play with the Japanese on to do so (as not all foreign games allow this).
The english dub for this game is bad. Voices do not match the characters, much of the acting is over the top or just straight up unbelievable. While this can be seen as a non serious game it would have been nice to see the localization team give a bit more care to the voice acting, as is, it is pretty bad.
You can only do ranked matches for online play there is no option to play against ones friends. This really limits the multiplayer for those that do not like playing against random opponents.
The PS4 and XBone version of the game has better graphics over PC as well as more content. The game was also released months late and missing online play for many more months. This speaks to what priority the devs have over the PC version, which may upset some people.
Being that the game uses the DC universe as the setting, the developers choose to take full advantage of the stories found in the universe and implements them through tons of stage transitions, making for hug environments where characters can be thrown to completely different areas, all animated through cut scenes that exude character development through transition..
From the sweeping orchestral score to the outlandish sound effects to the superb voice acting the game really shows polish in the audio department, which really helps with the immersion of the game and the world it is trying to portray.
The DC characters used in the game are implemented well through expositions before matches as well as design overall. Each character is believably portrayed in the game just as they are in the comics. There is much fan-service contained within as well, making for a great game for fans of the franchises used as well as for people that just enjoy good presentation.
While overall the game is animated well there are times where mid air collisions or missed frames of animation stand out as a problem. For the most part this is a slick looking game, but when animation issues arise, it definitely stands out breaking immersion.
Once each character story has been beaten there is little reason to revisit the game other than for multiplayer. Like many fighting games the single c=player components are a bit thin and wear out fast.
Mortal Kombat X has included online multiplayer modes where players can fight against online friends or strangers in ranked and unranked matches. there is also a team mode as well as king of the hill.
Mortal Kombat X features interactive environments in its stages, allowing for players to interact with their surroundings meaning every player will need to learn the stages in order to know what parts are usable against them.
There are microtransactions in the game that allow for users to pay for easier to pull off fatalities. Essentially making the game now unbalanced for those that choose to pay to those that don't after already spending $59.99 on the title.
For $59.99 one would expect to get the full game, but of course in this day and age that is not the case. Those looking to have the actual full amount of release day content are looking at a $122.95 USD price tag.
Mortal Kombat X's difficulty for obtaining in game currency has been day one patched to be harder to receive in order to push players into spending more money on a game they just purchased at full price. On top of this, most reviews for the game were done before the patch which of course conveniently falsely represents the actual patched release version in the developers and publishers favor.