| Death By Degrees, Tekken: Nina Williams review |
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Like a starving tramp, Death by Degrees survives by feeding off that which others have discarded. Its repetitive combat went out of fashion early in the '90s, the simple puzzles blatantly stolen from Resident Evil have long since been abandoned by Capcom and the game uses a control scheme that everyone laughed at when Rare tried it three years ago. Although, despite consisting of other games’ tired ideas Death by Degrees somehow manages to be entertaining in places. A starving tramp it may be but it’s a tramp that’ll put on a good song and dance if you talk to it long enough.
There are quite a few bad points to this game so let’s get them out of the way first. As a spin-off from the Tekken games it is disappointing to see an adoption of such a simple combat system. Nina’s basic repertoire of moves consists of a low kick, a high kick and a flying kick. There are no punches… at all, which feels very strange when we already know that Nina is fully capable of throwing her fists about. The above set of kicks are all executed by tapping the right analogue stick in the direction of the pursuing enemies and in some ways this method is quite effective as it's the quickest way to deal with the many aggressors that approach from every direction, but the small range of moves soon becomes a tiresome hindrance. Being able to swing the stick through a half-circle could have been used to make Nina perform a spin-kick for example yet such opportunities have been overlooked and the combat soon becomes repetitive, leaving little room for customisation. Control is ruinedfurther still by forcing the player to press a button to run and needlessly overcomplicates many moves. Quite why some developers inisist on adding a run button to games with full analogue control is a design fault that should have perished years ago.
Nina’s kicks are complemented by choke holds and throws or can be replaced by melee and ranged weapons, which deliver most of the fun and the little variety available in combat. Hidden around the levels are swords and batons that can be wielded singly or in pairs: each one is capable of dealing a set number of blows before it falls to pieces. Likewise, there are several handguns and automatic weapons with which Nina can plug away at the thugs from a distance until her ammo is spent. Switching between melee weapons, guns and kicks can be done easily enough in the middle of battle and allows for a combination of different attacks to be used in a single sequence. You get the feeling that Namco wanted the combat to play similarly to Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry but - although it can be fun to fire off a few shots at a distant opponent, charge at them with the sword, kick ‘em about a few times and finish with a neck-snap – it never flows as smoothly as in either of those two games. Nor is there any challenge to the CPU’s attacks, meaning that you never feel rewarded for fighting off a bunch of enemies with some well-placed, stylish combos.
The puzzles also suffer from over-simplification. Most are of the achingly-traditional ‘find an item to open a lock’ type and really add nothing to the gameplay. There are a few challenging puzzles such as the sliding honeycomb jigsaws but their frequency is far too few and their originality non-existent. If they had been more imaginative then the game would have offered something tempting for those who were disappointed by the lack of puzzles in Resident Evil 4. As it stands though, even that title’s lightweight puzzle offering outdoes Death by Degrees in the conundrum department.
There are, however, a few original ideas in Death by Degrees and it is these little nuggets of solid gameplay that make the title worth playing despite its flaws. The biggest of these is the fingerprint sub-quest. Early on in the game Nina acquires a device that allows her to scan fingerprints from the hands of dead bodies or from marks left on inanimate objects. Some key prints can be used to gain access to restricted areas through the thumb-pads next to locked doors, the other, more exciting, fingerprints can be used to open soldiers’ lockers, which often contain extra health, weapons and secret items. This adds a much-needed layer of depth as when the player isn't fighting or trying to solve a ridiculously easy puzzle they will be checking every object they can see in the hope of finding a new print that will unlock something cool. As well as this genuinely fun sub-quest there are a few other noteworthy distractions. At key points in the game for example the action will take on a different guise: early instances including a sniping section where Nina must protect a fellow agent in the middle of a shoot-out and a sub-mission wherein a remote-controlled helicopter must be piloted through a series of air ducts and closed rooms in order to find an inaccessible item. These sections inject a lot of variety and usually come along just when the combat is beginning to stale. They give Death by Degrees a strong sense of pacing and are some of the game’s most memorable moments.
Although the graphics look like a first-generation Dreamcast game there are a few nice touches here and there such as Nina’s clothes becoming increasingly ripped and torn as she takes more damage. Ironically the visuals represent everything that is both bad and good about Death by Degrees as a lot of care and attention has been poured into the little things that can make a game feel special but that same care has not been put into the backbone of the game. This results in a shallow experience that feels like it could have been so much more.
Many reviewers would have you believe that Death by Degrees is one of the worst games ever made but that simply isn’t the case. By most standards this is a playable game that could have been a very good one if only the combat and puzzles had more depth to them. Without that depth though, this is an average attempt at game design that occasionally sparkles. Only occasionally though. |
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System: Sony PlayStation 2
Genre: Fighter
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Players: 1
Version: Japan
Reviewed: Apr 2005
Writer: Ashley Day
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Pros:
- Excellent fingerpint sub-quest
- Some fun and well-made minigames
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Cons:
- Sloppy, underused controls
- Limited combat
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