Playtest: Death by Degrees
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 11:26 am
[b]Playtest: Death by Degrees[/b]
She\'s been beaten up, cryogenically frozen, artificially inseminated, and then forced to try and kill her grown-up offspring. Life in the Tekken tournaments has been tough on the gorgeous Irish scrapper. And, as Death by Degrees shows, Nina Williams\' pre-Iron Fist existence wasn\'t any more peaceful.
The third-person action adventure follows a solo Nina on one of her first mercenary missions working for the CIA. A nefarious international terror group known as the Kometa are up to no good with a hi-tech weapon, codenamed Salacia. The Kometa are holding a fighting tournament (naturally) on their ocean liner (not-so-secret) base and, using this as a ruse to get aboard, Nina enters.
Although it starts with a fighting tournament, Death by Degrees is no traditional beat \'em up. The tournament is taken care of thanks to a bone-crunching CGI movie and from thereon in it\'s exploration and puzzle-solving for Nina, as she sneaks about the vessel searching for information on Salakia.
Survival horror, without the horror
If you\'re familiar with the action of the Resident Evil or Silent Hill series, you\'ll be instantly at home in Death by Degrees. Huge, atmospheric levels are yours to explore, fingerprints (DBD\'s substitute for keys) must be scanned to unlock doors and access new areas.
You\'ll have to find clues and solve puzzles in order to overcome obstacles, such as lowering a water level to uncover a hidden doorway or sending a spy-drone through an air duct to find a pass code. There\'s a fiendish locking mechanism on secret weapon caches that will have you pulling your hair out to get the numeric sequence right. You\'ll even stumble across some zombies - but these are in a dream sequence, so Resi fans shouldn\'t get too excited!
High heels and high kicks
But of course you don\'t cast a kick-ass heroine like Nina in the lead role unless you want some asses kicked, and DbD doesn\'t disappoint in that regard. Using a two-stick combat system similar to Rise to Honour\'s right analog slapping method, Nina smacks her way through the re-spawning legion of guards, ninjas, and assorted end-of-level freaks.
Slapping the right stick in a direction attacks in that direction and also blocks if an attack\'s incoming. By varying the timing of the \'slap\' sequence you can pull off different combos, including many of Nina\'s recognisable Tekken moves. Build up your Focus bar through cool moves and you can unleash a devastating Focus attack. This lets you view the inside of your opponent\'s body (x-ray style) and target specific bones and/or organs, then watch them snap or explode if you successfully pull it off. It\'s hard to master, but like the standard attacks, looks very cool when you do it well.
A quick press of a shoulder button gets Nina\'s weapons out (steady, lads). Dual katanas, tonfa clubs, SMGs, an assault rifle, and a grenade launcher are available (to name but five) and can turn the tide of a mass scrap if you\'re getting swamped. The weapons degrade as they\'re used, so replacing them regularly is essential or you\'ll default to a mere flying kick as your backup \'weapon\'.
Nina\'s easy to love
As you\'d expect from Namco, the production values are extremely high, with the curvaceous in-game graphics looking almost as awesome as the jaw-dropping CGI cut-scenes. Fans of the Tekken series may need some time to adjust to the action adventure gameplay, but will be rewarded with an absorbing plot and details of Nina\'s former life (as well as other Tekken guest stars). For the rest of us, you have a barely-dressed, beautiful woman kicking seven shades of spit out of a host of murderous terrorists. What\'s not to love?
[url=\"http://au.playstation.com/news/dbd_playtest.jhtml\"]Source[/url]
She\'s been beaten up, cryogenically frozen, artificially inseminated, and then forced to try and kill her grown-up offspring. Life in the Tekken tournaments has been tough on the gorgeous Irish scrapper. And, as Death by Degrees shows, Nina Williams\' pre-Iron Fist existence wasn\'t any more peaceful.
The third-person action adventure follows a solo Nina on one of her first mercenary missions working for the CIA. A nefarious international terror group known as the Kometa are up to no good with a hi-tech weapon, codenamed Salacia. The Kometa are holding a fighting tournament (naturally) on their ocean liner (not-so-secret) base and, using this as a ruse to get aboard, Nina enters.
Although it starts with a fighting tournament, Death by Degrees is no traditional beat \'em up. The tournament is taken care of thanks to a bone-crunching CGI movie and from thereon in it\'s exploration and puzzle-solving for Nina, as she sneaks about the vessel searching for information on Salakia.
Survival horror, without the horror
If you\'re familiar with the action of the Resident Evil or Silent Hill series, you\'ll be instantly at home in Death by Degrees. Huge, atmospheric levels are yours to explore, fingerprints (DBD\'s substitute for keys) must be scanned to unlock doors and access new areas.
You\'ll have to find clues and solve puzzles in order to overcome obstacles, such as lowering a water level to uncover a hidden doorway or sending a spy-drone through an air duct to find a pass code. There\'s a fiendish locking mechanism on secret weapon caches that will have you pulling your hair out to get the numeric sequence right. You\'ll even stumble across some zombies - but these are in a dream sequence, so Resi fans shouldn\'t get too excited!
High heels and high kicks
But of course you don\'t cast a kick-ass heroine like Nina in the lead role unless you want some asses kicked, and DbD doesn\'t disappoint in that regard. Using a two-stick combat system similar to Rise to Honour\'s right analog slapping method, Nina smacks her way through the re-spawning legion of guards, ninjas, and assorted end-of-level freaks.
Slapping the right stick in a direction attacks in that direction and also blocks if an attack\'s incoming. By varying the timing of the \'slap\' sequence you can pull off different combos, including many of Nina\'s recognisable Tekken moves. Build up your Focus bar through cool moves and you can unleash a devastating Focus attack. This lets you view the inside of your opponent\'s body (x-ray style) and target specific bones and/or organs, then watch them snap or explode if you successfully pull it off. It\'s hard to master, but like the standard attacks, looks very cool when you do it well.
A quick press of a shoulder button gets Nina\'s weapons out (steady, lads). Dual katanas, tonfa clubs, SMGs, an assault rifle, and a grenade launcher are available (to name but five) and can turn the tide of a mass scrap if you\'re getting swamped. The weapons degrade as they\'re used, so replacing them regularly is essential or you\'ll default to a mere flying kick as your backup \'weapon\'.
Nina\'s easy to love
As you\'d expect from Namco, the production values are extremely high, with the curvaceous in-game graphics looking almost as awesome as the jaw-dropping CGI cut-scenes. Fans of the Tekken series may need some time to adjust to the action adventure gameplay, but will be rewarded with an absorbing plot and details of Nina\'s former life (as well as other Tekken guest stars). For the rest of us, you have a barely-dressed, beautiful woman kicking seven shades of spit out of a host of murderous terrorists. What\'s not to love?
[url=\"http://au.playstation.com/news/dbd_playtest.jhtml\"]Source[/url]