Death by Degrees - PlayStation 2

• utilizes a unique control scheme built completely around the analog sticks.
• players can see the weak points of enemies and the phyisical damage taken by a beating.
• utilize stealth techniques never seen in the Tekken series.

Product Description ------------------- An action/brawling game starring Nina of the Tekken series. The story centers on an organization called the Camietta. A member of this group recently completed work on a super weapon called the Salakia and is intent on selling it to terrorists. It is learned that the upper ranks of the Camietta group will be appearing on a luxury cruiser in order to witness a fighting tournament. Nina and two other CIA agents board the ship in order to get to the bottom of things. Review ------ Death by Degrees has been designed as an odd hybrid of Resident Evil style game structure (think fixed camera angles, plus lots of hallways and item/key puzzles) interspersed with all-analog fighting à la Rise to Honor. I think this basic foundation is where the developers went wrong. The survival horror genre was conceived to build tension. All the running around you do in Resident Evil titles is actually helps to create a mood of foreboding. Here, there's none of that. For this reason, all the wandering seems like filler. This tedium is not helped by the inexcusably long loading times. In addition, the fixed camera scheme isn't well-suited to all-out brawling either, as sometimes you'll be pushed into an area of a room where you can't see your nent. I actually had fun using the analog control to effortlessly string together combos. Even cooler are Nina's finishing moves, where the screen goes to an x-ray view of your prey that allows you to select just which part of his torso you're going to crush. However, I didn't like the mechanics for blocking or evades (which require a quick flick of the analog stick). During heated battles, both were way too erratic, even with the sensitivity adjusted to high. All told, this game will please neither action fans nor followers of the Tekken franchise, and comes off as a marketing scheme gone horribly awry. Concept: A mix of Resident Evil and third-person beat ‘em ups, starring Nina from Tekken Graphics: A very nice-looking PS2 title, Death by Degrees excels graphically Sound: Generic to the extreme (is that possible?), a ho-hum mix of rock guitars and cheesy techno Playability: I'm not sold on the 360-degree combat, and the exploration is tedious Entertainment: Hardcore Tekken fans will be disappointed, as will everyone else Replay: Low Rated: 5.5 out of 10 Editor: Matt Helgeson Issue: March 2005 2nd Opinion: There are two things that I like about this game, and the rest (and I mean rest) of the package reeks of utter despair. In a plus column, I have the opening cinematic and the x-ray finishing-move dynamic. Cool stuff, please do it again. Other than that, there's nothing here but a handful of standard features notable only for the variety of ways that they suck fun from the experience, nestled between long bouts of loading. Rated: 5.25 out of 10 Editor: Lisa Mason Subscribe to Game Informer ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AN45D/ ) -- .com