Death by Degrees

Tekken's Nina Williams in a weak, uninspired spinoff. .

Strengths: Nice FMV cinemas, solid graphics, interesting storyline, Tekken 5 demo disc included

Weakness: Loose controls, weak combat system, camera issues, frustrating difficulty, uninspired gameplay

The Tekken series of games has continued to enjoy critical and commercial success over the years, so it was only a matter of time before Namco tried to leverage the Tekken name and characters with side-story adventures like this. Unfortunately, Death by Degrees doesn't offer any of the award-winning one-on-one combat that the Tekken series is known for. What you get instead is Tekken character...
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The Tekken series of games has continued to enjoy critical and commercial success over the years, so it was only a matter of time before Namco tried to leverage the Tekken name and characters with side-story adventures like this.

Unfortunately, Death by Degrees doesn't offer any of the award-winning one-on-one combat that the Tekken series is known for. What you get instead is Tekken character Nina Williams in an uninspired 3D beat-em-up adventure.

While the high-quality graphics generally keep things looking good, the loose and frustrating controls make actually playing the game more work than fun. The camera only adds to the trouble at times by not showing you all of the bad guys attacking you from various directions.

Hardcore Tekken fans will probably want to try Death by Degrees despite its obvious flaws, but I'd recommend against paying any more than $15 for it. You won't have as much fun with this as you will with any of the older Tekken games.

By MaxBiaggi2 - Jan 4, 2006

buy it if it's cheap

Strengths: cheap game bought from toysr us.

Weakness: cheap game.

Death by Degrees is a action/adventure game for PS2. Bought it around xmas for under $10. For a cheap game, it was OK. Don't spend more than $10 on it. The controls are impossible to use. It's like the people who developed this game intentionally wanted to make it a chore for gamers.

By MeOlMe - Feb 5, 2006

Death by Waiting

Strengths: Clothing damage, costume changes, x-ray scenes

Weakness: Loading, voice acting, repetitive gameplay

Beat-'em-up games often tend to surround the player with enemies--a cheap maneuver that was originally intended to drain more quarters from the player during the olden days of arcades. Death By Degrees addresses this "gameplay mechanic" by allowing the player to attack in 360 degrees simply by flicking the joystick in the direction of their opponent. Aside from physical attacks, you can also...
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Beat-'em-up games often tend to surround the player with enemies--a cheap maneuver that was originally intended to drain more quarters from the player during the olden days of arcades. Death By Degrees addresses this "gameplay mechanic" by allowing the player to attack in 360 degrees simply by flicking the joystick in the direction of their opponent. Aside from physical attacks, you can also equip guns and swords, but these weapons don't seem to be anymore deadly than fighting without them.

Fighting is spiced up with occasional x-ray vision. If you attack an enemy with a Critical Strike, you will see an x-ray view of their bones shattering.

What really ruins the experience is noticable loading. Even selecting things in the menu isn't as immediate as it should be! And because you'll be exploring a lot, you'll encounter plenty of long loads when moving between areas.

By dafunkk12 - Mar 31, 2006

Deat by Degrees May Cause Death by Boredom

Strengths: It includes a Tekken 5 demo disk.

Weakness: Honestly, everything about this game is weak. The combat system is terrible. Environments are not interactive. The list goes on and on.

The selling point of Death By Degrees is Nina Williams of Tekken "fame." If ogling an attractive virtual female is your thing, this game may be for you. If you are looking for an adventure game that includes Tekken's deep combat and characters, you'll be sorely disappointed. The main problem I have with this game is the way combat is oversimplified. I would assume buyers of this game are fans of...
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The selling point of Death By Degrees is Nina Williams of Tekken "fame." If ogling an attractive virtual female is your thing, this game may be for you. If you are looking for an adventure game that includes Tekken's deep combat and characters, you'll be sorely disappointed.
The main problem I have with this game is the way combat is oversimplified. I would assume buyers of this game are fans of the Tekken series and, therefore, are able to perform moves using more than the left analog stick. Unfortunately, Namco apparently thinks otherwise. If there is a bad guy to your left, push left to attack him. If he's on the right, push right etc.
You would also expect destructive environments or some form of interaction with your surroundings, but you won't get it in this game.
The highlight of this game, for some of you, will be the fact that Nina's clothing gets slowly ripped and torn away as she takes damage. Don't get me wrong, there is no nudity, this is just supposed to be an advanced way of showing character damage.
I can think of no group of people to whom I recommend this game at any price.

By ragtop70 - Mar 22, 2006

Death by Degrees

Strengths: Graphics are very crisp and detailed Decent beat em up Hot babe anyone?

Weakness: Gameplay is lacking Storyline is bad Nothing new here, and really has nothing to do with Tekken besides the main character

Definitely not an A+ title here, but it could have been. The Tekken franchise is one of the better 3d fighters out there today. And the character Nina is one of the babes available to play in the game. She heads this beatemup title up. Looking at the game front and back cover - it looks like it might have potential. But it is really just a tease. The controls for the game are really hard to...
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Definitely not an A+ title here, but it could have been. The Tekken franchise is one of the better 3d fighters out there today. And the character Nina is one of the babes available to play in the game. She heads this beatemup title up. Looking at the game front and back cover - it looks like it might have potential. But it is really just a tease.
The controls for the game are really hard to master, and most people will get too flustered to continue. And there really isn't a good reason to continue. There is nothing original here, and only real fans of Tekken need buy this. However, if you can pick it up for $10 or less, it might be worth a few hours of play time.

By Pookymeister - Mar 3, 2006