being
displayed using the cheesy slow-motion x-ray shots of bones breaking, as seen
in Romeo Must Die. However, despite skulls cracking and bones breaking,
it can take several of these to down many of the opponents, which undercuts whatever
awe-inspiring power they are supposed to convey
Instead of having interactive
environments, like being able to kick tables at people or sling off poles, Nina
is stuck fighting on the ground; she can climb on and off objects, but nothing
benefiting the game's combat. The enemies vary in design, but tend to be used
so much, due to a healthy usage of respawning, that they become tiresome quickly.
Still, they are a solid source of food and potions, to increase health and enhance
stats (i.e. 20% less damage taken, refilling of critical strike meter, etc.) respectively,
as well as weapons. Surprisingly, despite being a super secret agent, she has
a very limited carrying capacity for most of the game, limiting herself to one
melee and one long-range weapon, with additional slots being made available through
holsters found throughout the level. Now, you may be thinking that it is just
too cumbersome for one person to carry so many times, but since she tucks them
away in a magical pouch anyway, I don't think it would have killed the developers
to give her the ability to at least carry more ammo - which she can't. It's either
the weapon itself or nothing.
In the midst of all the pushing and mashing,
what becomes strangely clear is that Death by Degrees is highly influenced
by Resident Evil - and I'm not talking about Resident Evil 3 or
4, with the refinements, but the original. That includes shimmering objects,
puzzles that involve plenty of backtracking, stiff controls, and that horrible
camera that switched angles whenever a new room is entered. The camera is really
one of the biggest problems with the game as it locks into some of the worst positions
possible, often not showing enemies that are directly in front of you. The controls
also switch up when the view changes, meaning that going forward in one area will
have Nina going left in the new room. By the end of the game, I was still veering
off into walls and doing unintentional quick turnarounds.
Some portions
of the game, however, aren't completely bad. One puzzle involved helping someone
to escape from a robot while using a few monitors and an old map. There's also
the ability to use stored fingerprints from dead foes and objects, which constitutes
a significant portion of the non-combat segments, and can be used to open lockers
in rest areas that store contain additional items and info. Aside from several
weak boss battles, including one of the most infuriating first-level bosses I've
yet to encounter, one segment involved fighting off zombies and Nina protecting
a child version of herself in a dream sequence. Despite a rudimentary journal
that is only there to remind you about the game's most recent events, there are
notes all around the game that highlight what is needed in the area or in the
near future.
A puzzle that really epitomized the Death by Degrees
experience, and showed the degree to which the developers were willing to borrow
from the Resident Evil titles, was a portion very similar to one found
in Resident Evil: Code Veronica. In both, a female lead is required to
remove items and put them in a bin so they may pass through security alarms without
setting them off. In Code Veronica, that involves removing weapons; in
Death by Degrees, that involves removing clothes. Now, I'm rarely one to
go on about the portrayal of woman in games, mainly because I feel both sexes
are misrepresented by unnaturally perfect characters that are overly fond of tight
clothes, but when I have to fight hordes of bad guys off in a bra and panties,
something's wrong. The real kicker was that you get to discover that it wasn't
combat boots she had been fighting in all this time, but high heels. In fact,
Nina, aside from having the face of a guy and a permanent scowl, is perpetually
wearing horrible outfits. She is either sporting a torn dress that makes her look
like a prostitute, or a Special Forces outfit torn just so you can see part of
her breast and butt. It is only towards the end that she gets a somewhat proper
outfit. Now, if I'm supposed to be taking on the role of an elite agent, male
or female, give me something that makes me look as tough as I'm supposed to be.
Otherwise, I feel the experience is tarnished, which is certainly the case here.
Aside from the gaudy outfits, Nina herself seems to have a weird repetition
complex. If you have seen old cartoons, you will notice characters might press
the same series of buttons over and over or their legs might move the same way
when they run; similarly, Nina has the same reaction of scowling and stepping
back when something happens. It's a little odd. The other characters are decent-looking,
although some robots look a bit silly and I did feel bad beating up Benicio Del
Toro. Nevertheless, they are about on par with the environments: serviceable,
aside from some first-person segments that reminded me of King's Field
in their roughness. What is unexplainable is the significant amount of loading.
Like Resident Evil's door-opening sequence used to buffer loading, Death
by Degrees has Nina look around and push a door open, which is really just
to introduce a loading screen. This feels pointless since there is already too
much time spent sitting around, doing nothing. In fact, there are loading screens
for loading screens: after waiting for about ten seconds, the graphic for loading
vanishes, only for the game to wait a second and pop up another one. In some of
the story segments, the game will load three or more times, which, needless to
say, breaks up the events way too much. There is even loading for menu items,
which can make scrolling through the inventory way more time-consuming than it
should be.
One reccurring problem in the game is that if you encounter
a portion that makes you think, "Whew, I hope I don't have to do that again,"
you will. Such segments include having to look after dense NPCs; swimming with
limited oxygen in environments that meld together; crawl through tunnels similarly
cumbersome to navigate; and having to put up with good ideas that have been ruined.
One boss battle included fighting on a decrepit bridge that fell apart during
combat, which is a good idea. The only problem was that Nina seemed to forget
that she could grab onto ledges and that falling to her death isn't a good thing.
With some save points being half an hour apart - while others are literally five
minutes apart - repeating a particularly harrowing portion, complete with all
the load times, is really not something I was fond of doing. At least the weapons
were fun to use: nothing like dual-wielding katanas and railing away at bosses
with machine guns to even things out. A sniper game is also unlocked when the
game is completed. Oh, and it boots up - I'll ignore the time it froze on one
puzzle. Overall: 2.5/10
While
there are games that have had worse controls, camera system, graphics, story,
puzzles, level design, and the like, most tend to do the rest fairly well, but
not Death by Degrees. The experience is tedious and certainly not worth
the effort. The biggest problem I had with Death by Degrees is that I just
didn't have fun: the brief moments that were somewhat enjoyable were dwarfed by
half-hours of boredom, backtracking, and aggravation.
If you really want to bust some heads as Nina, spend your money on Tekken 5
instead.
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