Tekken Nina Williams: Death By Degrees

Eat your heart out, Snake!

The Game
Nina Williams, the femme fatale from Namco’s Tekken series stars in her own spin-off game here, in what I believe is a prequel before Tekken takes place.
The game starts off on a big cruise ship, as Nina infiltrates an underground fighting tournament as part of a covert operation of the CIA and MI6 along with two other agents. Things get screwed up and it’s up to Nina, along with some help from MI6 agent Adam, to save the world from a terrorist organization who plan on using the power of the Bermuda Triangle to hold the world for ransom!

Gameplay
Depending on how you look at it, the controls are either easy or complex. You use one analog stick to move Nina around, and the other is for attacks. Tap the analog stick in the direction of the enemy to strike at them. Meaning you can strike all eight sides around you. There are also hand weapons and firearms you can pick up and use depending on the number of weapon holsters you carry.
The more hits you chain together without being hit yourself when engaging the enemy will yield big skills points, which not only levels up Nina, but can be used to buy new attack techniques you can use to disable the enemy.
And lets not forget the hype about the targeting system where you can target specific areas of an enemy’s body to immobilize them more quickly.
What makes the controls complicated is that while Nina has a ton of moves in her arsenal, you won’t really find yourself using most of them, like backflips, cartwheels and wall running as there really isn’t any place to use them effectively. There just there to look fancy.
Of course let's not forget about the targeting system that was hyped from when beginning when the game was announced. You can charge 3 special meter bars and use them to attack specific bodyparts of your opponent to immobilize them. Really handy for taking on bosses and tougher enemies. This is was first used in the Giant Gram games if I'm not mistaken where an injured body part would be flashed accross the screen so you know they are ready to be finished, and a similar system was first introduced in the Jet Li movie, Romeo Must Die :)
There are even a few mini games to get past. Like solving puzzle boxes to unlock weapons and powerups, and certain missions where you have to play a first person sniper game to keep your partner covered from enemy fire while he completes an objective. Beating the game unlocks these modes for play at the start to test your skills.

Graphics & Sound
Easy to say that the graphics in the game are just excellent! Everything looks good and detailed, and of course Nina herself is very easy on the eyes. And YES, for those of you who were wondering, there are “breast physics” in the game as well as several outfits Nina switches through as the game progresses. Beat the game, and you can unlock additional outfits that Nina can switch through freely at the start of the next game. Another nice touch is that Nina’s outfits get torn and ripped from battle as you play through the game!

The CG movie sequences are also some of the best I’ve ever seen, though I do wish they were a longer.
The audio is also a very well done musical score and the music fits the situation. From great orchestra music to the heavy metal tracks, it’s a good listen to and adds to the atmosphere of the game.
Even the voice acting in the game is nicely done. All the voices were done well and matched their characters, so there’s no big disappointment here either

Miscellaneous
The one real complaint I have about this game is the horrible camera angles. It gets really irritating, especially during fights. It’s bad enough the camera suddenly switches angles in the middle of a combo that your left wide open to take a shot from behind, but the camera spinning around the screen as it tries to lock in on you during boss fights can make the task harder than it actually is! An option to lock the camera into 3rd person view would really have been appreciated, and hopefully that’s what NAMCO will fix should they make a sequel.

Overall
Despite some minor control and camera problems, Death By Degrees could be a serious contender if Namco decide to pursue and further the series. Definately worth checking out, but don't set your expectations too high.
This is one of the few games I've played so far that I've wanted to finish without stopping half-way to try something else though. And I recommend checking it out for yourself.

Ratings:
Graphics – 8
Sound – 8
Gameplay – 7
Lifespan – 7
Overall – 7