Nina Williams: Death By Degrees

[haohmaru]

I'd buy Kasumi.

[Tracer]

I'd buy Kasumi.

IAWTP

[Lyte Edge]

Ninja Gaiden IS a DOA spin-off, since Itagaki took the character and gave him an original story not relating to the original games in any way AFAIK.

I'm still going to give DBD a shot, but unfortunately I'm not too thrilled with the idea of Resident Evil turning. I've bought most games outright lately but may rent this one first.

I would definitely rent DbD over purchasing it. I'm currently seven hours in, and have gotten used to how everything works. IMO the game wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the Resident Evil-style "fixed" camera angles found throughout the game. Most of the time, this doesn't get in the way when fighting, but when it does...

The game play is actually pretty nice, though. I do have a problem with the analog sticks being used for double tap motions, which can make rolling (needed to avoid gunfire) a pain, but overall it works better than I expected it to. There's no RE turning to be found, BTW. Nina moves quickly, and since you can attack in any direction no matter which way you are facing, it's never a problem anyway.

I'd describe DbD as a Resident Evil clone with a combination of Tekken Force and Rise To Honor for the game play set-up; it feels more like a BEU with adventure elements than an adventure game with BEU elements to me. I would have preferred a straight-out BEU game over anything remotely resembling a RE game, as a matter of fact.

Loved the "Time Crisis" sniping section.

[Do You Like Erotic?]

There's nothing wrong with spin-off games. That's not the issue. The issue is that the game is supposed to be somewhat poor.

If the game was excellent, this wouldn't even be an issue. The fact is, the main reason Nina was picked is because she is the most versatile and action oriented in terms of storyline. Most of the characters in Tekken are exclusively martial artists, save for Lei Wulong and Anna Williams, as previously mentioned. Nina is a freaking assassin, she's a weapons expert and she's got a sister who is in the same boat.

It checks out enough to merit its own spin-off game, just as much as Ryu Hayabusa's game did. The difference is that Ryu Hayabusa's game, aside from a few issues, plays like greased lightning. This doesn't.

So basically what I'm saying is, don't confuse the issue. Don't use Nina's 'generic' character as a strike against her, because with a storyline to fill her out, like the kind you'd find in a game like this, that point is moot too. Place the blame solely where it lies, on the game sucking.

If a Guncon game with Lei Wulong sucked, which it undoubtedly would outside of arcades, it'd be the same thing. And the idea of a guncon game that switches between fighting and guncon is far too tricky to pull off effectively. What are you going to do, swith contollers in transition?

[Dipstick]

Finally finished this game, and I want those twelve hours back. Sometimes I wonder if I play games because I secretly despise myself.

It must be said that the camera blows massive amounts of ass. People rag on RE's control setup, but with the fixed cameras the game uses that control scheme works more consistently than this. Since the directions are absolute, if you cross a camera change plane in the world, the directions your attacks go change with it. So if you get surrounded by enemies next to one of these borders, you are more or less guaranteed to take damage. The only way this is not massively frustrating is that the amount of health items enemies drop is proportional to the amount you have on hand (the less you have the more you get), and the fact that you do not have to be exactly precise or complicated with your attacks (you can finish the entire game with just your basic attacks, and I never could learn how to properly throw people. Heh.)

Then there is some cheezy damage the game hands you, where you walk into a couple rooms and get assaulted by a squad of ninjas before the screen fades in. This may be 'realistic' (or plausable, anyway), but damn is it frustrating.

What I love is how enemies can block your attacks all day but you can't passively block shit. For normal grunts this is a non-issue (you can throw them, and the ones you can not throw can not block either) but bosses will abuse the shit out of this since you can not throw them. At least you can parry attacks (which feels really natural, actually -- suprised at how well it works).

The sniping is done really well, though. Actually feels like it could be part of a decent console FPS. Even has the Time Crisis-style hide/reload command (not nearly as reflexive, though).

I also must emphasise how Nina looks like someone woke her up that morning by beating her face with a crowbar. What the fuck happened?

Ulitmately, this is a game that could have ended up as something really good given another six months of development. Alas, we have a game whose production values are all over the place. Decent graphics (expecially the CG, the movies look damn good), but repetetive and annoying as hell music; controls that sometimes feel really fine tuned and excessively sloppy (the camera!!); parts of the game that are filled with interesting sequences intersperced with dead air (yeah, go across the ship to access a computer terminal because we have nothing better to do... bleh), and the storyline is completely nonsensical (Earth is at the mercy of a giant gas attack!!! From the bottom of the ocean!!! And the red button is controlled by a crazy Chinese bitch!!! I wish I was making this up.)

As an aside, Tecmo would have my interest instantly if they made a DoA spinoff game with Kasumi or Hitomi (even if it was something inane like a cooking sim, dating sim, or a cooking-dating-rape sim...)

-Dippy

[Korly]

Was there any storyline stuff related to Tekken? Or could you not tell since this is the Japanese version?

[Lyte Edge]

Was there any storyline stuff related to Tekken? Or could you not tell since this is the Japanese version?

All the story sequences are in English.

[Dolemite]

Like Tekken's story makes any sense half of the time?

I was interested in this, as I always thought Nina was a cool character, but this just sounds all kinds of bad. Thanks for the impressions, Dipstick.

[Diff-chan]

So I guess Mortal Kombat: Special Forces remains the best fighting game spinoff ever.



Oh yea.

[Will]

So I guess Mortal Kombat: Special Forces remains the best fighting game spinoff ever.



Oh yea.