Developer: Namco

Publisher: Namco

Producer: Katsuhiro Harada

Platform: PlayStation 2

Release date: JP January 27, 2005 NA February 8, 2005 EU April 15, 2005

Genre: Action-adventure, Beat 'em up

Mode: Single-player

Death by Degrees is an action-adventure video game, devoloped by Namco. It is initially a spin-off from the Tekken series of fighting games starring Nina Williams. Originally announced with the title "Nina", its eventual title was chosen as a reference to its multiple-degree fighting system, the game was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2005.

The game received mixed reviews by critics, but found more acceptance among fans of the Tekken series.

PlotEdit

Nina Williams, world-renowned assassin, has been hired by the CIA and MI6 to join a team which is attempting to infiltrate "Kometa," a notorious criminal organization. The team's strategy involves gaining access to the target through a fighting tournament being held on the "Amphitrite," a luxury cruise ship owned and operated by Kometa. A leaked video on the Internet showed a Kometa ship exploding within the Bermuda Triangle, and it is feared that they are working on some kind of superweapon in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. Nina's official cover involves infiltration as a competitor in the tournament. However, Nina is also the team's "sweeper"; should her partners fail, she must finish the job. Nina enters the competition, but is quickly discovered and captured. She soon receives a communication informing her of the team's failure and the death of one of the agents named John Doe (killed by Kometa executive Edgar Grant), and that she must now conduct the operation herself. Nina must fight her way through Kometa's forces and expose the truth behind its criminal activities. As she progresses in her mission, Nina fights the Kometa's top executives, starting with the personal bodyguard and lover of Lana Lei, Bryce. She then moves on to photograph a meeting of the directors, with the help of MI6 agent Alan Smithee.

Nina barely escapes the cruise ship with her life, and is taken to a Kometa Island research facility. Here, she encounters Lukas Hayes, a scientist who informs her about Kometa's plan to use satellites to heat and activate methane hydrate on the ocean floor. The result is bubbling which causes ships to lose their buoyancy. The weapon thus has the power to destroy naval vehicles from afar, sinking them to the bottom of the sea. Hayes' plan was to find a new energy source and alternative to fossil fuels, but his research was twisted into a form of warfare. The project is Salacia, the mysterious operation CIA and MI6 have heard rumors of. Nina realizes that she must stop the project, and takes on the second Kometa executive, Enrique Ortega. However, he is joined by Anna Williams (Nina's sister), hired along with the Tekken Force as bodyguards. After briefly engaging in combat with Anna, Nina continues on her mission and manages to kill Enrique. Lukas Hayes, however, is also killed as Lana Lei arrives and recovers a case which houses the electronics to operate Salacia's satellites. With Alan's help, Nina escapes the compound by helicopter, chasing Lana Lei back to the luxury cruise ship.

For a second time, Nina must fight her way through the Kometa boat, only this time against advanced cyborg soldiers, another of Lei's weapons projects. After recovering the keys to her quarters, Nina finds Salacia and engages with Lana. After her defeat, they are interrupted by Alan, who is revealed as Kometa executive Edgar Grant. Shooting Lana, he acknowledges that he is also a sweeper, there to destroy all evidence of his part in the atrocities. Before he can kill Nina, however, Lana shoots him dead, and escapes to a secret room. There, Nina witnesses her powering Salacia, targeting methane hydrate pockets all around the United States coastline. Nina finishes Lana off before she can continue with her insane plan, and makes her way to an escape pod as a self-destruct mode is activated on the boat. Her pod, however, explodes, and Nina lands on the ship's edge. As a rescue helicopter comes for her, she is knocked down by none other than Anna Williams. The two sisters face off as the ship nears destruction, and almost both fall to their deaths. However, the two grudgingly work together to escape and grab the helicopter rope line, with Nina having a flashback to the events prior to her father's death, in particular the moments following when the two sisters comforted one another. Anna drops Nina into the ocean after saying that they are now even. Nina watches on as rescue boats approach from behind her, the Kometa ship exploding and sinking, as Anna leaves on the helicopter.

TriviaEdit

• Death by Degrees is not canon in the Tekken universe.
• Once the game is completed, "Anna Mode" will be unlocked, offering the player the ability to play as Nina's younger sibling, Anna.
• Other unlockables include the Garment Bag, Challenge Mode, Sniper Mode, Stingray Mode, Honeycomb Mode, Music Player and Movie Player.
• When first rumored to be in the works, the game was tentatively titled Nina. However, when more information eventually came to light, it was renamed Death by Degrees, a reference to its multiple-degree fighting system.
• Ling Xiaoyu is on the cover of a magazine in the prison.
• There are various posters of other Tekken characters within the game's environments, such as Jack-5 and Julia Chang.
• Death by Degrees includes a demo version of Tekken 5 where Raven is the only playable character and Asuka Kazama is the CPU.
• In Tekken 6, the personalization of Nina, it got the outfit of this game.

GalleryEdit

Death By Degrees Logo (Dark Version)

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See AlsoEdit