Death by Degrees

Death By Degrees
Platforms	PlayStation 2
Release Date	Playstation 2 JPN January 27, 2005 NA February 8, 2005 EUR April 15, 2005
Arcade System	N/A
Genre	Action-adventure, beat 'em up
Game modes	Single-player
Predecessor	Tekken 5
Followed By	Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
Official site	http://www.bandainamcogames.co.jp/cs/list/death-by-degrees/

Death by Degrees, also titled as Tekken's Nina Williams in: Death by Degrees, is an action/adventure video game and spin-off from the popular Tekken series. The title was released on the Sony PlayStation 2 by Namco in 2005. The game was received with mixed reviews.

Story

Death by Degrees' box art.

Nina Williams is assigned a mission that is a joint operation between the CIA and MI6. Their team consists of two "sneakers" (Alan Smithee and John Doe) and one "sweeper" (Nina).

Their mission is to infiltrate the Amphitrite, a Glafeera corporation cruise ship, and execute a video recon of a meeting held by high-ranking members of a certain organization. Nina is assigned to enter the underground fighting tournament being held on board the ship, and later she is ordered to hide and await further instuctions. They are supposed to rendezvous and leave the ship once their mission is completed.

After Nina wins the fighting tournament, the scene switches to the ship's swimming pool, where Nina is seen swimming. She later decides to take a rest but is forced to fight some of Kometa's executives. She begins to fight them, when Lana Lei, who is a Kometa executive, Enrique Ortega, who is another one of Kometa's executives, Bryce Adams, who is a Kometa "Commander" ("A2") rank and Lana's bodyguard, and some others interrupt them. Bryce shoots the people fighting Nina. Nina is locked in a room on the ship. Nina manages to escape, and she is assigned to locate John Doe and his GPS device.

Eventually, Nina finds John's dead body in a freezer room. John, now dead, does not seem to have the GPS device. Nina contacts Alan and informs him of John's death. After encountering Bryce for the seconds time, she engages in combat and defeats him. She later pursuits Bryce until they fight once again in an arena "especially designed for public execution". Bryce is once again defeated and badly wounded by the spikes in the arena, which later kills him due to blood loss.

Later on, on their first close encounter, Alan gives Nina a "Stingray", a small device that can be used to enter places that Nina can't (Alan later informs her about the use of the device after Nina enters Lana's room). Nina later uses the Stingray to record the meeting held by the Kometa executives (excluding Edgar Grant, the man which killed John). Later, Nina sends the data to HQ via a laptop set by John.

Afterwards, Nina and Alan try to leave the ship. Before Nina can get on the helicopter, Lana attacks her with a dart. Then, the two go to a snowy place where a plane has apparently crashed. Nina must defeat her. After Nina wins, the two go back to the ship. Hurt and weary after her victory, Nina manages to make it onto the helicopter. She passes out, and Enrique, who is also on the helicopter, asks, "Who is this woman?"

Nina awakens at a penitentiary, where some men are shocking her with electricity. They do this until she is presumably knocked unconscious. Nina awakens shortly after this, and she escapes the cell.

Later, Nina is informed that she must locate Lukas Hayes, who is responsible for Salacia's carnage. Lukas should be locked in a cell, as she's informed. Nina finds Lukas, and he tells her that she needs Enrique Ortega's fingerprint to open his cell.

A while later, Nina finds Enrique talking to Heihachi Mishima. Nina goes behind Enrique, and Heihachi informs Enrique of her presence. Heihachi says that he'll take her (Heihachi previously said that he had no interest in Salacia, which he called a "silly weapon"). Enrique says that he can have her, but he adds, "As a corpse, that is!", after they finish their conversation. Then, Nina and Enrique fight.

After Nina wins, Anna Williams attacks her, and the two (Enrique and Anna) escape. Nina gets his fingerprint by taking some parts of his fingerprint from his scabbard and his sword, which he left behind. Nina frees Lukas. Lukas informs Nina, who is interrogating him, that if the Kometa executives get Salacia, it'll mean the end of the world. Lukas also informs Nina that his (Lukas') prints won't work, and she will have to restore them from the roof.

After Nina restores his prints, they go to an elevator that requires two people with working fingerprints to work. They use it, and, after Nina deactivates the electricity of a door leading to an old bridge, they go through the door. Lukas warns Nina that the bridge is pretty old, so she should watch her step.

After Lukas opens the door on the other side, he finds Anna. Anna kicks him through the bridge, and then she challenges Nina to a fight. After Nina wins, a robot, Type J, is shown watching them fight. It jumps down on the bridge, and it falls through. Anna falls through with it, but Nina manages to stay on the bridge. It is revealed that Lukas survived the fall because he got caught in ropes that saved his life. Anna falls on him, and they both land on some sandbags. Anna runs away. Type J lands on the ground, now targeting Lukas.

Lukas contacts Nina, and says that he's being chased by something, and that she needs to use the surveillance cameras to check his position and guide him to safety. Nina successfully does this. Type J rammed through the boards that were blocking the exit while Lukas was trying to pry them open with a crowbar that he found. Lukas goes through the exit, but a bunch of boulders block the exit for Type J).

Lukas and Nina go through the hatch to the underground facility (Nina uses the crowbar to pry the hatch open). A while later, Lukas informs Nina about methane hydrate and Salacia, which is the name of the satellite. A short while after purifying the air (the facility was quarantined due to chemical contamination), Nina encounters Type J, and Enrique captures Lukas. Nina must fight Type J. A while into the fight, Alan, who had snuck onto the penitentiary, shows up and activates a device.

After Type J is defeated, Alan uses the device and hits Type J with a beam that almost disables it. It falls to the ground, where Enrique is holding Lukas hostage. Alan and Nina go after them, but Enrique pulls Lukas into a room where the doors are bulletproof (as shown when Alan tries and fails to shoot through the glass doors). Suddenly, Type J comes back to life. It is now barely functional. It rams through the doors, pushing Enrique out of the room. Lukas escapes by using a secret exit. Nina prepares to fight Enrique. Enrique says that she should worry about Type J instead. Nina is still challenging Enrique to a fight. Enrique pulls out two daggers, and they begin to fight.

After Nina wins, Enrique dies. A cutscene shows that, after he goes through the secret exit, Lukas meets Lana and some of her henchmen. One of the henchmen shoots Lukas. Nina goes after Lukas, and she discovers that Lukas is dead. She discovers Alan next to Lukas' corpse, which is hung from chains. Alan remarks that they are too late. After discovering that the Kometa members and executives are heading back to the ship, they prepare to go back, as well.

Alan gets the helicopter (Nina was protecting him by shooting the enemies with a sniper), and then he picks up Nina. Some men try to shoot them down to prevent them from leaving, but they are unsuccessful. Anna is shown angrily watching them leave. Nina changes into another outfit as Alan tells her that they are going to recover Salacia. Lana Lei is their target. Alan will make his entry via the stern side deck. He wishes Nina good luck. The helicopter is shot down by CIWS on the Amphitrite. Nina jumps out and manages to get inside the ship. The helicopter, and Alan, go down into the water.

Nina tries to contact Alan, but she fails. Nina is ambushed by Rippers, cyborg soldiers created by Lana Lei. Nina defeats them, and venturing further into the ship, she obtains an IC key with the letter "J" inscribed on it and a journal about it. Nina also had to use a card to get into color-coded areas (blue, yellow, and red) by upgrading it throughout the game. Her next objective in mind, Nina goes after the three J Robots.

After defeating them all and getting all of the chess pieces, Nina heads to the captain's room. After getting there, she places the pieces in the chess board. This reveals a hidden room. Nina enters that room, and she finds Bryce's corpse laying on a bed covered in roses. She also finds Salacia's controls. Before she can grab it, Lana scratches her hand with bladed fingertips. Lana laughs. They go to a snowy place where a plane has apparently crashed (the same place that they fought the first time).

After Nina defeats her, they go back to the Amphitrite. Alan enters the room and shoots Lana a few times. Lana says, "Edgar?..." during this. Nina realizes that Alan is Edgar Grant, the man responsible for the deaths of John Doe and Lukas Hayes. She also learns that he is a sweeper. Alan / Edgar reveals that he plans to destroy the ship to avoid publicity. Suddenly, Lana gets up and shoots him. Alan / Edgar is supposedly dead. Lana runs away, grabbing Salacia's controls as she goes. She goes to a higher floor by using an elevator. Nina follows her.

Nina realizes that Lana has now started Salacia's activation. Nina states, "She's insane!" Lana shoots at her, but Nina dodges the bullets. Lana is shown laughing and bleeding to death. Lana takes Nina to a different place again. They are now at a snowy place filled with a lot of broken stone statues.

After Nina wins, they go back to the Amphitrite. Lana falls and presumably dies. Nina now focuses on stopping Salacia. Nina uses Lukas' pocket watch and a manual written by Lukas to stop Salacia. Salacia explodes. It is no longer a threat. However, the Amphitrite has started a self-destruct sequence. Lana, who is barely alive and on the floor, says, "It's him..." likely referring to Edgar. Nina begins to escape, starting with exchanging her yellow card for a red one so that she can access certain areas. There is an optional "quest" so to speak to check on Edgar's body. If you go to the room where he supposedly died, his body is gone. In addition, there is a blood trailing leading to where the deep sea submarine should be but isn't. It is likely he took the sub to make his escape. Nina then contines to find her way out of the facility.

Nina goes to the escape pod, while fighting Lana's robots. Nina makes it. She gets in, and the pod is launched. Nina is knocked out of it a short while after. She lands on the side of the ship. A helicopter with a deployed ladder appears. Before she can grab the ladder, Anna appears and kicks her. Anna challenges her to a fight. Nina accepts.

After Nina wins, Anna almost falls to her death. Nina grabs her hand, and she remembers when they were children, and Anna comforted her when Richard Williams and the others were killed by gunfire. They were killed by gunfire after their plane crashed in a snowy area. This is the place where Lana must be fought the first two times. This is also where the "Reminiscence" movies take place. Remembering this, Nina saves Anna. They almost fall due to an explosion, but Anna jumps and grabs the helicopter's ladder while holding one of Nina's hands. After a while, they notice a group of boats. Anna lets go of Nina's hand and says, "Now we're even, sis." Nina lands in the water. The boats approach Nina. Nina watches Anna leave on the helicopter. Nina smiles.

Alan's / Edgar's words, "With any luck, we won't need your help. But if the time comes, we'll be counting on you... sweeper." are heard. Then, some scenes of Nina are shown with the credits following soon after.

Gameplay

Nina fighting some of the Amphitrite guards.

The game is fully controlled by the analog sticks. The left analog stick is touch-sensitive; through various degrees of holding, tapping or pressing along with other buttons allows Nina to walk, run or evade. The right analog stick is used for offensive moves.

The game's most unique feature is the ability to allow Nina to use her devastating martial arts skills to break the bones of her enemies through use of carefully aimed attacks. These attacks do more damage to the enemy and show the player the damage being inflicted on the opponent's skeletal structure. Strangely, this does little to actually disable opponents, as they often continue to use limbs that have been literally shattered, as well as survive blows to the head that would cause the skull to practically explode, without even losing consciousness. Nina can use many varieties of weapons, such as guns, swords, knives, tonfas, poisons, and even the Manji Clan Sword (a name given to Yoshimitsu's sword exclusively for this game).

Bosses / Antagonists

• Bryce Adams
• Lana Lei
• Enrique Ortega
• Anna Williams
• Type J
• J Robots
• Rippers
• Edgar Grant (Nina does not actually fight Edgar.)
• Heihachi Mishima

Other Characters

• Alan Smithee
• John Doe
• Lukas Hayes
• Richard Williams

Outfits

Various outfits can be unlocked throughout the game:

• Swimwear: A white bikini. This outfit is first seen at the beginning of the game. Nina wears this outfit during the "Tutorial" part of the game.
• Cocktail Dress: A blue outfit with stockings. This outfit is obtained when you are locked in a room on the Amphitrite. You are given this outfit by a male character on the Amphitrite.
• Infiltration Suit: A purple jumpsuit that resembles various outfits worn by Nina in the Tekken games. This outfit is obtained when Nina finds it in Lana Lei's closet on the Amphitrite.
• Tekken Force Battle Suit: A black, silver, and blue outfit. This outfit is first obtained when Nina and Alan leave the Solitaria Penitentiary by helicopter and head back to the Amphitrite. Alan gives Nina this outfit.
• Wrestling Outfit: The pink and silver outfit that Nina first wears in the fighting tournament at the beginning of the game. It is an unlockable outfit. The player must play through Death By Degrees two times to unlock it.
• Tekken 2 Character Model: An unlockable outfit. It is Nina's Tekken 2 character model.

Trivia

• 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.
• The names "Amphitrite" (the Kometa cruise ship) and Salacia (the satellite) are taken from Greek and Roman mythology, respectively. Additionally, a part of a puzzle in the game involves playing the word "Orpheus" on a piano ("The gates to Hades shall open for Orpheus.").
• There are various posters of other Tekken Characters, such as Jack-5 and Julia Chang.
• MI6 and the CIA, whom Nina receives her mission from, are real life organizations.
• It comes with the demo version of Tekken 5, where Raven and Asuka Kazama are the only playable characters.
• The game is not canon in the Tekken universe.
• Nina's 'Wrestling Outfit' in this game is unlockable in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 as an alternate costume for Nina.

See also

• Death by Degrees/Gallery
• The "Death by Degrees" category