how could hell be any worse?
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 remarkable feature is the ability to allow Nina to use her 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.
Once the game is completed, "Anna Mode" will be unlocked, offering the player the ability to play as Nina's younger sibling, Anna. Various outfits can be unlocked throughout the game, which include a bikini, cocktail dress, purple jumpsuit, black and silver stealth suit. Playing the game a second time causes LCD crates throughout the game to contain infinite supplies of certain weapons, such as infinite katana and infinite rail-gun. After completing the game twice, the wrestling costume as seen in the opening FMV is also unlocked. A third clear game file additionally unlocks "Tekken 2 Nina", which instead of an outfit is actually a different facial and bodily construction, exactly as she appears in the Tekken title, in low resolution.
[edit] Reception
Death by Degrees received mixed reviews.[1] Critics generally found fault with the difficult camera angles, the extensive loading times, and the system control, which limited all fighting sequences to use of the analog stick.
[edit] Crossovers with Tekken
* Enrique Ortega hires the Tekken Force to protect him at the Kometa research facility. When Nina reaches him, she interrupts a video uplink with Heihachi Mishima, who recognizes her as the world's greatest sweeper.
* Anna Williams is a member of the Tekken Force in the game, hired by Heihachi Mishima.
* In the locker room on the Kometa ship, there is a poster of Julia Chang. In the prison, there is magazine showing the cover of Ling Xiaoyu. Other posters on the Kometa Island research facility show an army enlistment advertisement featuring a "Jack" robot, as well as an image of Kazuya Mishima.
* Flashbacks show the death of Nina and Anna's father, Richard Williams, who apparently died protecting a young Nina. He is shown grudgingly allowing Anna to be taken, though fights when they attempt to kidnap Nina. As he struggles with the guards, he shouts for Nina to grab a gun. Her hesitation results in his execution. This appears to show the root of Anna and Nina's rivalry and hatred as seen in the Tekken series. However, there is a lack of continuity as Richard was said to have died after the events of Tekken 1 (i.e. after the events of Death by Degrees when Nina and Anna were adults). Because Nina sees her father get shot, she could not possibly blame Anna for his death. Heihachi Mishima is apparently available as an alternative costume for anna in anna mode if the player chooses to defeat Heihachi instead of anna a second time around.