| Funky Fly |
10-01-2004 08:28 PM |
So I picked up Def Jam: Fight For New York last night
And it is hottttttttttttttttt shit. :drool:
Controls - The new control system is way different since it now features a kick and punch button, instead of just one attack button. Since a lot of areas have crowds instead of a ring (ring is still in the game, btw), the climb in/out button is gone. My one gripe with the controls is that they did away with the classic "hold button to do strong attack/grapple" part of AKI Corp's engine and replaced it with "hold L and press button to do do strong attack/grapple", which makes strong attacks and grapples less frequent. I like how the game features a quick tutorial about how the controls work because the manual doesn't really tell you shit (it's a whopping 13 pages long). Rating: 7.5/10
Graphics - The graphics are better than Vendetta's and the customization is unbelievable. The people look a lot more like their real life counter parts thanbefore. However, when you are first creating you character, there isn't really much change in the facial features once he' done. There are literally thousands of real designer label items for sale at Snowman's shop (yeah, Snowman from the last game got cut from D-Mob's team). And to add to the flexibility of the clothing there are several options (eg. you can choose 5 or 6 colors of a particular brand of jean, and then choose whether to wear it with a round buckle, a square one, with one leg or the other up, with both legs up, hanging low, with one ankle creased, or a combination of them). And the beauty of it is that it's not just a waste of game space: the clothes you wear, the jewels you rock, the haircut and beard style you sport and the tatoos you have add to you charisma rating (IE. how fast you build a special), since it's the only aspect of your character that can't be built up in the gym.
Manny from the last game has a new voice and a new role: tatoo artist. You can put them on various places on your body and they come in 3 stages that get more expensive as you increase the level. A lot of them are unlocked by playing through the game just like the clothes. Stingray's Barbershop is the place to get your hair and facial hair changed and Jacob The Jeweler (the real guy) sells you bling.
At the end of a fight, it's awesome how damage you take shows up on your face with bruises if it's a little and blood if it's a lot. The environments look pretty nice, although the crowds are ever so slightly shitty looking. That's forgiveable though because there are like 50 people in the room in addition to the fighters. I like how objects stay when something gets broken over the other guy's head and how environments take damage when you slam someone into it. Rating: 9/10
Sound - The soundtrack has 20 tracks and, like in the last game, you get the full track in the menus and the instrumental during matches. This time around you get 10 tracks right off the bat (8 of them are hott, but I can't stand the Busta Rhymes and Shawnna tracks) and you have to unlock the other 10 by defeating the artist who performed them. I haven't played much more than 2 hours, so I've only unlocked 1 new track, but it's an old favourite of mine. :love: Thankfully, you can turn off tracks you don't like, unlike in Vendetta. All of the people in the game have voices and have more than one intro/outro. Even the sketch artist and the people from the shopping district (Snowman, Manny etc) have things to say. The main character (who isn't Mr. Strong, Silent Type anymore) has plenty to say; I've heard 4 intros and 3 outros so far, my favourite of which is "You just got OWNED, bitch!" The guest voices all did fantastic work, whether it's Danny Trejo, Henry Rollins, Omar Epps or any of the rappers. Another nice thing about the sound is that not all of your messages are emails: you get some voice mail as well.
Rating: 9.5/10
Action - In the Last Def Jam game, environment interactivity was slamming the guy's face into the barrier while a random crowd member yells "hit him again". This time, it's a little more like giving a guy an over head belly to belly suplex face first into a wooden post, while the crowd unanimously goes "OHHHH! :eek: " There are lots of things to slam people into, and if you do it just right you can knock a nigga out that way (I've done it with the aforementioned suplex as well as tossing someone head first into a jukebox, obliterating it in the process). Tossing people into crowds is great. Some times, they will work like ring ropesand toss him back, other times they'll cold cock him with a bottle and other times they'll hold him so you can either punch the shit out out of him or pull off a ridiculously sick double team move. The crowd sometimes pull out weapons that you can take and use to KO the other guy.
The light strike combos from last game are much improved this time. They reflect your skill type and connect a lot better. I like how they now have mixed strikes thrown in and an automatic hard attack added to the end. I started off as a kickboxer and my combos are pretty deadly (kickboxers can KO you with a combo finisher as well as a sudden uber-powerful strike that seems to come from nowhere).
The 5 styles are pretty different. You have to change up your strategy depending on what style (or combination of styles) is being used or defended against. OE (kickboxing/martial arts) is wayyyyy different from Trejo (streetfighting/wrestling), for example. OE will counter your attack and then combo the living fuck out of you and then slam you into the environment for the win, whereas Trejo will bumrush you as soon as the match starts, use lots of powerbomds and piledrivers, use the crowd a lot, all before finishing you with a haymaker punch. It's good that some people have pure styles and other have 2 or even 3 styles, makes for a good mix of styles. When you save up enough development points (awarded separately from cash), you can buy a second or third style.
The Blazin' moves are still crazy as hell. The difference is that now you get 4 instead of 2 for your created guy. Most actual characters only have 1 from what I've seen, but that's ok, because there are a lot of hot new ones in addition to the old ones that got recycled. Once you beat a guy you can buy his move in Henry Rollins' gym and add it to your arsenal (when Blazn', you can use a different move by flicking the stick up, down, left or right).
Rating: 9/10
Multiplayer - Can't really speak on it much since my cousin only ever wants to play NBA Street 2, but the the 2 on 2 features are no longer tag only. They are now tornado only, which is fine by me. I didn't really like having no choice but to take the fight outside the ring to do double teams and stuff last time. I can say that double team moves are now also potential knockout moves. When I get a group of people together for this, I'm sure it will be crazy as hell. Because the last one was, despite the forced tagging problem.
Rating: 9/10
Fun Factor - This game is plenty of fun, and I've just barely started playing. It's still kind of a wrestling game, but it has some great new innovatons that make it a fighter (except for the L button thing, that shit can get frustrating). The removal of pins ensures that someone will be someone else's bitch at the end of the fight. The game is kinda frustrating at first if you are expecting the controls to be a lot more like Vendetta, but overall I'd say it's a better game. Rating: 9/10
Overall rating 8.83/10
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