Death by Degrees has been designed as an odd hybrid of Resident Evil style game structure (think fixed camera angles, plus lots of hallways and item/key puzzles) interspersed with all-analog fighting ą la Rise to Honor. I think this basic foundation is where the developers went wrong. The survival horror genre was conceived to build tension. All the running around you do in Resident Evil titles is actually helps to create a mood of foreboding. Here, there's none of that. For this reason, all the wandering seems like filler. This tedium is not helped by the inexcusably long loading times. In addition, the fixed camera scheme isn't well-suited to all-out brawling either, as sometimes you'll be pushed into an area of a room where you can't see your opponent.

I actually had fun using the analog control to effortlessly string together combos. Even cooler are Nina's finishing moves, where the screen goes to an x-ray view of your prey that allows you to select just which part of his torso you're going to crush.