IGN revieuw van Deathrow

IGN review van Deathrow

October 18, 2002 - Let's get something straight from the get-go -- Deathrow has nothing to do with prison life or a record label. What is Deathrow? That's a tough one, because the game's difficult to define. A futuristic competitive smack-down match with the essence of a Midway sports title but the attitude and ferocity of the most brutal of fighters, SouthEnd's Deathrow from Ubi Soft is a unique title that is a blast to play. This is a vision of the sports future, where rabid crowds gather around massive public viewing screens to watch tough-as-nails competitors beat each other to a bloody pulp while trying to get a glowing disk through a hoop. With non-stop fast-paced action, an endless stream of curse words, and some fantastic arenas, Deathrow manages to be one of the best sports and fighting games on Xbox.

Features

• Unique sport of the future
• Violent, filled with foul language, and you can give folks the finger
• 18 teams, 150 players, and 32 arenas -- yowsa!
• System link allows you to connect up to eight systems for a massive gameplay experience
• Adjust your strategy on the fly
• Deep career mode unique to each team
• Customizable soundtracks
• 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Only on Xbox

Gameplay

The game of the future is not actually called Deathrow, as the game title might lead you to believe. It's actually called Blitz. Broadcast by Blitz Television, massive crowds gather to watch their favorite teams go at each other. The rules of Blitz are pretty simple:

• Each match lasts four rounds
• There are four players to a team
• Substitutions can be made in between rounds
• Points are earned by throwing the Blitz disc through an opponents goal (a hoop situated about eight feet above the ground)
• The team with the most points at the end of the fourth round wins
• There is no overtime -- The challenger loses to a tie
• Punching, kicking, stomping, throwing, bashing, abusing, and bloodying the opponent is not only legal, it's recommended
• If an entire team is knocked out, they are disqualified

Blitz arenas vary in size and shape. About half look like your standard sports arenas for the most part, but the other half (there's 32 total) have dips, curves, corridors, and low ceilings to add an extra dimension to the game. While one strategy may work for a long and unobstructed stadium like the one the Blitzers call home, you have to play a different game in the mines where the Crushers play host.

And then there are your teams. Just like any other sports game, some teams are good at defense, others feature speed, and then there are those that play like Paul Newman's Chiefs and just beat the snot out of their opponents. Players have different skill sets, so you need to know who's your best shooter and who's your muscleman and use them accordingly. Each team has an overall background and some sort of theme. There are the Sea Cats, quick female players with European accents. The Demons, who are incredibly strong and often speak in a demonic language though occasionally offer quaint phrases like "&$^%hole!" And the Marines, who are all dressed in fatigues and offer military catch-phrases along with plenty of homegrown curse words. With eighteen teams in all, it would have been easy to see a lot of similar characters, but in fact, each team is highly unique and easily distinguishable.

 

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Controls are relatively simple and can be learned over the course of a single match. Every button is important, but you don't need to hit anything so quickly that it becomes daunting. The face buttons punch, kick, block, and jump, while the left thumbstick moves your player and the right thumbstick can be used to strafe. The White Button changes to another player and the Black Button gives a taunt (there's a variety of these and you have to love watching your fave player show the opposition who's number one). The Left Trigger is a modifier and allows you to do dives, slide-tackles, and grabs with the face buttons. The Right Trigger points you towards the disc (on defense) or the opponent's goal (on offense). A rookie discounts this function, but you will have a much easier time with Deathrow using it. When you see the disc loose on the floor you can easily miss it with a dive, because it's hard to be exact when aiming your body. However, if you use the Right Trigger, you'll be pointed right at the disc when you dive. The same goes when shooting at the goal. It's hard enough getting through that tiny hoop, you don't need to add further difficulty by being aimed in the wrong direction. The controls are solid, though sometimes the camera swings a bit wildly and makes it seem like your character isn't moving as tightly as one might like.

Uh, so what was Blitz again?

Blitz mixes several sports games into one. This gives it a sense of familiarity (there's an arena, crowds, scoring, and people trying to stop you), but it's quite unique from most sports experiences. For one, you never even have to touch the disc the entire time you're playing the game. If you want to focus on taking out opponents, go for it. One strategy is to occupy the goalie with your fists while a buddy tries to score on the open goal. Characters have health and by beating on them you can lower health marks. Get completely rid of a player's health marks and you can knock them out of the game. It's not as easy as it sounds, but you'll certainly see it happen (and have it happen to you) regularly.

Don't think the game is just a beat-fest, because it's not as one-dimensional as that. In fact, Deathrow hides a surprising amount of gameplay depth. The physical side is as much a part of the game as it is in hockey or football, but you can't score just by smacking people upside the head. Passing is simple, as is shooting at the goal. There are pass and shoot lines, showing you the trajectory of your shot or pass. This helps a lot with aiming shots, because an open goal doesn't necessarily mean an automatic score. Players mimic real life, so as they move, breathe, or come under durress (from other players) their aim will shift. It's a small goal and it's easy for a shot to hit off the rim.

Speaking of the disc, it's an energized round hoop that bounces off walls and other players. By holding the shooting button, you can charge the disc for a more powerful shot. As it charges, it glows green. Released at the right moment, you'll get a Deathrow, a shot so powerful it knocks down the goalie for a good handful of seconds. But hold it too long and the disc will overload and zap your player. This is probably a good time to mention that there's friendly fire. Misaim and hit your buddy and he will be napping on tile for a while. That friendly fire goes for every aspect of the game, so if you try for a slide tackle and your buddy gets in the way, he'll be kissing floor.

Deathrow offers some serious attitude and takes a very gritty view of sports. Drugs are used to enhance player performance, some of which is obtained through sketchy back-channels. You earn credits by beating opponents into submission, wowing the crowd with violent or skillful play, and, of course, scoring goals. A momentum bar shows how much the crowd is behind you. Get the bar full and your team will catch fire. As you play, power-ups (health, credits, and attribute boosts) respawn continually. These affect the player who grabs them and not the whole team, so it's tough to totally dominate a game just because of some power-ups. Those power-ups are minor compared to the rest of the game.

 

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Strategy beyond the violence

At its core, Deathrow is a game about brutalizing your opponents to help assist in scoring goals. That doesn't mean the game is simply a button-mashing beat-em-up. Teamwork can be very important here. Yeah, teamwork is supposed to be important in every sports game, but usually it can never be properly represented. Most basketball games turn into superstar-fests where one player dominates. And often in football games, play turns into a 'see how many yards my running back can gain' mentality or a 'Terrell Owens can always beat you deep' crutch. But Deathrow plays a bit more like hockey or soccer. You'll need to pass, protect, and clear paths for your teammates.

In fact, every player has a teamwork rating. This affects the AI for the team you are playing on. When the rating is low, you may find some AI players standing around, not going after a loose disc, waiting for someone to get them involved. You'll also notice these folks won't come bail you out when you're being gang banged by three of the opposition. At first it may actually piss you off, but stick with the game, raise your teamwork ratings and you'll see your team react intelligently to the plays in the arena.

For general strategy, Deathrow has on-the-fly play calling with the D-Pad. Press left or right to quickly cycle through the five choices: Physical offense, quick offense, neutral, defense, and defend the goal. To succeed against tougher opponents, you'll need to adjust your play-style to the game situation and also based on your team's abilities. If you're a weaker team, for example, playing physical may not be the brightest idea. See, the opponent AI isn't just intelligent about playing the game, AI players can get pissed off too.

One of the nicest aspects of Deathrow is the large amount of action away from the disc. This is something you see a lot in real hockey, where players clear a path near the goal or try and occupy defensemen by pinning them to the boards. But when playing a hockey game, you are generally the one with the puck, not the one clearing a path for a teammate. In Deathrow you will often be the one making space or keeping someone occupied with your boot in their ass.

Prepare for Conquest

Games featuring this level of violence are often best left as multiplayer experiences, but Deathrow bucks the trend with a deep, fun, and addictive single-player mode. Choosing one of thirteen teams (only four are available at first), work your way through the ranks, building your team up as you attempt to become the ultimate Blitz champion.

You start off in the Rookie Division, weak and with only four teammates. This means, at first, you won't be able to substitute in between rounds of a competition. You live and die by those four players. Ranked fourth in the division, you must challenge and defeat the third-ranked team, then number two, and final beat number one. By defeating the top-ranked team, you can move on to the next division. However, if you're interested in earning more cash, you can continue to challenge the other teams in your division. Once you move on, you're not gonna have a chance to beat up on the Blitzers again.

After each match, you'll have the opportunity to train your players. It costs credits and players earn small stat boosts. But the more interesting aspect is the messages you receive. Messages are actually events that happen to your team. There's no cut-scenes, just a graphic and some text, still these randomized events add a WWE element to Deathrow. You'll get offers from other players who want to join your team (if you can pay the right price) and offers for training sessions to help teach you more aspects of the game. These are nothing compared to the majority of great events. You may be offered some drugs that fell off a truck. "We're not sure exactly what they'll do, but it could be good." Take the chance, pay the price, and have one of your players become a guinea pig. Another will offer you the chance to bet on your next match. But it's not just a "win or lose" proposition. Yes, you can go the safe route and bet you'll win, and hey, if you do you'll double whatever you bet. But if you feel like taking a chance, you can bet you'll win by at least five points or that you will win by exactly two goals. It's your money and your choice.

The events don't end there. One event has your manager, strung out on drugs, giving you cr6000 without realizing what he's just done. Things go the opposite way sometimes too as you can get caught with the owners twin daughters. Pay up or your family members will be identifying what's left of your face at the morgue. One of the funniest is being voted "Most Likely to be Killed Off" by the audience. Hey, it comes with a cr2000 purse. Cha-ching!

These events are randomized and many are team-specific, so playing the game with a team twice will actually be different. Playing Conquest also earns you Unlock Credits, which can be used to unlock art and other goodies. And as you progress through, you'll unlock new arenas and eventually new teams. Each of the thirteen main teams has ten total players (meaning you unlock six players for each team). There are five other teams that only feature four players. These are, essentially, "nostalgic" teams like you might unlock in a standard sports game.

Conquest mode is a fantastic single-player experience and will keep you occupied for weeks as you try and play through as all thirteen teams. A true workout. And, believe it or not, it's fun to go back through as the same team a second time. The interface for Conquest is simple and may even seem simplistic, but it serves its purpose of bridging the gap between matches. Otherwise it'd feel too much like a fighting game where all you do is progress from one fight to the next. Oh, and if you want, you can bring up to three buddies in to play on your team anytime you want in Conquest mode. The single-player mode can be multiplayer, just like that.

 

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Multiplayer

Deathrow is victim to early development. Had the game development started a bit later, this one might have been geared towards Xbox Live. As it is, Deathrow offers four-player split screen and system link. You can go crazy and hook up eight systems with a single player on each and play a fully manned game with no split-screens or slowdown. That is the kind of honey bees love to buzz around.

The multiplayer games seem a bit more chaotic than single-player matches, but it's always fun playing with other people. Of course, you'll want to have a lot of the teams and arenas unlocked, which is why you need to play the smack out of Conquest mode. Live would have been the butter on some tasty toast, but even with just split-screen and system link available, Deathrow is a great, fast, and filthy multiplayer experience.

Two different views

Before each single game match and at the start of Conquest mode, you'll be asked to pick between Sports and Action views. The Sports view is a pulled back, stable camera. You stay away from the action, but it's also a lot easier to see what you're doing and you don't feel like you're on a roller coaster ride gone haywire. Action mode puts you right behind the character you're playing. The camera swings quickly with every movement. You see a lot more detail, but your focus is clearly on the person you're controlling, limiting your field of vision.

While Sports view is nice, it's a bit too drawn back. But the thing that kills it is that you cannot play any of the enclosed (and more interesting) arenas that are unlocked later in the game. Instead, you are confined to the more bland arenas. This affects Conquest mode, since you won't be able to see a lot of the cool arenas you're supposed to be unlocking. This view, then, is only for the times you want to play a single game on one of the few courses that supports this view.

Action view, though, can feel a bit wild and takes some time to get used to. The good news is, you can use it for any arena and you can set the camera in the option menu to be pulled back slightly, giving you a better view. When using Action view, you'll have to use the Right Trigger more often to locate the disc and goal. But, this is really the only view to use if you want to see your player flipping people off.

The big drag is that you cannot change your view once you've started Conquest mode, so test each out and see which is right for you before taking it to the single-player mode.

This game has naughty language!

Deathrow is rated M for a reason. It's violent (cracked bones, blood splatters, and backbreakers), full of curse words (oh my virgin ears!), and has plenty of drug and sex content (much like my mother's diary). This game is absolutely not for children, but is absolutely right for adults who act like children. Originally touted as having "realistic mature language," it was hard to understand just what that meant. Now it's clear. Many games with bad words just sort of throw them out. But Deathrow makes cursing an art form. Whether using the taunt button or just playing the game without nary a Black Button press, you will hear endless streams of four-letter words.

Not only are these funny, but it's exactly what you'd expect people to say when playing a game where the secondary objective is breaking every bone in your opponent's body. Some swears are simple, like "A-hole!" (except they fill in a few letters where the - is... see, that's what makes it like real cussing instead of our pseudo-swearing). Others are more complex like, "Prepare to be f*!" and "It's gonna take a lot more of you to avoid this ass-whoopin'!" Every team has different taunts. Some are shared among all, but many are unique to the team. Flipping the bird is common, as is suggesting another player's had sexual relations with his mother. Some of the best come with teams, like the Demons, that speak another language but are clearly swearin in some foreign tongue. Yeah, you dunno what that bloke with the horns is saying, but it sure would get his mouth washed out with soap in my house.

Best use of endless cursing in a game... ever.

Final tidbits

Deathrow offers plenty of customization, from rule changes to gameplay alterations. Though there aren't any sliders, there's enough here to play the game you want to play. Along with this, Deathrow has some nice touches of the future. Like the movie Robocop, Deathrow offers some humorous commercials (in the form of billboards) during load times. But the ads are kind of small and those without a big screen TV won't be able to read the funny small print.

While there are no current plans to offer downloadable content forDeathrow, SouthEnd has left the option open. There is an option to Upgrade, which would download content onto your hard drive. SouthEnd isn't sure if they will use the feature, but they wanted to leave the option open. Here's hoping we can download new teams and curse words come January.
Beyond that, it's nice to see a game packed with unlockables. You start off with just four teams, one arena, and sixteen players. When everything is unlocked, you'll have 18 teams, 150 players, 32 arenas, a multidisc option (more than one viable disc in the arena), Extreme difficulty, and a bunch of concept art. This baby is good till the last drop.

Graphics

Let's get the problems out of the way first. Teams have uniforms in Deathrow (each team has two color schemes) and often it's hard to distinguish everyone on the fly. The only direct indicator of who a character is comes when you're controlling them. Their name is displayed in the bottom left corner, but that only helps for the person you're controlling -- what about the other guys? There should either be names or numbers on the unis or names floating at the feet of the players so you know who is who instantly. There are characters that look very different from one another, but every team has a couple of people who look far too similar. This matters because as your character grows, you're going to need to be able to identify your sharpshooter from your muscleman. The other problem is the Action view camera, which is far too loose and gives a feeling of instability.

Those two issues aside, Deathrow looks great with some phenomenal textures and some solid lighting effects. Each character consists of 55 bones (some of them clearly breakable) and over 7000 polygons, making for some fluid looking and realistic beings. Though the action happens fast, if you pay attention, you'll see players blink and change facial expressions. Watch a character whose leg has been crippled and you'll see the pained expression on their face.

The arenas are a great variety of well-designed and well conceived art. From arenas built over lava to the interior of a mine to an amazingly detailed dojo, the textures are some of the best on Xbox yet. Unfortunately, the highly reflective surfaces don't do real-time reflections. Instead of seeing players reflected in the shiny floors, you just get shadows. Ah, well, can't have it all.

The animations are fluid and the game never slows down despite the frantic pace. There are over 800 animations with each team having unique attacks, including some truly great grabs (gotta love the backbreaker). While it doesn't have the best animations, textures, or lighting of any Xbox game, it does all three well, which pushes it to a high level of excellence.

 

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Sound

The 5.1 Dolby Digital is top-notch. You are truly brought into the arena, with the pumped-in crowd noises swarming you. The curses and comments come from all speakers, giving the feeling of true immersion. From the smacks of fist on face to the chilling crack of bones, the sound effects are perfect. And, of course, there are endless amounts of curse words. Every team has different accents and sometimes different languages, making them feel unique.

While there are only a handful of instrumental tracks, you can rip your own music and create a custom soundtrack. You'll want to do this because, while the light techno-beats aren't bad, there just aren't many offered. Bring in your own tracks and have yourself a grand time.

Closing Comments

Deathrow does something most games of this type can't manage -- it's its own sport. While Deathrow can be likened to other sports, there's no direct comparison. The varied arenas are great, the gameplay is challenging and the Conquest mode will have you playing Deathrow into the chilly winter. For a game that's gotten little press, this could be a sleeper hit. It's certainly a sleeper in terms of quality. My only hope is Deathrow does well enough to merit a sequel that uses Xbox Live. For a game that's probably meant to be a multiplayer smacktalk fest, I've found the Conquest mode to be far more interesting. I'm hooked and I won't stop playing for a long, long time.

What is Deathrow? Pure joy.
-- Hilary Goldstein

Presentation

Tons of teams, arenas, players, fighting moves, and curse words. Could have used some bigger end-game celebrations and fanfare, but solid overall. 9.0

Graphics

Great lighting and amazing textures blend with fluid animations and some smrt arena designs. 8.0

Sound

Great use of 5.1 and of course, all those swear words. Broken bones, the F-word, and customizable soundtracks. Yum! 9.0

Gameplay

Easy controls and subtle depth that will have you playing and learning for weeks and even months. If only there was online play. 9.0

Lasting Appeal

A ton to unlock. Just the single-player alone will take a serious chunk of hours. Throw in a solid multiplayer experience and this game may never end. 10.0

OVERALL SCORE (not an average) 9.3


Wederom.....Veel plezier met lezen

 

Misschien in het vervolg alleen de conclusie en een link naar de hele review?

 

jah (the Answer) , maar meestal zijn IGN's Reviews met een Slotje en voor MEMBERS only bereikbaar ,

dan is het wel handig als hij ze Helemaal neerzet, ik weet niet of dit in dit geval zo was

Ign vind ik meestal wel goede Reviews schrijven

 

=ign insider revieuw

 

Ik heb niks gezegd.

 

Je moet je registreren bij IGN om sommige dingen te lezen (zoals deze review) , dus dan werkt een link niet, en vind ik dit een toppie oplossing.

Edit: Iemand was me al voor

 

Goede review en ik ben het er helemaal mee eens. Mensen die twijfelen over aanschaf moeten deze review maar eens lezen.

 

ja goede review

 

Marco27, Ik wil je hierbij bedanken voor al die IGN reviews van de laatste tijd. Echt tof van je!

 

Is goeie review idd..
Maar voortaan wel linkje..
Is wel op zijn plaats uiteraard..


Deze review vind ik dus echt steengoed..
Er zijn sommige mensen die zeggen dat IGN alleen maar hoge scores geeft..

Ze geven bijna nooit negens..
Remember that.

 

Ik haal ze uit een ander forum
Maar ik zal ze er wel op blijven zetten.