Death by Degrees'
beautiful environmental artwork. Stunning how very close to the concept
art most all of the sceneries in the game turned out to be. The level
design in Death by Degrees is one of the things I love most about the
game - Divided into 3 main environmental sections, you start out on a
luxury cruise ship and, after being taken hostage and exploring a huge
island based penitentiary, you return back to the ship and reveal its
deeper secrets in the final chapter of the game. The concept art, which
can be unlocked in the game, includes design sketches of the ship's art
déco, Japanese and imperial interiors, the roman ruins inspired swimming
pool and several orlop deck facilities and laboratories. Take a look at the
actual images unlockable in the game, extracted from the PlayStation 2
DVD, after the jump (and try to spot the little Nina sketches that are hidden in some of them)...
Ah yes, this concept art...man, the amount of hours I wasted on the bonus Stingray levels just trying to get more of it was unreal. (and the honeycomb locks too, but I actually enjoy those for the challenge so that's no biggie)
ReplyDeleteIf there would be one thing I'd change about DbD...well, it'd probably be the limited save stations and lack of checkpoints, which felt odd at the time and is really archaic now; but in terms of design, I wish they'd come up with a way to unify the prison stage with the cruise ship. I LOVE the exaggerated, colourful glamour and elegance of the boat, even its more mechanical areas, which have a clean, futuristic aesthetic, but the prison really is just a grey eyesore by comparison and ruins the whole classic Bond Movie feel they had going.
Hi I'm actually in love with your blog! I have spent litrally YEARS trying to find concept art from Death By Degrees and you have given it to me! Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteIf I could be so blod, I wish to ask you if you could send me these images and anymore if you have any and if it wouldn't be to much trouble! I would be forever in your Debt!
My email - Fkedupcamels@aol.com
Thank you!
Thank you!!! Happy to hear.
DeleteThe images I posted are the exact same ones I extracted from the PS2 game DVD (only slightly larger). If you were looking for higher res images, I'm afraid they have never been released.
Until Namco decides to release these artworks, ripping the low res PS2 files is the best I can do. Sorry.
But I do indeed have some more of these saved somewhere on my hdd. I will update the blog with a bunch of them later today.
Thanks for the interest.