================================================================================ ___ __ __ / \___ / _| \ \ __ _ _ __ ___ / /\ / _ \ |_ \ \/ _` | '_ ` _ \ / /_// __/ _| /\_/ / (_| | | | | | | /___,' \___|_| \___/ \__,_|_| |_| |_| _____ _ _ _ __ _ ___ __ | ___(_) __ _| |__ | |_ / _| ___ _ __ | \ | \ \ / / | |_ | |/ _` | '_ \| __| | |_ / _ \| '__| | \| |\ V / | _| | | (_| | | | | |_ | _| (_) | | | |\ | | | |_| |_|\__, |_| |_|\__| |_| \___/|_| |_| \_| |_| |___/ o----------------------------o Currently version 1.0 Author: Barry Willemsen \ Copyright: 2005 and after \ Release: 03/27/2005 \ Updated: 07/13/2005 \ ================================================================================ I TABLE OF CONTENTS / o===============================o I ............... Table of Contents II .............. Introduction to the FAQ III ............. Crack those Chumps! IV ............. Story Mode Walkthrough V ............. Compendium VI ............. Legal Stuff, Contact Info, and Version History VII ............. Credits ================================================================================ II INTRODUCTION TO DEF JAM / ================================o This FAQ was meant to clear up one of the greatest beat 'em ups I've ever had the good fortune to get my hands on. Should I say that this game is better than the Tekken series, the Dead or Alive series, Soul Calibur, etcetera, I would probably get a junk pile of hate mail in my box, so I won't. Though perhaps a matter of taste, one can hardly deny that Def Jam: Fight for NY does not deserve its high marks (8-9) given by people who know a lot about games (or pretend they do). Now, for starters, I will be very blunt: first time I played this game, and I already made sure it was on EASY, I got my ass handed to me in a bucket of Foundation steel. By the thirtiest time I gave it a try, and lost, I threw the game into a corner for nearly a month. Eventually, scouring over the Internet, I viewed the renewed interest in the Def Jam series, which gave me some good ideas. Banning all chills of anger from my spine, I took the Def Jam CD out of its box as calmly as I could, stomped it into my XBox, created a new character for Story Mode... and kicked ass. Unfortunately, most knowledge that helped me was spread over a wide range of sites, and they are not anyone's particular idea, so I decided to compile all of them into this document. Also, keep in mind that I originally created this guide as a walkthrough for newer players to beat the Story Mode, so strategies I suggest will probably not work on the HARD level. But, if you're playing on HARD, what are you doing here? You don't need any tips by now, I hope? ;) ================================================================================ III CRACK THOSE CHUMPS! / ================================o The scene may be original, and the possibilities refreshing, Def Jam: Fight for New York remains - in essence - a beat 'em up game. So, you'd best learn how to hold yourself out in the clubs if you want progress in Story Mode. The basic controls are these: ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- <||||| Controls |||||> ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- LEFT THUMBSTICK - In combat, it moves your fighter around. - In menus, you may highlight different options with it. - When in a grapple, you may press A and hold the Left Thumbstick in a desired direction to throw your opponent that way. RIGHT THUMBSTICK - When your Momentum Gauge is full and blinking, move the Right Thumbstick to activate Blazin' Mode. - When in Blazin' Mode, grapple your opponent with A, and then move the Right Thumbstick in any direction to execute a Blazin' Move. - If your Momentum Gauge is not yet full, using the Right Thumbstick will do a Taunt. A Taunt slowly increases your Momentum Gauge, and is quite funny to see, though you're completely vulnerable during execution. You can interrupt a Taunt at all times by using the Right Trigger to block. D-PAD - In combat, it is an alternate way to move your fighter around. - In menus, it is an alternate way to highlight different options with. - (You guessed it) An alternate way of defining a direction once you try to throw your opponent somewhere once you've locked in a grapple with A. A BUTTON - Confirms a highlighted option in menus. - In battle, press A when in close proximity to your opponent to try and lock-in a grapple. B BUTTON - Cancels a previously selected option, transports you back to the previous menu when not in battle. - Pressing B while holding the Left Thumbstick in a direction will make your character run that way. Beware, running detracts from your momentum and if you're out, you won't be able to run anymore until it refills. - When on the ground, press B to stand up, or press B and hold the Left Thumbstick in a desired direction to roll and get up. Y BUTTON - Throws a light punch in the direction of the opponent you're fighting. Can be used from standing position, from the ground and from a post. - If well-timed, it can be used to escape from an opponent's grapple. - Use Y + the Left Thumbstick to execute your desired move once you've locked in a grapple. X BUTTON - Throws a light kick in the direction of the opponent you're fighting. Can be used from standing position, from the ground, and from a post. - Use X + the Left Thumbstick to execute your desired move once you've locked in a grapple. LEFT TRIGGER - In battle, this is the Light/Hard Modifier Button. It basically means that if you're holding the Left Trigger while punching (Y), kicking (X), or grappling (A), your fighter will execute a "hard version" of the move, which is more powerful, but also slower to come out and usually with an abysmal recovery time. RIGHT TRIGGER - Use this in battle to block incoming punches and kicks. Notice that this will NOT block grapple attempts. Can also be used on the ground. - Press the Right Trigger and tilt the Left Thumbstick TOWARDS or AWAY FROM your opponent to attempt a Counter. A Counter is hard to pull off, but it will leave your opponent wide open for a crushing combo. BLACK BUTTON - No uses. WHITE BUTTON - In fights with multiple opponents, use the White Button to shift your attention to another combatant. START BUTTON - Confirms a highlighted option in menus. - Pauses the game during battle. BACK BUTTON - Use this in menus to return to a previous menu. ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- Unfortunately, such a schematic will hardly serve you, unless you're looking for a quick reference guide. And that's why I'll give you the following thorough explanation, a bit of a walkthrough on itself. Please don't think that I'm acting like you're a small child, I'm not belittling you, just trying to help you through the game as good as I can. There is some basic strategy involved already, so even if you know the buttons, it will still do no harm to look through. ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- <||||| Fighting |||||> ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- To make all workings clear, we should first take a battle as an example. For this purpose, I will take the first battle you really fight in story mode. To be more precise, we will take a custom character versus Trick at the damp basement of the Foundation: So, now the battle has loaded, and you two are standing perpendicular to each other. Immediately you should crave to follow RULE NUMBER ONE: Agressiveness, because that is what most people are lacking when they first play the game, and not following the rule means becoming pissed off at the game, at the guide, and therefore at ME, which I wouldn't like. So be as agressive as you can without being reckless. There's a thin line to walk. At first, things are easy. See, we can hardly be agressive from such a distance, so to get a head start we will go and RUN for Trick now to grab his ass. Simply tilt the Left Thumbstick towards him while holding the B button and your character should automatically run up. Unfortunately, running will do nothing if we don't make an action. So, as you are close to Trick, press the A button to initiate a grab. Your character will lunge out with both arms to grab the opponent. It should work if you're quick and rush Trick right from the start. So now, Trick is down from your grappling move. Will we just let him rest there and recover his health? No way. Walk up to him by tilting the Left Thumbstick normally, and lay down a single strike, with Y or X. Which one depends on your style, but I won't go in-depth on that right now. Hit Trick once with one of them, and then back off. Why? Because if you don't, Trick will hit you from the get-go and you will be stunned, wide open to his dangerous Haymaker. Right now, Trick will get up, and since you've backed up quite a bit to not get hit by him, the guy's pretty pissed off. He will now probably run at you and try to hit you with a punch. Simply hold the Right Trigger and your character will block it, without taking damage. Trick will have some recovery time from his reckless attacks, and so he is open to a grab. Press the A button to do so. As you've locked in the grapple, quickly press Y to lay down a fierce knuckle arrow right onto the poser's face. Notice that you can also use the Left Thumbstick in conjunction with the Y button to lay down different kinds of throws. This adds to your variety, and therefore to the sum of money you receive at the end of any fight you win. Trick will be stunned momentarily. Very momentarily. But it's enough for you to go up to his downed body and press A to pick him up. Once the guy is back on his feet, quickly do a 2-hit combo. A combo is basically a string of commands consisting of Y and X. The best combo to take for this example fight would be YY. Now pay attention: did Trick block your little combo? If he didn't, continue tapping Y to finish the combo string and knock him to the floor. If he DID, then be quick and press A to grapple him. This won't allow him any time to counter your grapple. Once you're all locked in, tilt the Left Thumbstick in the direction of a pillar or a jukebox, or - only if none of the previous can be found nearby - into the crowd. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= YOU THREW HIM INTO A PILLAR OR A JUKEBOX? =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Follow up by quickly walking up to him and pressing A again. Your character will automatically do an environmental attack: these are random and somewhat dependant on your fighter's style, but they all lay down very heavy damage for the moment. Not only do they diminish Trick's health bar, they also leave him crippled right afterwards. You can see this as the poor guy grabs for his face to claw away the pain. At such a moment, get up to him and get him up with (A). Grapple him, whip him into the pillar/jukebox again, and lay down another portion of great damage! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= YOU THREW HIM INTO THE CROWD? =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= First of all, you have to remember that throwing an opponent into the crowd is but a last resort: you're far better off whipping him into a wall or another thing that's solid enough to crack skulls with. Still, sometimes you have no choice, and it only adds to your variety. If you throw an opponent into the crowd with (A) + Left Thumbstick, they will ALWAYS throw him back at you. Wait for Trick to come stolpering towards you and hit (A) once again to give him a Running Counter Grab. These don't do as much damage as an environmental attack, but they damn sure stun him. So quickly pick him up afterwards, and this time, try to get him into a pillar or a jukebox. A small note on crowd attacks: apart from the "bouncing an opponent back", there are another two varieties of crowd action. The first will happen when you knock your opponent back into the crowd with a HARD strike, that is the Left Trigger + (Y) or (X). Such attacks will make your opponent back off quite a bit, but they are easy to counter, so only use them if you are COMPLETELY sure that they will connect. Once the knocked back opponent makes contact with a crowd member, the guy will be nice and grab him for you. Be quick and walk up to your clutched opponent and perform another grapple (A). You will perform a Crowd Double Team Move. These add to your variety, score, but most importantly, they STUN and do about as much damage as an environmental attack. The second variety is quite rare, and it's not even useful. If you whip an adversary into the crowd, RIGHT into the hands of a crowd member who is holding up a weapon (or to the member right next to the weapon-wielding one), the guy will smash his weapon into the opponent for some mediocre damage. Though this stuns your opponent big time, you should NOT do it. And why not? Because the damage is not nearly as much as when you would have used the weapon yourself. You see, once the crowd guy has lain down his strike, the precious weapon breaks and can no longer be used. Which is not a good thing. So now you've pounded Trick a good two times, so his health bar should have suffered quite a bit. Not only that, if you have not been hit by him, which should be the case, then your Momentum Gauge should be flashing right now, with an "R" dancing next to it. It means you are ready to execute your Blazin' Move, think of a fatality in other fighting games. First, activate your Blazin' Move by moving the Right Thumbstick in any direction. The game will pause and show a small cutscene of your character hyping up, which is usually paired with a scream. The Momentum Gauge will be on fire, with the word "Blazin'" engraved in it. The hardest part is, of course, performing your Blazin' move. Trick should have gotten up from his knock-out trip, so be sure to be on the offensive after doing the blazin' taunt, before he can hit you. Do the YY combo again, but this time, EVEN IF HE DOESN'T BLOCK, lay down a grapple and attempt to lock him in. The Blazin' moment will only last for a short amount of time, so you'll need to do this quickly. Once you succeed, all you have to do is quickly move around the Right Thumbstick to do your Blazin' move, and right then you can sit down and enjoy the brutal strikes evoked upon Trick's battered body. Once it's done, you may be surprised that your Blazin' move did not lead to an instant Knock-Out. It certainly seemed painful enough. Don't worry, Trick should be at least in Danger Zone, which is indicated by his health gauge turning red and flashing. Beware though, you'll have to act quickly or he will get back into safer parts (green) and you won't be able to knock him out. Trick should be down and, inevitably, stunned. People are ALWAYS stunned after taking a Blazin' Move, and for a fairly long time, yet their health bar DOES recover, so you still have to act with quickness. Depending on your chosen style, there are multiple ways to knock Trick out: KICKBOXING: Pick Trick up with the (A) button, and immediately lay down a Hard Grapple by pressing (A) while holding the Left Trigger. Go berserk on the X button and you should perform a seven-hit combo, which will KO Trick with its last hit. STREETFIGHTING: Pick Trick up with the (A) button, then do a Haymaker. A Haymaker is the same as a Hard Punch, so you only have to hold the Left Trigger and press (Y) to execute it. It's a one-hit-knock-out. MARTIAL ARTS: This is quite hard. Pick Trick up with the (A) button, then SPRINT towards a pillar as fast as you can while holding the (Y) or the (X) button, and your character will perform a flying attack, which, if it connects while Trick is still in Danger Zone, will knock him out. WRESTLING: Pick Trick up with the (A) button. Next, perform a Hard Grapple by holding the Left Trigger when pressing the (A) button again. Do any Hard Grapple Move in your repertoire and it will knock Trick out. SUBMISSIONS: Unfortunately, they have no specific way to KO. They'll have to do some environmental attack/crowd double team to gain the victory. But, they DO have the ability to make someone submit, so don't think that Submissions style fighters are useless. Please don't. It'll be the last mistake you make in the game. It didn't work? Or have you chosen Submissions as your primary style? Yo, no sweat bro, as Blaze would say it. There are other ways to knock Trick out when he's in danger zone, but since they've been explained in the walkthrough itself, above, I will only sum them up: - Environmental Attack - Crowd Double Team Move - Weapon Attack - This may require some explanation. If you see someone in the crowd holding a weapon, simply walk up to him/her and it should be automatically given to you. Use the (Y) button to do vertical strikes, and the (X) button for horizontal strikes. An opponent in danger zone hit by a weapon will immediately be KOed. Weapon attacks are unblockable, but they CAN be countered - which is dangerous, as the weapon will be transferred to your opponent. You can block with a weapon without losing it, but a succesful enemy grapple will make you drop it. If you dropped your weapon, you can press A while standing on top of it to pick it up again. - Double Team - Does not apply to this situation, but will have to be mentioned. If you and another fighter grab an opponent at the same time, a double team move will be initiated. If the adversary is in Danger Zone, the move will instantly knock him out cold. There are others, but they are level-specific and I will mention them as we get there. For now, remember these basics, but even if you do not wish to, at least remember: GOLDEN RULE NUMBER ONE: Be Agressive! ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- <||||| Tips |||||> ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- NOTE TO NEW PLAYERS: It's better if you NOT read these until you've fought and won some battles. When compared to the previous text, which was intended for you, it may confuse you and that's not what we want. Feel free to look into it, but I don't recommend it until you are a "non-newb" player. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= ON BLOCKING =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Some people will tell you that blocking is your salvation in Def Jam, some will tell you that you should never, ever block unless you want to burn in gamer hell forever. To tell you the truth, they both hold somewhat of the truth. As a newer player, blocking is NOT a good idea. This is mainly because of the speed of the gameplay. If you have no idea of how certain fighters will react to your blocking, they will grapple you and hammer you to death, without mercy. In such a case, it isn't wise to block. That doesn't mean blocking is entirely useless. In a sense, it can be a very, very useful feature, but you'll have to know the situation you're in, and you'll need some reflexes in case it all goes wrong. First of all, you've got running attacks: these bitches come out so quickly that it is near-impossible to interrupt them. In such a case, it would be wise to block, but don't block to early, or the AI will shift to grappling moves (= you're dead). Second, attacks like the Haymaker and attacks from the get-go when an enemy is on the ground. Though a Haymaker can be easily interrupted, you may want to deal some more damage than a mere combo. In that case, simply block the Haymaker and your opponent will have to deal with its horrendous recovery time. It gives you enough time to do a Hard Grapple on them. For the second option, sometimes you're just out of space to run away, or you want to keep the pressure onto your opponent. At that moment, it's better to block any attacks from the ground and resume your combo- and grapple sequences. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= THE COUNTER =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Probably the most difficult feature of Def Jam, even for the players who are used to Def Jam's lightning gameplay, is countering. Basically, a counter comes out quick, so even computer opponents can be surprised by it. Thereby, you receive no damage from your opponent's attack and, more importantly, it leaves your adversary open to Hard Grapples or Haymakers the moment after the counter is exacted. More than anything else, I'd say. The input for a counter is quite easy. Tap the Right Trigger and move the Right Thumbstick TOWARDS or AWAY FROM your opponent. A short animation can be seen wherein your character heaves his hands in front of his chest, ready to intercept an attack. If an opponent's attacks connects with you in one of these few frames, the attack will be countered and you'll be set to pack a LARGE amount of damage. Note that the timing has to be very precise for it to work. If you've got time, then Countering can be learnt, slowly. The easiest way to start learning it is to get someone to constantly throw a Haymaker at you in a multiplayer game, just for practice. The Haymaker is the most predictable attack in the game, and therefore the easiest to counter. Once you get the timing down, you can go and reverse quicker attacks. Even if you manage to perfect this skill, you'll still need to learn all opponents' attack patterns to become a master at it. Since nobody has that much times on their hands, I think it better to NOT try and counter until you've played through Story Mode several times and have got to know your adversary's attacks. Because of the issues with countering, I will not incorporate it in any of the strategies I employ during Story Mode. If you still want to try your skillz and initiate your countering career, use the D-Pad instead of the thumbstick. The D-Pad's input seems to work better than the analog one. Countering throws is another story. It also requires timing, but it's easier as you can see the lunge coming. As your opponent's hands are about to connect to your character's shoulders, press the (X) or (Y) button to stomp them away. Afterwards, they are open to Haymakers or Hard Grapples, though not as much as they would from the strike counters. =-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= STUNS =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-= Knowing whether an attack will stun an opponent or not is key to victory. There are some rules that apply to stunning, though the length of the stun (sometimes even the possibility to be stunned itself) are dependant on your opponent's general health and toughness. Still, here are some small helps, that can make your fighting more efficient and less time-consuming. - An opponent can be stunned by the following: a Grab, a Hard Grab, Hard Kicks and Hard Punches, Environmental Attacks, Crowd Double Teams, Weapon Attacks, and Running Counter Grabs. The length of the stun depends on the power of your attack: an environmental attack will yield you more time than an ordinary throw move. When an opponent is stunned, he will sometimes (but not always) claw away the pain at certain parts of his body. There are situations where they will just lay still and not get up. - The algorithm for stuns is quite easy. Basically, the first time you do any of the attacks above, the opponent will be stunned. Your second attack, they will not be stunned so watch out for any assaults from the get-go. You get it? Any odd number (1st, 3rd, 5th) of attacks will get you a stun. - A Blazin' Move ALWAYS stuns, and relatively it is the longest stun available to you. So what should you do when your rival is stunned? Take notice that you can only pull off one move (aside from getting your opponent to his feet) before the enemy is destunned. Also, if you wait to long, the stun will wear off, so make sure you act quickly. These are the best things you can do when your opponent is stunned: - Get him to his feet and perform a cheap, yet damaging environmental attack, or a crowd double team, or use the time to get a weapon. - A stun is the PERFECT time to do the Blazin' Taunt and make sure that your move connects. Always be on the lookout for this. Simply get the opponent to his feet with (A), activate Blazin' Mode, quickly grab the adversary while he is still endazed and your move should come out succesfully. - Sometimes, especially with Blazin' grabs, your opponent will be in Danger Zone, AND stunned. Get him to his feet and then perform your style's special KO-attacks on him to still get the knock-out. This saves you a hell a lot of frustration. As you can see, stuns are valuable assets in your road to victory. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= ON STYLES =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Wherever you search on the web, whenever it concerns Def Jam, it's always about which style is best. Usually, these discussions end in the useless conclusion that it's a matter of taste. Maybe, but those people argueing are not beginners, and can probably beat the game with ANY style. But a beginner reading this may be confused, because there are some fundamental features in particular styles that make them more effective to begin with than the others available. So here they are, and I arranged them from MOST effective (top) to LEAST effective (bottom). Note that this doesn't mean these styles are "bad", they're very balanced, but some are just easier to master for beginning players. 1. STREETFIGHTING Definitely the easiest style to start with, mainly because of the problems most people have with KOing their opponents when they're in the Danger Zone of their health gauge. To be a good streetfighter, a character needs a superior Upper Strength and lots of Speed to keep the upper hand. They do very well when employing the YY-to-Grab combo, and their Upper Strength also means that they can grab and throw an opponent every once in a while. Still, their most important feature is the Haymaker. This is just a Hard Punch (L+Y), but actually it's much more damaging. And more importantly, a Haymaker can KO someone in danger zone. No longer you have to search for environmentals or crowd doubles, it all can be done with a single, powerful punch. Be wary though, the Haymaker may be powerful, but it's the most predictable and one of the slowest attacks to make up for that. 2. KICKBOXING There are lots of people that say Kickboxing is best to begin with, but I prefer to differ. It simply requires better attuning to Def Jam's quick gameplay to be as effective as Streetfighting, and its special KO move is not as straightforward as the Haymaker. As a kickboxer, a character has dire need for Lower Strength and Speed. Instead of YY, they can do a quick XX-to-Grab combo. A special feature of the kickboxer is the "clinch". A clinch basically means that, whenever you grab your opponent, your character keeps locked in to him/her, and can deliver punches from there. From a normal grab, a kickboxer can lay down a maximum of 2 blows, while from a Hard Grab, you can get in the whopping amount of 7. If such a 7-hit combo is completed succesfully, and the opponent was in danger zone BEFORE THE LAST BLOW, he will be knocked out. Yes, this means that a kickboxer can knock-out an opponent without the adversary being in danger zone by tapping X rapidly enough from a clinch. 3. WRESTLING We all know it, we all love (or hate) it. In Def Jam, it's definitely a showman style we pursue. Wrestlers have a wide arrays of throws, but with them lacking in the speed to succesfully string combos together, you may want to try with Wrestling later on, after you're accustomed to Streetfighting and Kickboxing. Once mastered, however, their throws become a lethal weapon. To enhance your skills, take Upper Strength for your character, and Speed to make sure you get your throws in. General Toughness could help too, to fend off all those quick attacks martial artists tend to throw at you. Hard Grapple WHENEVER the opponent is stunned for insane damage. When your adversary is in danger zone, you can finish him off easily by performing a Hard Grapple move on him while the health gauge is red. It yields you an instant KO. 4. SUBMISSIONS Meh, submissionists are a mixed bag. On one hand, they're totally average and not really weak against anything, but at the same time, they are not versatile at all and they do not have a special KO move. Instead, these fighters gain the ability to make an opponent submit by constantly crackling their joints, until they're eventually broken. Submissionists need a little of everything, but I recommend Speed, Health and Toughness to make sure they last through the fight. Weaken the opponent with normal grapples or environmental attacks to stun them. Once stunned, Hard Grapple them and work on their arm/legs/head/whatever. Two small bars should pop into view, a red one and a golden gauge. If the red one depletes, the opponent will submit. The golden gauge fills up quickly when rapidly tapping any button, and once it has reached its end, the submission will be released. In order to have success with this fighting style, you should always work on a certain bodypart, and don't spread your attention over several limbs: remember when fighting with a submissionist, the longer the match takes, the more chance you'll have to lose. 5. MARTIAL ARTS Speed is the keyword when it comes to martial arts. Difficult to master fully, and requiring some quick reflexes, this fighting style, has some great, beautiful moves and very quick combos. Choosing martial arts as a style increases the amount of animation frames in which a counter can take place, adding to your defense. Unfortunately, they are not very good offensively, especially at low levels. Lots of people tend to choose this for their first character, and I can't blame them for it, because the flying thingies look really, REALLY cool. If you are intent on being a martial artists, you'd best make sure you get Speed and either Lower or Upper Strength (depending on what you like more, punching or kicking). If you master the timing of the flying attacks, you can do some great damage and deliver stuns easily, but I'll warn you: it takes time, and lots and lots of practice to make full use of the Martial Arts' power. Also, try to counter some moves, you'll notice that it's easier if you have this style in your repertoire. Though martial arts are very tricky to use correctly, a master in them could probably take on any other style with ease. ================================================================================ IV STORY MODE WALKTHROUGH / *BEWARE: SPOILERS!!!* ================================o ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *=*=* SCENE 1: THE STREET SWEEPER *=*=* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, the story mode presents you with a nice way to test your skills against computer-controlled opponents. It all starts when D-Mob, quite an imposing, black man gets arrested by two police-officers. On their way to the station, Starks and Jervis - the policemen - have a ridiculing chat about something we all don't understand, but then the action starts. Starks shouts out in surprise and disbelief as a giant truck rams them on the crossroads. We see someone getting out of the car, but we can't see how he looks as we are actually viewing the crime scene through the suspect's eyes. D-Mob crawls out of the car and looks up in bewilderment as the not-so-legal chump signals him to follow into his truck. However, the camera shifts backwards and we see that Jervis has got a clear view of the man, before the screen fades out to black. Once all goes to normal, we see a sad Jervis sitting at a desk, a red-haired woman walking up to him. The woman's name is Lauren, and she is a mug-shot sketcher. She asks the policeman to describe the person that rammed their car. If you hadn't already noticed, this is the moment to create the chump you're gonna forge into a legend. Make sure you like his looks, though, there ain't nothing worse than fighting with a character you don't like ;P Just for giggles, here's my character. Feel free to copy, though I suggest you make up your own: +--------------+ My Character +--------------+ NAME: BLITZ HEIGHT: 6'2" WEIGHT: 245 lbs BODY SIZE: L SKIN TONE: 2 FACE: 7 EYES: 6 EYE COLOR: Dark Green BROWS: 2 NOSE: 5 LIPS 5 EARS: 4 HAIR: 4 FACIAL HAIR: 2 HAIR COLOR: Jet Black VOICE: Gruff When you're done, the camera changes scenes and we are presented with D-Mob's little hideout, his headquarters. You can catch a glimpse of Doc sleeping on the couch, and Sticky Fingaz and Method Man as "Blaze" playing against each other on... well wouldn't you know it, an XBox... anyway, Sticky seems to be winning as D-Mob comes in. Of course, Blaze and Sticky are startled by his appearance, thinking that their boss was arrested and taken away. Behind the big man you can see your own character, looking straight at the two men, but none speaks to him. Instead, the two chumps go asking D-Mob whether you are in or out. Without a doubt D-Mob replies with a gruff "He's in!". Still, they are not convinced of your fighting prowess, and therefore Blaze suggests a practice match to see how well you'll fare with them. This little tutorial match will take place against anoter one of D-Mob's fellas, a large guy called House. Before you face him, you'll have to pick a style. Pick Streetfighting for your first time, otherwise, choose anything you want. Do notice that this guide will always act like you've chosen "Streetfighting". +-------+ House +-------+ VENUE: Practice Ring REWARD: 75 Development Points on EASY 100 Development Points on MED 125 Development Points on HARD I won't write down stats for House, because this is a tutorial fight, which means that House won't fight back unless you are required to block. Blaze walks you through the basics of the game, but I've explained them thoroughly before, so I'll give in to the temptation of saying: "Simply follow Blaze's orders and you'll be fine." +-------+ After your peformance, Blaze seems impressed with your talent, but Sticky isn't as convinced. He says that he will only believe in you if you win some real fights. And that's exactly what we're gonna do. D-Mob also gives you some money to spice up your gear. Because, as he says, if you want to run with his crew, you'd better look the part. Finally, Blaze shows you your crib. Your crib is your own little base of operations, from where you travel out over the map, change the way your look by using your wardrobe, set the different options available, and look at different trophies you've earned. The crib will be described more in-depth a tiny wee later on. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *=*=* SCENE 2: YOUR CAREER STARTS *=*=* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yay! So now we can go out and beat up those punks everywhere without showing a sign of fatigue! Uhmmm... no way. First of all, you should take a look at your crib and get accustomed to all its different options. Right at the start of your adventure, you get a pop-up saying you've got some new messages on your special organizer, prompting you whether you wish to read them or have them wait for a later time. It's always a good idea to stay up-to-date of what is happening, so let's just listen to what these people have to say. FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Hey man, it's Blaze. I just talked to D, and here's the deal. He wants you to hit the clubs, start putting them to work. We'll give you a call when we got something for ya. Peace." FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "So D-Mob wants me to put your ass to work and get you in shape for the circuit. I can teach you new moves, new styles, and help you improve your fighting skills. Come down to Stapleton when you're ready to sweat." Henry Rollins is your "personal trainer", as to say, but don't think that he's not worth worrying about, as you'll be facing him later. We'll go to the gym later. First, we'll have look at the crib. There are six icons in the bottom of the screen through which you can scroll. Choosing "Map" will allow you to travel to different places to fight or to shop. "Messages" lets you review all messages you've received. With "Wardrobe", you can change your outfit to whatever's in your locker. "Options" should be straightforward, and so should "Exit". But the second one from the left, "Trophies", deserves some special attention. For now, these shelves are empty, but as you accomplish certain objectives, you may gain more and more trophies. Some are harder to get than others. If you want to know what the objective for a certain trophy is, simply select its shade with the D-Pad and an explanation should appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. Since there's not much more to do here, choose "Map". You'll be brought to a schematic of New York City. From here, you can scroll through different places with the D-Pad. Press (A) to go there. Whenever you access this map, your cursor will always be on a spot with a dollar sign. If you press (A) here, you are taken to the shopping district. Do so now. You get five new choices: you can go and purchase clothing from Syndicate Urban Streetware (SUS), get your body tattooed at Manny's Tats, let Stingray do your hair at his Barber Shop, or buy shiny new bling from St. Jacob. Finally, there's the Stapleton Athletics gym, which is where you should go first. Rollins welcomes you as you tread in. Immediately after you'll get a menu in which you can choose what to do: "Train Skills" allows you to use your earned Development Points to increase your expertise in certain areas (Upper Power, Lower Power, Speed, Toughness, and Health). "Learn Styles" is very expensive, but against the price of $2,500, you may learn up to two new styles in addition to your first one. Needless to say that this isn't anything to be happening in the close future. "Learn Moves" gives you a chance to buy new Blazin' Moves. Usually, as you beat other fighters, you unlock there Blazin' Move in the gym. Costs vary per move. Usually, the cooler moves will cost you a bunch of Dev Points. Finally, there's "Assign Moves", in which you can assign the moves to the four directions of the Right Thumbstick (so you can have four different Blazin' Moves at the same time, though this will probably never happen on Easy difficulty). Assigning Blazin' Moves doesn't cost you any Development Points. Use "Train Skills" to increase your abilities before you go and take on the first combatants. I recommend to increase Speed, and then increase your style- reliant attribute somewhat (for a Streetfighter, this would be Upper Power). When you're done, press (B) a couple of times to get back to the Shopping District, and take a look at all the different shops. Of course, I'm not going to tell you what your character should dress like, or which tattoos or hairstyle he should take, that's personal taste. BIG NOTE: Though I may not act like shopping is too important, you should never forget that changing your looks and icing yourself out is a NECESSARY part of the game. It keeps your Charisma high, and thus it allows you to Blaze faster than normally. And, on a minor note, fighting with the same guy over and over again is nothing short of boring. Once you're done stocking up, go back to the NY City map and highlight the only available venue, the Foundation. A small screen pops up where you get a decent overview of all the other fighters you can try to tackle. Notice that there's one "locked" fighter at the end of the line. This fighter is like a boss-enemy and is only unlocked if you beat all of the other combatants in that venue. Most of the time, these venue-leaders are tougher to beat than others. Just so you know. I recommend starting out with Trick, who is first in line anyways, because he has some weaknesses which can be used to your advantage greatly with your speed increase. +-----+ Trick +-----+ VENUE: The Foundation STYLES: Streetfighting BLAZIN' MOVE: Kidney Stones _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Quite the pushover, I have to say, though you may not feel the same after battling him once. Taking a look at his stats, we see that he can be hell to deal with if you let him take the initiative, especially so early in the game. With good Health and excellent Toughness, Trick can take a beating. Or, more importantly, his high Upper Power stat makes sure he can dish it out, too. Now, don't get discouraged. I've described a fight with Trick in an earlier section. There are some things to keep in mind when fighting this guy. For one, Trick seems to be even less offensive than a turtle if you stay away from him, and even IF he rushes you he will almost never grab you, so you can safely block. Secondly, this man is an absolute ADDICT of the Haymaker. Which is great, as you can easily interrupt it with a light, quick punch combo of yourself. Rush him from the start, that's important, and keep pounding him with light punch combos "until death do you part". Be careful, though, when he blocks your attacks, quickly switch into a grab and toss Trick into something or someone for a Crowd Double Team and Environmental Attacks. These will help you get this toughie's health gauge down far quicker. When you're finally ready to BLAZE, make sure that you don't try to do it on Trick without him being stunned. Most of the time, if you try him with a single grab, he will counter, and there will be shit to pay. You can also try the YY-into-Grab combo, it will work on him too the majority of the time. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 112 on EASY, 150 on MED, 188 on HARD [Fighter] Trick [Blazin' Move] Kidney Stones +-----+ Yay! So you beat the first opponent in the game. Congrats. Now, as you return to your crib, you notice that there are new messages waiting for you, so let's take a look. FROM: Snowman MESSAGE: "Hey yo, it's Snowman. Yo, you GOTTA come down to the shop, I definitely got some stuff you're gonna love. Holla back, with love!" FROM: Ludacris MESSAGE: "I don't know what kinda guy D-Mob thinks he sees in you, but you better step up. No time for losers in this crew!" FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "There's lots of ways to KO someone. First, get his health into the DANGER zone. Then, you can unleash a BLAZIN move, use a weapon, perform an environmental attack, or hit him with your style-specific move. He'll be picking his teeth up off the floor in no time." FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Hey yo, it's Blaze! You lookin' good out there, killah! D's liking what he sees. Keep it up. Talk to ya later." Guess there was more than the average crowd spectating your match with Trick earlier. Anyway, go to Stapleton and increase your skillz some more to help in kicking ass. The next fighter you face will be less predictable than our beloved Trick, so keep on your toes. Perhaps you can go do some shopping as well to give your Charisma a small boost. Once done, head over to the Foundation again, and this time select Bo as the one you want to face. +--+ Bo +--+ VENUE: The Foundation STYLES: Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Pop Your Collar _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Now this is an ENTIRELY different story than Trick. Instead of relying on harsh power, Bo takes a sneaker approach by taking high Speed and Toughness, and mixing it up with some Lower Power. Martial Arts as a style also helps him in his hit'n hit approach. Also, for such a nimble fighter, Bo has a little surprise: almost maxed out Toughness and excellent Health... One thing to remember in this contest is that you should avoid being thrown into a pillar or jukebox AT ALL COSTS. If you get pummeled into it once, Bo will just keep picking you up and whipping you into the pillar again with his tremendous speed, which - at your current level - means you'll be knocked out in no time. Though you'll still have to be agressive to win this contest, you have to be smart in your approach. If you're stuck in Bo's sick-speed light combos, you may want to make use of the Block button every once in a while. Best way to defeat him is to use his own strategy against him: attack with a quick YY (or XX if you're kickboxer) and follow it up with a grab, whip him into a pillar, and deliver good environmental damage. Be repetitive, nobody will give a flying fuck anyway at this level, right? Your momentum meter should build up with considerable speed, as well, so take Bo into your Blazin' Move when he's stunned from yet another one of your environmental attacks. If that doesn't KO him, throw him into a pillar and immediately follow up with a Haymaker, even his max Toughness won't save his arse out of that. Also, don't be afraid to grab one of them pretty bottles from the top of the jukeboxes. They're one-hit, but they do nice damage and it's generally fun to see. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 112 on EASY, 150 on MED, 188 on HARD [Fighter] Bo [Blazin' Move] Pop Your Collar +-----+ Stapleton's next in line. If you substantially increase the Speed attribute with your earned Development Points, the next fights will be a whole lot easier than they would normally. Enhance your appearance if you want to, and check your new messages FROM: D-Mob MESSAGE: "Hey yo kid remember - you take a cut of all the action that goes on behind the scenes at your fights. There's always bets going on, so the more cool shit you pull off in the heat of battle, the bigger your cut will be." FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "Hey this is Rollins. If you're not there right now you'd better be on your way to the gym!" Done? Time to head over to the Foundation again, this time to face Nyne. +----+ Nyne +----+ VENUE: The Foundation STYLES: Streetfighting BLAZIN' MOVE: Speedbag _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Where Trick focuses on power, and Bo on speed, Nyne strikes a balance between the two. This shows from his two very different styles, but also from his stats. With the exception of speed, Nyne is just about above-average at everything. This can make