Pray for Death

Review by RLeBeau

"Take Control - Bring The Pain"

Pray For Death is one of the many computer games that were extremely unpopular and ended up being sold for 10 bucks. I admit, it's not a great fighting game, but it's actually pretty good compared to other PC fighters.

Story - 7
It turns out that after people (or some machines, I guess) die, they meet up with Mr. Death and are given a chance to return to the mortal world if they beat Death in a game of his choice. Since Death got tired of chess , he decided that he should hold a tournament for all the physically strong people who die, and whoever wins it will get to fight Death himself, with victory resulting in another chance on Earth. The fighters who are in the tournament are an interesting bunch. We have a Painbringer (a robotic soldier created by the US government who was supposed to bring hope but brought pain instead, and was eventually deactivated and destroyed), Jan Fun ( martial arts master who died at the peak of his movie career due to mysterious circumstances ), Sir Maelstorm ( a Master at Arms of the army of Walachia who swore allegiance to the Necronomicon and was killed at the stake ), Chtulhu (an alien stranded on earth that suffered a mortal blow during a battle), Murgan (guard of the gates of Hell killed by Uriel, and angel disguised as a fallen soul), Uriel (Once a Fallen angel, she tried to get back into God's good book by freeing souls from Hell and killing Murgan, yet god wasn't impressed and damned her), Pantera (a techno DJ who got high off of little computer chips in her body that malfunctioned and made her snap, after she became a serial killer she was shot by a policeman), Anubi (the Egyptian god that proclaimed to be the true god of the dead, was killed because of his bragging by the real Death), Wolfrich ( a viking appointed by Odin to guard a magical chest, poisoned by his best friend Xenobius) and Xenobius (after stealing the previously mentioned chest, he could not handle the great magic powers and aged 10 years for every week of his life and soon died).

Grafix - 8
The character models are neither good nor bad looking. They are kind of stiff and don't move naturally, but some have great designs ( such as Painbringer and Urien). The special attacks are plain looking, and so are all the menus. What really brings up the score are the backgrounds, they are all very cool and detailed with great lighting effects. The water stage is very impressive for the time the game was created. Before each match low-res FMVs of the 2 fighters run side by side for a few seconds which is pretty cool.

Sound - 9
The sound of this game is truly great. Some people may dislike the weird-sounding battle themes but I find them really cool and they fit the stages well. The character grunts and clanks and shouts are pretty terrible but they don't matter much. Death's voice is awesome and the best part of the sound effects is the beggining of each round when you hear ''Ready to Die'' said in the coolest way possible.

Gameplay - 7
The basic gameplay isn't too great due to the stiff movement, slow special attacks that take a few seconds to perform, and the delay of some of the attacks. However, there are some very interesting concepts that make the game much more fun to play. The most important one is the Killer Chain system. Every character has 3 combinations of buttons for their different killer chains. You ALWAYS have to start with the first one, and if it connects your character performs a 10 attack combo. While your character is performing the combo, you can enter the second button combination to extend the combo by 10 hits, and after the second one you can enter the 3rd button combination for an extra 20 hits. A Full combo results in 40 hits and close to 100% damage. You might think it's unfair since once the first hit connects your character will be as good as dead, but there are things called Breakers. If you are having a killer chain performed on you, enter the button combination for your characters Breaker and you will uppercut your enemy away. Another cool gameplay feature is that you can kick your enemy while he/she is on the ground, but beware, if you finish the round with a kick to an enemy lying on the ground you won't get a chance to perform a finishing move. The finishing moves work like Mortal Kombat - there are deadly movies which kill the enemy in a painful way, or Idiot moves which kill the enemy in a stupid way, such as Pantera who drops 2 speakers near the enemy and blasts him/her with noise using her trusty electric guitar. Each character has 1 deadly and 1 idiot move. Beware, it's extremely hard finding a move guise for this game on the net, and the booklet does NOT provide you with any dead or idiot moves, or with the 2nd and 3rd killer chains for the different characters. Thankfully I found a guide and i am able to perform the idiot moves YAY!

Extra Modes/ Lasting Appeal - 9

For single player this game doesn't disappoint. There's the usual story mode with 5 difficulty levels, the tag team mode where you pick 3/5/7 different characters and go up against the same number of computer controlled characters, or Death mode which you have to unlock with hard work and it lets you play as Death in story mode. This game truly shines in the multiplayer department. There's SO many options- one on one battles , tag team battles, team battles, and many different kinds of tournaments for a maximum of 8 players (I think). Obviously all fighting games come equipped with some surprises. After each time you beat the game in story mode you et a chance to meat Death and he tells you about one code that you have to enter at the Credits screen. The catch is that Death is knows as a liar so you never know if the code he is telling you is real or fake. However, some of the real codes are mighty fun. They include unlocking Death and Pain ( the sub-boss) and making them available for all modes, Making the game run on a tiny DeathBoy screen (a spoof of a gameboy), making the sounds cartoonish and goofy, making the whole game to take place underwater resulting in slow movement and everything being blue. There are also 2 minigames that are unlocked the same way, the fist being good ol' pong , while in the second one you take control of one of the 9 game creators and you walk down a road and use your wacky weapon ( different for each guy) to defeat TROUBLES! It's a pretty decent little game. There's also a high score mode and you can always try to improve your best score for fun.

Overall this game is worth the 10 bucks you'll pay for it if you can even find it anymore, and it helps a great deal to have a good gamepad.