Def Jam: Fight For NY - Story

Story

The game's story picks up immediately after the first game (Def Jam Vendetta). D-Mob (Christopher Judge), the underground boss from the first game, has just been arrested, when the car transporting him gets broadsided by an SUV. The SUV's driver rescues D-Mob from police custody and drives off.

Unlike the four pre-set characters from the first game, the player is allowed to create his own character, in a sequence where the cops who lost D-Mob are asked to describe the player to a police sketch artist (Lauren). The player can also choose between several voice types as well, unlike the previous hero(es), who never spoke in the game. The voice selection is not available in the GameCube version of the game and is restricted to the rough voice. The other voices the player can choose for PlayStation 2 and Xbox are street, clean, cocky, smooth and gruff.

At first, the action will center around shoring up D-Mob's suddenly shaky empire, which has been rocked by the events of the first game, D-Mob's near arrest, and the ruthless Crow (Snoop Dogg), who uses this period of uncertainty to try to take over D-Mob's turf. The fights take place in "clubs." When a fighter for either side manages to either fight off all comers in a club, or simply a captain holding it, or both, he is said to have taken it for his side, and control changes to that side. In the very beginning, the player will be fighting other fighters in D-Mob's group as he gets started, then will quickly be called upon after a few victories to defend clubs that are under attack from fighters that Crow is sending to try to take them, and later go on the offensive to attempt to take clubs from Crow.

The player will also need to fight for respect in D-Mob's crew. Many of D-Mob's lieutenants and top fighters will doubt or be disdainful of the player's skills and abilities at first, most notably Sticky Fingaz, who begins as D-Mob's top fighter until the player begins to replace him, and slightly less vocally by others like Ludacris. Fortunately, the player is quickly befriended by and taken under the wing of Blaze (Method Man), who is not only one of D-Mob's top lieutenants but also a major advisor to the underground boss.

Soon after, D-Mob arranges a match against the legendary Ice-T for the player to prove himself to the rest of his crew. Afterwards Crow himself crashes the party, and openly announces his intentions to take over D-Mob's turf, by firstly setting up a high stakes match between Crack and Blaze, and then openly offering top dollar for D-Mob's fighters to switch to his side. With Crow seemingly having an edge in both money and the sheer number of fighters, the situation looks grim and many of D-Mob's men, such as WC, desert him after this incident. When Blaze also loses badly to Crack in their fight, subsequently putting Blaze out of action for the foreseeable future and losing another major fighter, things look even worse for D-Mob's crew.

The player can also gain a girlfriend (Cindy J, Kimora Lee, Lil' Kim or Shawnna) after fighting for her; he can get the girlfriend he wanted, or if he loses, an uglier one, and later, she ends up in a catfight with Carmen Electra over him. The player can then choose to keep his current girl, or switch to Electra.

After this the war heats up, but even though the odds seem to be against D-Mob's group, the rise of the player through the ranks, and his ability not only to capture clubs from Crow but also from third party groups, such as the Triad-run Dragon House (unique home of Ring Out Match battles), or the Babylon, run by a Jamaican mob in Brooklyn, begins to offset Crow's advantages in cash and fighters.

Eventually, Crow proposes a winner-take-all Cage Match between Crack, one of Crow's best and most feared fighters, and D-Mob's "best man." D-Mob, with encouragement from Sticky, accepts this deal, only to infuriate Sticky when he picks the player as his representative. Sticky storms off angrily, but D-Mob encourages the player not to worry about it and keep his mind on the fight. The player wins the cage match against Crack right in the heart of Crow's territory, but as he, Blaze, and D-Mob are celebrating in their limo, a car drives alongside, and gunfire erupts from the window. D-Mob and Blaze are injured, and Sticky, who participated in the attack, is revealed to have joined up with Crow. After a Subway Match against Crow's enforcer and gunman Trejo, the player returns to the limo, where a wounded D-Mob orders him and Blaze to escape from the rapidly-approaching police (Trejo does not appear again, and can be presumed dead because the player has the option to throw Trejo in the path of an oncoming subway train, killing him).

D-Mob is arrested, and Blaze takes over in his stead, using the player and Blaze's friend Doc as his only reputable fighters (Redman) to take all of Crow's clubs in retaliation. During this time, the player fights in a team tournament, and must choose between two fighters whose respect he earned early in his career: Ice-T and Omar Epps. The player chooses one of them and eventually fights the team of the other person not chosen and Magic (Busta Rhymes). The prizes consist of a large cash prize for one team member, and a customized black Cadillac Escalade for the other (which the player takes).

As the player continues to rack up victiories and chips away at Crow's empire, Crow continually tries to get the player to join his side, but fails (One of the first attempts consists of Magic threatening the player in a parking lot after a cage fight with Lil' Flip - this results in the game's only Demolition Match). Finally, Crow resorts to kidnapping the player's girlfriend and forcing him to retake all the clubs he has earned for D-Mob's side, one by one, an apparent betrayal that angers the rest of D-Mob's crew. Crow warns the player that if he tells anyone the real reason for his change of sides, the player's girlfriend will be killed.

With the last club won in a fight against Doc (before which a distraught Blaze angrily takes D-Mob's pendant from the player), Crow claims to have one final task for the player. (After you defeat Doc, you must wait until you beat Story Mode to improve your player.) The scene is moved to an empty scrapyard, where the player finds Blaze brutally beaten by Magic, the final task being to finish him off. The player refuses, and knocks out WC. He and Blaze then battle Crack and Magic. The player must defeat them both in the game's final 2 on 2 match with a weakened Blaze.

After the fight, the player figures out where his girlfriend is being held, and that Crow never planned on letting her live. He and Blaze rush over to an abandoned factory, where Sticky is about to set the entire building on fire. The player engages Sticky in an Inferno Match and leaves him to die in the burning building. After he wins the fight, he can be seen taking his girlfriend out of the burning building before it collapses. She remains unconscious as the player tries to shake her awake (leaving her true fate undetermined), and enrages the player enough to confront Crow.

The player and Blaze confront Crow at his headquarters, backed up by Crack and WC, whose respect they earned, and the remainder of D-Mob's crew, whom Blaze had cleared the player's good name with. As a rumble breaks out with Crow's gang, the player rushes to face Crow in a final showdown. After a brief stand off involving a gun, given to the player by a repentant Magic, the player decides that Crow is not worth killing. However, an enraged Crow attacks him with a knife hidden in his cane. Crow's attack proved D-Mob's warning, "A beaten dog may fear you, but the second you turn your back he's gonna strike". After a Window Match, Crow is defeated, and thrown out the window by the player. The player then takes a minute to reflect after Crow is finished. It is unknown what happened to both crews (except Blaze) after the brawl. After you beat Story Mode, You can choose to do some Bonus tournaments, or play them later. Some fighters from both crews are in these tournaments, including Blaze and D-Mob (Everyone probably combines to make it every man for themselves), so no one in the brawl was arrested or killed. One note, is that in the Bonus fights, if you lose or quit, you can't do the tournament again, and it goes to the next one. You do these Bonus fights for huge cash.