Dead to Rights

When you first see a game that is stepping into territories reserved for the best, following in the footsteps of our greatest titles, a feeling of assurance and apprehension clouds the mind.  And there is no greater example as the masterpieces of Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City and the failed attempts many games try to overcome the hurdles and go beyond what seems to be hopeless.  Dead to Rights has come along to the Xbox, a delight to owners everywhere waiting for a substitute to the lack of GTA gameplay on their console.  It was met with high acclaim, from the brutal violence that tags on a nice “M” Rating to the story driven action as if you were watching a movie.  Now it comes to PC, an area of gaming hardware that has the tendency to prefer FPS and Strategy genres more than 3^rd person action titles that try to tap into the close-perfection of Max Payne.  But putting that aside, Dead to Rights is a pretty enjoyable action game with a few drawbacks that reminds you it is an older console version.

You take on the role of Jack Slate, a Grant City K-9 officer who answers a call from dispatch about a shooting.  When he gets there, he finds his father has been murdered and is framed for the crime.  Now, he is a fugitive, hunted by cops as well as those he has fought against in uniform.  With his K-9 partner, Shadow, and help from a small amount of allies, Jack must continue to protect his Grant City while catching those responsible for his fathers untimely death.

As I have previously stated, this is a 3^rd person action shooter that adds a little more to the gameplay element than its more famed predecessors (Max Payne).  Dead to Rights drips with sweat as the amount of adrenaline-pumping action makes old “Maxxy” seem like a proud member of the AARP.  The number of weapons and moves available won’t leave you feeling incomplete, including such guns as a .44 Magnum Revolver to the always popular Rocket Launcher and moves that would make Neo jealous.  Another thing that Max Payne lacked was a hand-to-hand combat element.  Dead to Rights offers an adequate engine for such an occasion when you’d prefer a less noisy kill.  And of course, what’s a K-9 officer without his trusty companion?  Shadow was bred for action, giving you the advantage against your enemies.  He can disarm foes, retrieve weapons, and sniff-out bombs.  There is also an interesting inclusion of mini-games, like arm-wrestling, bench-pressing, and more.  As you can imagine, this adds even more game time to it.  Dead to Rights had to follow Max Payne’s approach of bullet-time, featuring slow-motion directional diving to help against the odds when facing a large number of enemies.

Graphically, it’s not up to snuff with MP2.  But I don’t think that is what Namco was going for, delivering simple graphics that contains its own charm.  The levels were nicely developed; and taking a look at the concept art, the artists obviously spent some time in each environment’s design.  Character models could use a little work as far as motion is concerned, but the developers still managed to pull it off, barely.  It’s obvious to me that this game once was on a console, which puts graphics second to overall gameplay quality.  There is nothing completely amazing with the sound.  The music doesn’t compete with other action titles such as this one, and the sound effects weren’t horribly unpleasant to the ears.

Overall, though Dead to Rights does contain a few features not available on other games like it, it doesn’t do enough in separating itself from the group of recent action titles trying to get a little of the spotlight still focused around Max Payne 2.  But if you are looking for a nice action game after completing MP2, you may just find it here.

Gameplay: 8.0
Fairly solid gameplay experience, but it really does feel like it was made for a console.

Graphics: 7.8
The character models need a little work, especially when moving.  But the levels are fairly detailed and always unique.

Difficulty: Medium

Sound: 7.3
Nothing really stands out sound-wise.

Concept: 6.7
If you've played one action game, like MP2, you've pretty much played them all.

Overall: 7.9
Because it was made for the XBOX originally, get the console version if you have it.  Otherwise, its a fairly fun game with some problems holding it back.