Dead to Rights

"Could Be Game Of The Year"

Hello listen up as a do a review on Dead To Rights.

Anyone who says you should never work with animals clearly has not fought a one-man war against crime alongside a throat-chewing, gun-stealing, bomb-sniffing husky wolf called Shadow. We have, and we can safely say that when your trapped in a warehouse surrounded by gun-toting crime, a dog definitely is a mans best friend. Shadow might only play a supporting role, but he is the real star of this bloodthirsty arcade shooter. Good boy, Shadow.

A dog must have a master, and here he goes by the suitably gritty name of Jack Slate. Slate joins the likes of Max Payne in a long line oh ‘having a very bad day’ American cops with a fridge-sized bug up them. Just moments after the game starts Slate finds his dad lying dead with his organs decorating the pavement. Minutes later he is been framed for murder and is fast-tracked to Death Row and a date with the chair. There is only one way forward. Go kill every god dam person in site.

Subtle Dead To Rights is not. The basic idea is, ‘If it moves, shoot it. If you can not shoot it; punch or kick it. If that fails, unleash the hound’. Which is all fine by me, and if you’re a satisfied veteran of the war to save Zion, it will be fine by you to. There is an arsenal of ever changing weaponry, scores to hapless cannon fodder, neat disarming moves, a spot of martial arts and ropy graphics.

It is good. Incredibly gory. Somewhat a repetitive and rather gratuitous, but good. You will find yourself in an area, a street, a whorehouse or a warehouse, for example and the only way out is to pretty much nail everyone you come across. There are plenty of ways to do this. Some sections see you armed only with fists and feet, and punching, kicking, throwing and dodging is the only way to sort out the bother. It is pretty basic- just bashing the buttons to pull a simple three- move combo out of the bag when an enemy is near you.
When your armed and dangerous it is a little more complex, but hardly brain- engaging stuff (and quite right, too). There is an auto- target system with a color- coded cross hair that tells you how likely you are to hit a felon. When it is green, the prep is safe. When it is red, it is time to splay his brains on the wall.

You can protect yourself by grabbing a bloke and use him as a shield, or you can find cover the hard way. You rearm yourself either by snaffling the guns of the fallen or by disarming them with one if several highly gory moves (like tackling a gun with a gun the kicking him in the air and making him float by shooting him). Your never short of hardware but if you do fall short, you can send Shadow out to maul a guy and bring you back his gun. Good Boy Shadow.

There are also, among other things, bombs to disarm, locks to be picked, weights to be lifted, arms to be wrestled and girls to be protected. All sound good so far? Indeed. Sadly there are a few rather chunky faults. For one, the graphics are rather lame- they are grainy, not a million miles from the likes of some other big PS2 games. I recommend playing on the hard setting or else it will all be over to fast. But lets not forget the dog. Shadow makes the game so fun without him it would be just normal.

Verdict:

Graphics: 6/10 Dead To Rights is a few years old. And it shows.
Sound: 8/10 Decent voice acting and suitable opera of destruction.
Game play: 8/10 Great gunfights interjected with neat mini games.
Life Span: 6/10 A weekend at the most on the normal difficulty setting.

There you go hoped you liked it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/03