"Actually an OK game... if you're bored and patient."

To be honest, I'm not a huge comic geek. I stick with video games, and that's about it, but like almost every male 20+ years old, I've seen Stallone's Judge Dredd movie. So when my buddy brings over Judge Dredd vs. Death for the gamecube, I pop it in, we start playing, and a couple of hours later it is beat. So here's some quick thoughts of what I thought about it.

First, I couldn't really follow the story at all, but I'll attribute some of that to not really knowing the history behind Mega City or the judges (this game is definitely aimed at the fans). I do know that the story is fairly hard to follow (rushed dialog), the directions and objectives are rather rushed, and you can't go back to see or be reminded of your current objective. Apparently some dark judges have escaped and you have to round them up. Along the way you will be given objectives to complete, and this is one of the games biggest problems. Half of the time they will show where you need to go with a blue dot which also displays how far away you are, but again, this only happens half the time! The rest of the time you are lost, trying desperately to find your way through the maze-like levels.

The game mostly consists of fighting off zombies, gang members, and werewolves, and I was surprised how in-depth the guns were at first. Your standard gun has a variety of bullets that can ricochet, light people on fire, and so forth. You can also pick up a secondary weapon like a shotgun, pistol, or sniper rifle and use it as well. There really isn't any ammo lying around for these guns unless you pillage another weapon, so your main gun is provided with infinite ammo. I didn't really play with the bullet types too much, since your regular five-round burst works well enough, but it's there if you want it. Another lame thing was that there was no reload button, meaning you'll often find yourself dodging enemies as you take forever to reload.

The graphics look like they're barely a notch above N64 quality. Judge Dredd has to be one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. You also can get easily stuck to other objects in the level, so that's annoying as well. The music was actually surprisingly catchy, it seemed to be a mix of record-scratching combined with a few background tunes. The sound effects are fairly standard, although Judge Dredd delivers way too many cheesy lines.

To wrap up, the gameplay and music are OK, but the story and graphics are pretty sad. In the game there is a short story mode (very short), as well as an arcade mode that you can play with. Judge Dredd vs. Death isn't a horror of a game, but it is far from a real good game. It makes for a good couple of hours with a friend in co-op if you can work past the horrible navigation system (and you are both patient enough to play through it). Have fun and keep playing!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/17/08

Game Release: Judge Dredd: Dredd VS Death (US, 03/01/05)