lost
05-06-2010, 10:41 AM
Title: Dead to Rights: Retribution
Platform: 360/PS3
Platform Reviewed: 360
Developer: Volatile Games (www.volatilegames.com)
Publisher: Namco (www.namcobandaigames.com/)
MSRP: $59.99
Writer: Martin 'lost' Perry
Dead to Rights: Retribution Review
Unfortunately a man's best friend can't quite save this shooter from mediocrity.
Dead to Rights has been around for a while – in case you didn't know, they've already put out two games under the name. Both, and this shiny new sequel, follow the escapades of Jack Slate and his dog Shadow as they journey around Grant City busting chops as the ultimate cop team. The series has faired reasonably well in both sales and critical reception but I don't think it struck anybody as a game that needed to be expanded upon. Never-the-less, Volatile Games and Namco (not Namco Bandai, oddly) have taken everything about the originals and updated them considerably. They almost made a brilliant game out of it.
The story opens with Jack falling from a fishing boat, a bloody mess with only his trusty dog to protect him. This noir cop affair is then told, for the most part, in a flashback not unlike Max Payne – a game which has an obvious, significant influence on almost everything contained on the disk. That leaves you with a fairly interesting tale of deceit, corporate greed and corruption within the Grant City Police Department. Nothing particularly new, nothing particularly exciting but it acted as motivation enough to drive me through all 10 of the campaign levels.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y242/LostGames/deadtorights1.jpg
Those levels consist of of either 'just Jack' or sections in which you control Shadow directly. These are the most enjoyable, and within the game's opening scene you'll get to witness his brutality. Skulking around or sprinting ahead, Shadow is capable of ripping out throats, digging out hearts and detaching ball sacks. Yup, Shadow loves the taste of gang-banger scrotum and will bury his head in genitals more often than you might expect – there are, after all, much more effective ways to kill a man. Other than these startling acts of doggy violence, Shadow is typically tasked with returning a key to his master in order to progress. This is a rather blatant attempt to curb the repetition that seeps into the majority of the gameplay.
Jack himself is an able individual, blending hand-to-hand combat with over-the-shoulder shooting. The developers have made an awful lot of this combination but, being brutally honest, it's not something that we haven't experienced before, particularly in the PS2 era in which the series was born. With a few combo options, the hand-to-hand is straight forward stuff that won't tax any brain cells. However, Jack doesn't want to be outdone by his buddy and will execute enemies with fearsome punches, kicks and bullets if you pull off a decent flurry of shots. Using slow-motion makes these something of a nuisance by the mid-point and can often feel like a disadvantage if you have built up some momentum against the enemy.
Along with all this neck-snapping and scrotal-chewing action the cover based shooting features quite heavily. The enemies you face will rarely be without their pistols and machine-guns but neither will you. There's a tonne of cover dotted around the levels and, in familiar fashion, you can hit a button to snap to cover. Blind fire, cover swapping and leaping over cover – its all here. The developers have thrown in their own nuances though. Being able to dispatch Shadow to take out an enemy or retrieve a weapon can turn the tide of a challenging shoot-out. Occasionally he'll take a few too many hits and you're left with the option of reviving him or waiting until the battle is over. You might be tempted to run after him, especially if it means you can pull off the very cool flying kick as you dive over cover.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y242/LostGames/deadtorights2.jpg
In all these components work well together even if they lack any real originality. Shadow's presence is useful but really just cancels out the limited ammunition and inability to quick-throw grenades. Within the first 6 or 7 levels these mechanics will be absolutely enough to keep you entertained especially given the decent level design. Unfortunately, in the latter stages of the game you will replay familiar areas in a new way but the repetition makes its presence well known. Novelty should never be included for the sake of it but perhaps if more was done with Shadow, or if escort sections were a little bit more challenging the cobwebs wouldn't have set in quite so quickly. There are only so many bullets you can fire and punches you can throw before you're left wanting more, this situation being aggravated by the simple AI that fails to challenge or vary its technique.
Maybe the developers thought they had done enough by including bullet-time, turrets, sniping sections and a couple of stealthy sections but the issue is that it has all been done before, it has all been combined in this way before, and none of these mechanics really break away from the bland consistency of the fighting/shooting gameplay core. On reflection Volatile Games actually included some variation but, for the life of me, I don't remember experiencing the sensation of change. That's a problem, that's how players get bored.
Given the quality of the gameplay and the poor replay value the game over-achieves in terms of presentation. The audio, from sound effects to music and voice-acting, is standard stuff but all characters feel like realistic parts of the gritty, Gotham-esque city that the game takes place in. Continual rain, chunky character design and some strong concept work gives you a believable, fleshed-out world. It's definitely worth looking around from time to time as the close camera often means you'll miss out on the quality architecture and art scattered around the game world. Cutscenes are also well-timed and appear with the right frequency, keeping the story going without infringing on what is, at its core, a fairly simple run-and-gun affair.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y242/LostGames/deadtorights3.jpg
Dead to Rights: Retribution holds value above and beyond what most gamers will afford it. Volatile Games haven't made any giant leaps forward, nor re-invented this particular wheel, but the game is good fun with stream-lined, keenly though-out design. It's just a shame that the developers didn't take the time to come up with a few more locations, especially given the potential of a large urban setting, in order to keep the player interested up until the end. It's nice to play as a cop for a change – no soldiers here – and the few set pieces there are empower the player whether it be robot suit or canine friend. With a healthy 10 hours of content it will keep you busy for a weekend, but a purchase is not recommended.
Score: 3 out of 5
http://evavhost.com/public/3.gif
The Good
I liked the character and world design a lot, the game looks great.
Playing as Shadow is a blast and none of the game mechanics are broken or faulty.
The first half of the game takes you to some interesting places, they just repeat later on.
The Bad
The game plays it too safe and doesn't offer enough variety to keep things really interesting.
Going back through levels, in reverse or not, is not how I want gameplay packed out.
Blame it on Splinter Cell: Conviction, but the cover system doesn't always feel up to scratch.
The Ugly
Zero replay value.
Platform: 360/PS3
Platform Reviewed: 360
Developer: Volatile Games (www.volatilegames.com)
Publisher: Namco (www.namcobandaigames.com/)
MSRP: $59.99
Writer: Martin 'lost' Perry
Dead to Rights: Retribution Review
Unfortunately a man's best friend can't quite save this shooter from mediocrity.
Dead to Rights has been around for a while – in case you didn't know, they've already put out two games under the name. Both, and this shiny new sequel, follow the escapades of Jack Slate and his dog Shadow as they journey around Grant City busting chops as the ultimate cop team. The series has faired reasonably well in both sales and critical reception but I don't think it struck anybody as a game that needed to be expanded upon. Never-the-less, Volatile Games and Namco (not Namco Bandai, oddly) have taken everything about the originals and updated them considerably. They almost made a brilliant game out of it.
The story opens with Jack falling from a fishing boat, a bloody mess with only his trusty dog to protect him. This noir cop affair is then told, for the most part, in a flashback not unlike Max Payne – a game which has an obvious, significant influence on almost everything contained on the disk. That leaves you with a fairly interesting tale of deceit, corporate greed and corruption within the Grant City Police Department. Nothing particularly new, nothing particularly exciting but it acted as motivation enough to drive me through all 10 of the campaign levels.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y242/LostGames/deadtorights1.jpg
Those levels consist of of either 'just Jack' or sections in which you control Shadow directly. These are the most enjoyable, and within the game's opening scene you'll get to witness his brutality. Skulking around or sprinting ahead, Shadow is capable of ripping out throats, digging out hearts and detaching ball sacks. Yup, Shadow loves the taste of gang-banger scrotum and will bury his head in genitals more often than you might expect – there are, after all, much more effective ways to kill a man. Other than these startling acts of doggy violence, Shadow is typically tasked with returning a key to his master in order to progress. This is a rather blatant attempt to curb the repetition that seeps into the majority of the gameplay.
Jack himself is an able individual, blending hand-to-hand combat with over-the-shoulder shooting. The developers have made an awful lot of this combination but, being brutally honest, it's not something that we haven't experienced before, particularly in the PS2 era in which the series was born. With a few combo options, the hand-to-hand is straight forward stuff that won't tax any brain cells. However, Jack doesn't want to be outdone by his buddy and will execute enemies with fearsome punches, kicks and bullets if you pull off a decent flurry of shots. Using slow-motion makes these something of a nuisance by the mid-point and can often feel like a disadvantage if you have built up some momentum against the enemy.
Along with all this neck-snapping and scrotal-chewing action the cover based shooting features quite heavily. The enemies you face will rarely be without their pistols and machine-guns but neither will you. There's a tonne of cover dotted around the levels and, in familiar fashion, you can hit a button to snap to cover. Blind fire, cover swapping and leaping over cover – its all here. The developers have thrown in their own nuances though. Being able to dispatch Shadow to take out an enemy or retrieve a weapon can turn the tide of a challenging shoot-out. Occasionally he'll take a few too many hits and you're left with the option of reviving him or waiting until the battle is over. You might be tempted to run after him, especially if it means you can pull off the very cool flying kick as you dive over cover.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y242/LostGames/deadtorights2.jpg
In all these components work well together even if they lack any real originality. Shadow's presence is useful but really just cancels out the limited ammunition and inability to quick-throw grenades. Within the first 6 or 7 levels these mechanics will be absolutely enough to keep you entertained especially given the decent level design. Unfortunately, in the latter stages of the game you will replay familiar areas in a new way but the repetition makes its presence well known. Novelty should never be included for the sake of it but perhaps if more was done with Shadow, or if escort sections were a little bit more challenging the cobwebs wouldn't have set in quite so quickly. There are only so many bullets you can fire and punches you can throw before you're left wanting more, this situation being aggravated by the simple AI that fails to challenge or vary its technique.
Maybe the developers thought they had done enough by including bullet-time, turrets, sniping sections and a couple of stealthy sections but the issue is that it has all been done before, it has all been combined in this way before, and none of these mechanics really break away from the bland consistency of the fighting/shooting gameplay core. On reflection Volatile Games actually included some variation but, for the life of me, I don't remember experiencing the sensation of change. That's a problem, that's how players get bored.
Given the quality of the gameplay and the poor replay value the game over-achieves in terms of presentation. The audio, from sound effects to music and voice-acting, is standard stuff but all characters feel like realistic parts of the gritty, Gotham-esque city that the game takes place in. Continual rain, chunky character design and some strong concept work gives you a believable, fleshed-out world. It's definitely worth looking around from time to time as the close camera often means you'll miss out on the quality architecture and art scattered around the game world. Cutscenes are also well-timed and appear with the right frequency, keeping the story going without infringing on what is, at its core, a fairly simple run-and-gun affair.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y242/LostGames/deadtorights3.jpg
Dead to Rights: Retribution holds value above and beyond what most gamers will afford it. Volatile Games haven't made any giant leaps forward, nor re-invented this particular wheel, but the game is good fun with stream-lined, keenly though-out design. It's just a shame that the developers didn't take the time to come up with a few more locations, especially given the potential of a large urban setting, in order to keep the player interested up until the end. It's nice to play as a cop for a change – no soldiers here – and the few set pieces there are empower the player whether it be robot suit or canine friend. With a healthy 10 hours of content it will keep you busy for a weekend, but a purchase is not recommended.
Score: 3 out of 5
http://evavhost.com/public/3.gif
The Good
I liked the character and world design a lot, the game looks great.
Playing as Shadow is a blast and none of the game mechanics are broken or faulty.
The first half of the game takes you to some interesting places, they just repeat later on.
The Bad
The game plays it too safe and doesn't offer enough variety to keep things really interesting.
Going back through levels, in reverse or not, is not how I want gameplay packed out.
Blame it on Splinter Cell: Conviction, but the cover system doesn't always feel up to scratch.
The Ugly
Zero replay value.