Dead to Rights first came about back in the day of when the original Xbox was due to be released, where Microsoft were touting their exclusive games to try and wrench us all from the grips of Sony or Nintendo. The game looked pretty good, from the descriptions and screenshots we were receiving from Microsoft, and anticipation grew somewhat. Unfortunately Namco’s arcade shooter didn’t cut it for me. Not only was the game incredibly facile and repetitive, but the game was full of chaff features which you never, ever needed to use. Hopes were bolstered when Namco announced that they were thinning out these superfluous functions, but it looks like they’ve watered-down the whole game instead.

So what’s it all about? Well it seems that Dead to Rights II doesn’t really have any tangible plot, there is a lot of talk about a kidnapped judge that was your father’s best mate – but it’s all just an excuse to waste hundreds of bad guys. This is a little harsh, the game does know that it doesn’t have much of a storyline and it instead leans towards pastige. A lot of the dialogue has an underlying campness to it, not to say that the great Jack Slate is of that persuasion, but in the way of a dodgy action movie. Most levels start with Jack ramming his vehicle into a wall and then beating up some bystander, hopefully not innocent, and uttering a hilarious one-liner.

Gameplay

As with most third-person shooters of this arcade ilk, DtRII is a very simplistic game. When you encounter enemies, a crosshair will lock onto the nearest foe and pulling the right trigger will split his wig, so to speak. As you’re usually surrounded by mobs of miscreants at any one time this is incredibly useful, although it does just feel like you’re telling the Xbox when to ‘go’, rather than controlling the action yourself. The A.I of these enemies is also depressing, and it often feels like it might be more challenging to be battling your way through a retirement home of wily pensioners, instead of these edgy gang types. This is fun for a short while, but for those that tire of repetition easy, stay away.

As you’d expect, there are enough guns in the game to equip a small army, although they are generally bland versions of their real-life exponents. Shotguns have short range, machine guns/handguns medium to long range. Ground-breaking huh? Mind you, this isn’t really meant to be a Halo-esque revolution, especially when released so close to the Xbox 360 launch. There’s no real item system in place, which is fantastic for this type of game, where you can blast through your ammo stocks, switching weapons automatically allowing for fluid action. If simple lead isn’t enough to satisfy your apparent bloodlust, then rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives can create some interesting fireworks, with added flying torsos.

There are also some special attacks and maneuvers that you can attempt in the game, although none are particularly useful, with maybe the exception of bullet time. The bullet time leaps allow you to dodge bullets and shoot enemies, al a Max Payne. You can also set your furry friend Shadow (a name almost as cool and edgy as Jack Slate!) on random people, but it’s more likely he’ll fetch gun-shaped sticks than actually help you (or run into a wall).

Control / Playability

The game is incredibly easy to play, so much so that you don’t really need a manual to play it comfortably (although the some advanced techniques will take time to figure out). The game auto-targets for you, making it easy to dispatch enemies, although you will be forced to use hand-to-hand combat at times, using a very clunky and simplistic fighting system. The game is also pretty easy, as long as you don’t kill yourself of boredom of shooting badguy #1203 in that corridor that just looked like the last.

Graphics / Presentation

The game looks like you’d expect it too, gritty and dull levels, most of which look the same and that consist mainly of corridors. There isn’t really anything to wow you here, there’s often signs of aliasing and textures look flat and pixellated. The characters move in an unrealistic manner, and clipping is most definitely an issue. Generally the visual feel unfinished a lot of the time, which makes it seem like the developers couldn’t be bothered with this game much.

Audio

The audio in Dead to Rights II is absolutely terrible. Firstly there’s the looping background music, which sounds like it was made on a monophonic phone composer. Secondly the sound effects are reminiscent of playing a budget PC shooter that ran on DOS. Gunshots sound hollow, rather like cheap fireworks going off in a council estate and other effects sound generic, but then, so is the game. The voice acting is also pretty appalling, but this actually makes the dialogue even more comical, which is good in some ways.

Replay Value

There really isn’t much to do in this game after you’ve gone through the story mode once already. Go through it again if you must, but after the few hours you’ve spent indulging your violent streak, it’s time for a trade-in.

Overall Score

Overall Score: 5.7/10 [not an average]

Additional Comments

Dead to Rights II doesn’t exactly disappoint me, as the first installment was really no better, but I would’ve liked to see a more marked improvement after this development time. It is pretty entertaining, a game that you can jump straight into for some arcade action, but after the novelty’s worn off you’ll get pretty bored. Not really the quintessential release we’re looking for in this stage of the Xbox’s life.

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