Anyone who owns an Xbox has been hearing about Namco's Dead To Rights since before the console launched last November. By most accounts, every preview of the game was glowingly positive, and promised a unique and visceral experience unmatched in console gaming. However, as the release date approached, and reviews started trickling out, while some of them were great, others were less than stellar. Regardless of the reviews, I purchased and played thru the game to see how it stacks up.
From the very start, Namco lets the player know this is not a game for pick-up-and-play amateurs. The opening level is essentially a training session to teach you the basics of the controls and general gameplay. I'll admit even after going thru it twice, I was still shaky on which button did what, but after a few hours, I grew accustomed to them. As Jack, you are able to use hand to hand combat, shoot weapons, grab people and use them as a shield, control your K-9 companion, and perform various disam maneuvers. All of this is handled fairly well, given the complexity of the controls, and you'll find yourself using all of them extensively at one time or another.
The story is actually very good, although it's similar to other games and/or movies from the past. As policeman Jack Slate, you are seeking to avenge the murder of your father, and will go to any lengths to find out who the killer is and snuff him out yourself. On your search for the killer, which consists of a lot of dead-ends and plot twists, you'll end up killing about 500 or more other people who are in the way. Which can be an exercise is self control, as some of the levels are mind-numbingly hard and will cause you to likely repeat the same frustrating level literally dozens of times until you get it right. However, finally finishing said frustrating level does bring a big dose of "I kicked your arse!" screaming and yelling for the most part. There are various mandatory mini-games which you'll have to manuever in order to progress, some of which are hard, and some of which seem to be there simply for amusement. Lockpicking, disarming bombs, Silent Scope style shooting from helicopters, lifing weights, punching bags, and last but not least, pole dancing. Yeah... I said pole dancing. In a very early stage, you are required to punch buttons Dance Dance Revolution style to get a stripper do pole dance; distracting the bouncers so Jack can get into the back office of the club.
The ability to slow down time and battle in DTR is a good element, and at times necessary. It is handled entirely different from the similar feature in Max Payne, and due to the auto target feature, it is also more effective. Another feature is also the ability to send your trusty K-9 out to tackle an enemy or two. This one is at times entirely essential, as more than once, you'll find yourself hiding against a crate or wall with bullets flying and you are out of ammo. With a simple button press, you can send Shadow to bite the neck of the closest bad guy, kill him, and bring the baddie's gun back with him for you to use. Nice.
Having no difficulty setting may hurt the mainstream acceptance of DTR, as many not-so-hardcore gamers will not enjoy the severe difficulty of the game. If it possibly started off easy and got progressively harder, then it might be forgivable to some extent, but even early on, the game fluctuates between normal difficulty to extreme difficulty and back again.
One part of the game that seems to never get old are the disarms. I found myself actually putting my firearms away (you can only do disarms when not holding a weapon) so I could snap a neck, break an arm before shooting an enemy with his own gun, or kick him up into the air before filling him full of lead. The disram animations are awesome, and each time you perform one, you can't help but get a little smirk on your face. Disarms are basically earned thru using them. The more disarms you use, the more become unlocked and usable, so use them often to get various sweet disarms.
Dead to Rights has been in development for about 2 yars now, and it shows in the overall presentation. The FMV's are great, but the graphical detail is not up to par with other games currently available on the Xbox. This is partly due to the fact that the game is designed as a multiplatform game, with PS2 and GC versions appearing in approximately 3 months, after the Xbox exclusivity contract is up. That isn't to say DTR is a bad looking game. It's not. It's quite reminicent of the characters and environments in Grand Theft Auto, although it's not the same developer. The framerate remains consistently high, and I never noticed any slowdown at all in any of the multitude of gunbattles Jack encounters. Jack will regularly have to dispatch anywhere from 4 ro 24 bad guys in a single room before he's thru, so no noticable slowdown is a big accomplishement in my eyes, even if the details aren't as sharp as I'd like.
The music in DTR is good, and fits well with the overall feel of the game. For some of the levels, it feels reminicent of the Matrix film, and I have a feeling that was a major influence in the games feel and atmoshphere. The voice acting is somewhat hammy at times, but it's not bad, and makes the game feel like the gritty crime serials of old. Weapon fire is accurately modeled, and environmental effects are good.
It will likely take an avid player around 15-20 hours to complete, and an average gamer even longer, due to restarting the levels over and over numerous times. My save clock said around 9 hours, but those do not include any restarts. Anyway, being a one-player game, it doesn't have the replay value it could have had, it still has quite a bit, since once you complete the game you're allowed to choose from which ever level you'd like to play again just for the heck of it. I usually pick a level full of baddies just to see how many disarms I can pull off before they blow me away. So while it could have been better are far as value is concerned, it's no slouch either.
While it may not be for every gamer, and while it's not the incredible title we kept hearing about in the various first impressions around the web, it's still a solid action title, even if it may be too difficult for less than patient gamers. I played thru Buffy and DTR at the same time, and kept alternating between the two as to which I liked better. I still am having problems deciding, as DTR is very visceral and those disarms... fun as all get out, yet Buffy has a good coat of polish on it too, and the core gameplay is a tad tighter than in DTR. Anyway, DTR is definitely worth a rent for most folks, and for those up for the challenge should add it to their collection.
