Navigation |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Find Games |
 |
|
|
|
Select your platform |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Community |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Genre |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Misc |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Poll |
Do you agree with MyGamer's Top 20 GB Games Of All Time?
It was a great list (67%)  it wasn't bad, I agree with some (33%) it was totally wrong (0%) Login to vote |
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Dead to Rights II: Hell to Pay 
Release date: 3 Jan 2005
|
Mygamer review
|
Man’s best friend—Crime’s worst nightmare
Fans of the original Dead to Rights may find themselves disappointed when playing through this marginally improved prequel, as Dead to Rights 2 doesn’t offer anything radically new to the genre.
Dead to Rights 2 begins with Jack Slate investigating the whereabouts of a recently kidnapped judge, but the ho-hum story immediately takes a backseat to the action, and largely remains there for the remaining 8-12 hours of complete game time. One of the better aspects of the first Dead to Rights was the brutally implemented disarm system. Fans will be happy to learn that many of those over-the-top moves make a welcome return here, and a slew of new moves are available to quickly confiscate the weapon of any nearby foe. That said, getting in close enough to use these moves can be extremely difficult at times. Frankly, Dead to Rights 2 is pretty difficult in places. Enemies come at you in heavy waves and—as with the original game—you’ll find yourself increasingly reliant on Jack’s slow motion shoot-dodges just in order to survive. Of course, sheer weight of numbers indicates that perhaps your enemies aren’t exactly geniuses. For example, most will arbitrarily run into a room guns blazing, not utilizing any cover or even bothering to make sure their fellow goons are out of the firing line before unloading. Though, admittedly, this can prove advantageous when you need a human shield or two.
Breaking up the shootouts are some hand-to-hand fighting segments, which are slightly less difficult than those found in the original. These sequences are fairly uneventful, though oddly humorous as you go from fully locked and loaded to completely unarmed—for no apparent reason—and then you’re forced into a Double Dragon-style street brawl with random thugs who are also inexplicably unarmed. On the upside, there are some impressive melee weapons available (like a katana), but they still can’t outweigh the sluggish and simplistic combat.
Shadow, Jack’s faithful four-legged sidekick is back in Dead to Rights 2…and he’s just as useless in the sequel as he was in the original. While you can sic Shadow on an enemy to retrieve their weapon, you’ll hardly ever remember (or want) to use him and, when you do, it won’t add anything tangible to the experience. Also, those players frustrated with the awkward mini-games in the original Dead to Rights will be thrilled to know that they have been discarded completely this time around. Constant and senseless action-oriented gameplay is the necessary hit on offer for those adrenaline junkies looking for a quick fix.
Every level is basically the same: you dispatch a bunch of bad guys, followed by the retrieval of a key, or the accomplishment of some other mundane task, so you can progress into another area to dispatch yet more bad guys. While this does become unsurprisingly repetitive, it allows you plenty of opportunities to witness the myriad of available disarm moves, as well as really dish out some serious punishment to anyone stupid enough to come within a few feet of you. Aside from the removal of mini-games and the slightly less difficult fighting, Dead To Rights 2’s gameplay stands almost entirely unchanged from that of the original.
The action may pack a certain lowbrow punch, but the audio suffers tremendously. All of the voice acting is poorly realized, with Jack spouting lame lines like: “I’m Jack Slate, bitch!” However, these lines can sometimes sound unintentionally funny…when you’re not cringing at just how off the mark they are.
One of the most important aspects of a shooter is that the gunshots fired sound as exactly as punishing as they look. Unfortunately, though, most of the aural representations on show here sound weak and unconvincing. For example, firing off a pair of uzis sounds tame and muffled, not at all the way weapons of such power should. Another area where Dead to Rights 2 falls short is the music. One of the more effective implements for heightening tension in action games is ensuring that there is some dynamic, dramatic music that grows as frantic and heated as the shootouts you’re engaged in. Sadly, most of the music here ends up sounding drowned out, but this is more of a relief since the same track loops over and over in each level. A custom-soundtrack option might have helped to alleviate the disappointment, but for whatever reason it wasn’t included for the Xbox version of the game.
Graphically, Dead To Rights 2 is only marginally improved when compared to its predecessor. All of the environments look passable, but have a slightly dated feel. Level design is solid, but a little more variety would have done wonders to the overall package. There are some truly flashy particle effects that look particularly spectacular during a shoot-dodge. Blowing up a car in slow motion produces some great explosions, which are always satisfying to watch as you rotate through the air and pop three more enemies before you even hit the ground. Enhancing the visual detail are the nice blur effects produced during shoot-dodges. As far as character animation is concerned, enemy movement is rigid and could have benefited from more fluidity, but Jack moves well enough to get by. It would perhaps have been better if Jack’s default movement speed were a little quicker, but it’s not a major issue as you’ll be spending most of your time performing slow-motion dodges anyway. Dead to Rights 2 has a solid look, but does scant little to visually distinguish itself from other titles of this genre.
Dead to Rights 2 is fairly straightforward in its control scheme and easy enough to pick up and play, especially if you’ve spent some time with the original. A lot of the actual shooting is made much easier by an intuitive lock-on system but, in a way, it detracts from the experience of shooting someone. It quickly becomes more of a test to see how many enemies you can lock on to and dispatch during one shoot dodge than how accurately you can aim. You won’t find any location-specific damage here, either. All of the controls are simply laid out, making it easy to select weapons or explosive canisters to toss at a group of enemies. Even though Namco has made this seemingly intricate action game easy to control and grow comfortable with, you’ll probably find it difficult to justify a full-price purchase given its minimal replay value and how quickly the game can be completed.
In the end, Dead to Rights 2 ends up falling some way short of expectations as the follow up to the surprise hit Namco released three years ago. While it is by no means the worst third-person shooter on the market, you’ve almost certainly played better. If you’re the kind of player who enjoys mindlessly shooting at, and prevailing over, an infinite number of bad guys, then Dead to Rights 2 will provide you with all you’re looking for. However, if you’re craving narrative depth, sound reasoning, and believable motivation to sit firmly behind your violent malevolence, you might want to hold off for something better—or at the very least try this one via rental before buying.
Review by Joshua Irish on 3 May 2005
Bookark this reviews at:
|
No reviews yet, be the first to post a review and receive extra credits! |  Members review score: n/a |
|
You need to login to add a review |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
