I remember how much hype this game was getting before this game came out on the Xbox back in 2002. Many thought this was going to be one of the best action games on the system. When it did come out, the game received fairly positive acclaim. Namco then decided to port the game over to the PS2 and Gamecube the next year, with everything pretty much intact except a decrease in difficulty. But is the game really worth all the praise? Quite frankly, no.

I found Dead To Rights to be a rather repetitive action title that seems promising in the beginning, then really runs some one-note game play towards the end. Things start off well: the action is plentiful, and there are other objectives that really break things up. But after awhile, you start repeating the same steps over : hand to hand combat, weapons combat, mindless miniggame, railed shooting segment and so on. While it's been said that the difficulty had been decreased in the ported versions of the game, you really couldn't tell by the one-sided fights you'll face. For example in the cemetery chapter, there are gunmen everywhere, so why in god's name would you limit ammo pickups? Also, how many people do you know that can take three shotgun blasts to the head and STILL keep going?

The controls are decent, and never get in the way that often, which is a good thing. You'll have a couple of helpful tools at your disposal such as the obligatory "slowing down of time so you can dramatically jump and kill an enemy in midair" feature, as well as the ability to call your dog Shadow to maul an enemy, and retrieve it's weapon (seeing Shadow maul someone is pretty funny, too). And Shadow does have a little more use beyond that, as there are segments in which he may need to search for bombs or alternate paths. As is the game, the level design smacks of heavy repetition most of the time. There were quite a few chapters that had rooms that looked very similar to each other, which makes it confusing to know where you have been and where you haven't. Also, the game really likes to keep things LINEAR. It's really one path to one thing, and that's all.

The visuals are basically average. The character models are decent, but could have shown more detail. The environments lack the sharper texture quality of the Xbox build, as well as the better lighting. I know that the Gamecube is able to pull off the same kind of effects the Xbox can, but really this is a PS2 port, and downgrades are to be had. Visually, it's hardly a noteworthy game, just another run of the mill action title we've seen many times before. The audio quality fares the same. The music is repetitive, the effects are decent, and the voice acting is rather mixed.

Final Thought

Dead To Rights is not the extraordinary action experience some would want you to believe. It's really just another mindless action title that might keep you occupied for 6-8 hours, and really offer nothing beyond that. Might be worth a bargain bin pickup, but nothing desperately worth hunting down.