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Author: HQH
Released: July 14, 2004
Updated: N/A
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Dead To Rights (Xbox) Review |
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Story Line
A game that is almost like Max Payne (with its elements borrowed from Hong Kong action gun shooting movies), except that
instead of wife and child being gunned down, Jack Slate's dad gets gunned down for an unknown reason to Jack Slate. Jack Slate now
must investigate what got his dad killed. This game has a lot of spins and twists added to the game's plot. It's weird at first
because this game involves a lot of characters throughout the game, but in the end, plot becomes clearer.
Graphic
The graphics in the game won't win any awards, as they seem average. There's not much of an eye candy from this game. However,
animated computer graphics are nice at times when it's shown in the game for cut scenes instead of using the game engine's to do
cut scenes. It's nice to see some CGs throughout the game.
Audio
Seems on average to me. Not too much unique dialogs from characters within the game. They mostly spout the same thing.
Control
One of Dead To Rights' many problems - aiming and camera viewing. I really had issues with the aiming. The game only lets you
select bad guys that are in front of you most of the game, until you get to Chapter Fifteen: "Story of the Century", it'll start to
let you target bad guys behind you. But then, most of the time, you now want to target anybody in front of you, which I hated in
Chapter Fifteen. Also, when you dive in slow motion, most of the time, the bad guy has to be in front of your view in order to
shoot them. You can't just dive in slow motion from a corner and shoot when you pop out of the corner when bad guys are around the
corner. As for the camera viewing, a lot of areas in the game, you're either in a tight corridor or corner, and the camera just
stay locks on your character at a certain angle. Even when running around (and shooting), the camera will lock in at a certain
angle, never automatically resetting the position to face where you're heading or who you are shooting at. Most of the time, I find
myself pressing the right trigger to auto position where I'm facing at before I bust some bad guys. Although the developers allows
you to reposition the camera with the right thumbstick, you shouldn't always have to mess with it during the game too much, which I
also find myself doing. Very bad camera design. Controls need more work put into it.
Difficulty
Another Dead To Rights' problems (well, more of an annoyance) is the difficulty of the game. There's no setting to make the game
easy, normal, or hard. It's straight out hard setting. You will find yourself many times playing the same part over and over again
to complete the mission because the developers make the game so freaking hard at times. A lot of time, you either have to take it
slowly and defeat all the bad guys one by one because your health is low or don't have enough ammunition. I also find a lot of
times, there's not enough health packs or armor when the game pits you up against a horde of bad guys charging at you. You are then
forced to do cheap tactics, like using Shadow (the dog in the game) to scarf down on the bad guys one by one (I had to resort to
this cheap tactic a few times, which doesn't get your main character hurt, and kills the bad guy instantly) while hiding. The game
is very challenging to say. Be prepared to be frustrated countless times. Guaranteed. As for the AI, they're pretty much dumb. I
noticed that they just shoot at an interval, so you can pretty much guess when to pop out and shoot them back. But when you're
facing a heavy crowd of dumb AIs trying to kill you, it becomes difficult because you can only take out a limited number of AIs at
a single time.
Length
I got about 8 hours of "game time" play, as indicated by the save game. More like I spent more than 5 days on this game on and
off. I would definitely say I spent more than 8 hours of game play. The save game doesn't include the time you would spend replaying
the same area over and over again when you got defeated or failed the mission. You are guaranteed to be putting in more than 8 hours
into this game because of its difficult level of gameplay.
Replay
Once I have beaten the entire game (very difficult I must say!), there was no replay mode to be offered. Once you beat the game,
it's over. Move onto the next available game.
Ingenuity
This is where Dead To Rights shine the most in my opinion. This game puts you in a lot of different positions in the game. I got
to admit that the developers were clever on doing this. In Dead To Rights for example, they have these little mini games to solve
puzzles. It's either you have to time your buttons right (lock picking), mash the buttons very fast (to live or proceed in many
conditions), or move with precision (disarming bomb) to name a few. Also, the game puts you in a helicopter to gun down people in
the air in one part of the game to assist your (shortly lived) partner or to beat a boss. You also get to control your dog Shadow
(in one part of the game) and make him useful to sniff out bombs. Also, defeating many bosses in the game isn't all about shooting
them until they die. There are specific moves you need to do in order to beat the boss. A lot of times, you have to fight them with
your bare hands and feet. No weapons or Shadow allowed. A cool move in the game is disarming bad guys to take their guns or even
using them as your shield while you shoot away. Another cool move in the game is the slow motion while diving. Think Max Payne with
its Bullet Time slow motion dive, but minus the free will of aiming at any enemies in sight (Dead To Rights limits you to enemies
in front of you only). Last to mention awesome move is to take explosive canisters available in game and throw them at a horde of
enemies and shoot it up to blow up in the faces of bad guys to take them all out at once. Nice touch to make the game not all about
running around shooting people to death and finding keys to proceed to the next area.
Value
After all I've been through with the game, I must say that this game is more of a rental than to be owned. There is no replay
mode whatsoever. Once you beaten the game, that's it. This game is a rental for temporary entertainment relief at best, as long as
you can get yourself through the game's difficulties. Caveat: this game carries a lot of frustrations more than satisfaction.
Hopefully, the sequel Dead To Rights 2: Hell To Pay will correct many of the problems seen in the first iteration of Dead To Rights.
If you are hoping that this game is as stellar as Max Payne, look else where. Max Payne is too much for Dead To Rights.
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© 2001, beyond and forever by HQH. All rights reserved.
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