Developer
Namco

Released: August 20, 2002
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature

10
9
10
9
9.8

Supported Features

I did a bit of digging and to the best of my knowledge this is Namco’s first venture into a cinematic action-adventure type game. Namco is famous around the world for making the best arcade games including fighting, air combat, and racing titles, but their introductory title into the action genre sets the bar so high that other companies will have a hard time coming close to the style and innovative genius present in Dead to Rights.

The genre, theme, and admittedly, even the story has been done before, but it’s a classic formula that can be spun a million different ways creating a fresh experience each time you relive it. In Dead to Rights you play Jack Slate, a rogue cop (rogue in the sense that he works on the fringe of law enforcement rules) who gets framed for mass murder and sent to prison. He promptly escapes, becoming a “rogue cop” in the truer sense of the word.

The remainder of the game has you exacting your revenge on the people who framed you and killed your father. Armed with an arsenal of weaponry and accompanied by your trusty K9 sidekick, Shadow, you will explore multiple levels spread across 15 exciting chapters filled with more action than any three feature films.

Dead to Rights is pure action combined with an engrossing story that doesn’t let up. The opening movie is pure genius, featuring Hollywood special effects and editing techniques you would expect from the latest John Woo movie. Additional cutscenes and in-game cinematics further the story revealing an insidious plot and government corruption that extends to the highest levels.

Dead to Rights leaves Max Payne in the proverbial dust when you realize the depth of the gameplay that awaits you. The first few levels act as your in-game tutorial and ease you into the control of Jack and his faithful pooch, Shadow. Here you learn how to target enemies, disarm opponents, engage in hand-to-hand combat, and even play as Shadow on a few rare occasions.

The targeting system in Dead to Rights is implemented to perfection. By holding down the right trigger you will target the nearest enemy. Repeated presses will cycle through all enemies on the screen. The color of the crosshairs indicates a clean shot (red), hit-or-miss (yellow), or a blocked or out-of-range target (green). Green targets can often turn yellow or red simply by changing to a weapon with a greater range, and while you can damage a yellow target you may spend twice as much ammo taking one out.

You can also switch to manual targeting when the mood suits you. This really isn’t an effective means of normal combat, but if you want to use the sniper scope, aim a rocket launcher at a hovering chopper, or target non-human objects such as fuel tanks or fire extinguishers it’s a necessary command.

Sniping in Dead to Rights is very difficult mainly due to the fact that if you have a line of sight to the target they are already shooting at you, and snipers can deplete your armor and your health in only a few shots. There were only a few locations where sniping was mandatory and you simply have to take cover behind an object then do the old “pop-up – target – duck – pop-up - zoom – adjust – duck – pop-up – fire”. Sometimes this process takes several “pop-ups”, and if you expose your head for more than two seconds you will usually take some damage.

Jack also has the ability to accelerate his actions, which we perceive as the rest of the world going into slow motion. This is based on an adrenaline meter which replenishes itself over time yet depletes just as quickly based on how often and how long you use it. A typical example would be rushing into an enemy-filled room. Tapping the Y button does a normal diving jump in any direction you press, but by pressing the Y button just a bit longer you will slow the world around you.

In this mode you are free to target as many enemies as you can before your adrenaline runs out. With a fully charged adrenaline meter I was able to dive into a room and unload entire clips from two machine guns and half a clip from my Desert Eagle killing five armored enemies before hitting the ground running. You can end the slow motion at anytime with a second press of the Y button, thus conserving your precious adrenaline.

Another useful tool in your battle against totally unfair odds is the use of explosive devices. Throughout many sections of the game you will find canisters (fire extinguishers) that you can throw toward a targeted enemy. As the object sails through the air you can then target it with your weapons and by timing your shot you can take out multiple enemies in the blast. It’s a cool feature and one you can choose to use or ignore, although one boss battle does require the use of multiple canisters to destroy a heavy gun emplacement.

In addition to weapons combat there is a substantial fighting system implemented in this game. While you are free to punch, kick, or flip your opponent anytime you want, there are several levels where you are unarmed and must resort to personal ass kicking’s. Your first round of fighting takes place on a nightclub dance floor complete with colored lights, lasers, and a thumping soundtrack. Later on, you literally fight your way out of an entire prison full of inmates and hostile guards.

While the fighting system is not as advanced as a traditional fighting game, it does offer some good combo attacks with punches and kicks and a decent blocking mode. In the end, it all comes down to timing. Once you get the timing down you can pretty much walk all over any opponent by simply getting in the first strike of a three or four hit combo. Even if the first strike misses the final blows will connect and deliver the most damage.

Dead to Rights is primarily a weapons game, so the inclusion of any fighting system no matter how limited, is appreciated and a welcome diversion. Surprisingly, many of the boss fights including the final boss are actually hand-to-hand battles with some special tactics tossed in. By the time you reach these big fights you will have had plenty of hand-to-hand combat experience.

Perhaps one of the coolest features in Dead to Rights is the actual ability to use your K9 partner, Shadow. Shadow becomes a playable character in a few (too few in my opinion) situations where he can help Jack get past certain obstacles or sniff out hidden bombs. But perhaps his best use is his ability to attack on command. Shadow appears as one of your weapons and can be selected and ordered to attack any targeted enemy (except for bosses). This has two huge benefits. First, that enemy is dead instantly regardless of armor or health. Second, Shadow will fetch the victim’s weapon and return it to you. Now if I could only get him to fetch health and armor.

This has so much potential it is hard to put into words, but allow me to try. One scene had me fighting my way through an alley filled with hit men. Snipers are perched on the rooftops and I have no weapons with a range that can hit them. Other mobsters are running around the alley and I am pinned in a stairwell. By carefully targeting the correct guy, Shadow brings me back an assault rifle with adequate range to hit those snipers and escape the alley.

Using Shadow is so easy and so effective that it is tempting to “overuse” him. The designers have wisely given Shadow a stamina meter that depletes each time you use him and slowly refills over time. If you are patient enough you could conceivably clear out entire levels using nothing more than your dog. Admittedly, there were times when I was near death and I used him to clear out entire rooms to get to a health or armor pick-up.

Shadow is also invulnerable (only because nobody attacks him), so you don’t have to worry about getting him killed. It is rather amusing to watch Shadow ripping a man’s throat out while four of his buddies watch, not realizing that in thirty seconds he will be back to maul one of them.

Another great feature (there are just so many) is the ability to disarm your opponents or even get them in a headlock and use them as a human shield. When you do this you get an extra shield bar beneath your health and ammo bars. Enemies have no problem filling their buddies full of lead, so human shields won’t last long. There are even a few puzzles where you must drag a “hostage” to a certain area to unlock a door, etc.

Disarming your enemy is almost a game within the game. There are over 20 ways to disarm your opponent and except for the first technique given to you in the opening tutorial, you must unlock all the rest. Unlocking additional techniques is done by repeated and frequent use of the disarming move. You can then execute these disarms with certain button presses or choose one at random by simply approaching a target empty-handed and pressing the B button. Disarms are purely a guilty pleasure. They are not critical to the completion of the game, and the few times I actually did run out of ammo there were plenty of guns scattered around the area. Still, if you want to watch Jack perform some of his best moves in the game, it’s worth the time to explore this nuance of the game.

And finally we come to the mini-games. Yes, Dead to Rights features several mini-games within the main adventures. These crop up from time to time and include some pretty clever themes, including a tasty little diversion where you control a stripper as she dances to distract bouncers so you can sneak into the nightclub. This particular game is admittedly simple, playing out like a super-easy version of Britney’s Dance Beat where you push certain buttons at key times. The designers even provided gaps in the action, so you could appreciate the amazing animated dance routine, which is arguably better than many real dancers I have seen.

Another mini-game includes disarming a cylindrical bomb where you must use both control sticks simultaneously to move a pin through a maze that wraps around a long tube. This mini-game reappears far too often for my taste, and you are always on a strict timer and failure often mean replaying a significant portion prior to the disarming point. It gets even harder in the end where you must disarm a bomb during periodic blackouts where you cannot even see the maze you are navigating.

Yet another mini-game appears when you try to pick a locked door. You get an insider’s view of the locking mechanism, and you must click on each of five cylinders as they rotate, stopping the pin in the designated location. Again, this is on a timer and failure can lead to repeating major sections of the game.

There are even a few mini-games that hearken back to the days of Track and Field where you must furiously and rhythmically mash buttons to workout in the prison gym, arm wrestle, hold your breath, resist a choke hold, etc. Its all pretty basic stuff but integrated so seamlessly into the game and the story that it provides a welcome and believable diversion to an otherwise non-stop bloodbath. Given the choice of finding a key or playing a mini-game to open a door, I’ll take the mini-game.

Examples begin at the construction yard with port-o-johns, stacks of lumber, steel beams, foreman trailers, barrels, scaffolding, and ground marred with deep tractor treads filled with reflective pools of water. The nightclub is next with it’s colorful lightshow, lasers, smoke, and crowds of dancing patrons. The prison level features stark environments such as a seedy gymnasium, mildew infested showers, and four huge multi-tiered prison blocks with interconnecting catwalks, all lit with depressing fluorescent lighting. I could go on to cite examples from all the levels, but suffice to say each new level brings new and exciting scope and dimension to this game.

As far as violence goes, Dead to Rights offers non-stop death and destruction but the bloodshed is limited to splats on the walls and stains on the floor. There are no brutal graphics such as dismemberments, although watching Shadow tear into a thug sends shivers down my spine.

Special effects are plentiful and include some amazing fire and particle effects. Shooting a flamethrower down a passage and watching a half-dozen men burst into flames and drop to the ground screaming in agony is a bit unsettling. Even subtle effects such as bullet holes with puffs of powdered concrete spilling out on impact all add to this incredible experience.

The game is played primarily from a third-person perspective, which introduces the traditional camera problems of which Dead to Rights is no exception. While extremely friendly for the most part, this game does manage to create several instances where the camera screws you and you take extra damage or possibly even die. Some of these problems can be avoided by using the target lock-on to keep your opponent in view, but you are still required to manually adjust and tweak the camera nearly 90% of the game.

There are a few levels where you control a targeting reticle in first-person mode. You are being flown around in a news chopper so the action is on "rails", but you are still required to take out a small army of bad guys and even a few limos before it's all over. While the camera angle is perfect, the twitchy nature of the control stick makes precise aiming an exercise in pure frustation.

The cutscenes are simply breathtaking with the opening movie worthy of some award nomination for Best Action Sequence. Perhaps a computer cutscene category can be added to next year’s Academy Awards. Other in-game movies are a mix between game graphics and pre-rendered visuals that vary in production quality but are all excellent in propelling the story.

Environment specific music such as the techno beats in the dance club are also equally as well done. Nothing ever got annoying or repetitious which is surprising for a game with this many levels and length of gameplay.

Sound effects are all excellent, and each weapon offers a unique and realistic sound. Shadow barks when his stamina is full indicating he is ready for action. Ambient effects such as traffic, weather, innocent bystanders, and just about anything else you can think of to compliment these real world settings are all integrated into each scene to create a totally immersive experience.

The voice acting is topnotch. I love the self-narrating style of detective/cop movies and games like Tex Murphy and Max Payne, but Jack Slate is the first to pull it off in a truly believable fashion. Supporting cast members all have great scripted dialog that is believable and for the most part delivered by quality actors. Only on a few instances did my “over-the-top acting alarm” go off. There is also plenty of ambient voice acting such as the taunts from your foes, the cheers and shouts of the patrons in the strip club when you dance well, and even the occasional moaning heard behind closed doors at the massage parlor. I’d swear that Ice T recorded the line “That’s the guy!” that I kept hearing over and over in many of the levels.

On a final note, I must voice my extreme displeasure that nobody took the time to mix this title in true 5.1 surround. Don’t get me wrong – the 4-channel mix is outstanding but not as realistic or beneficial as a true surround experience would have provided. With enemies coming at you from all sides including from behind, sometimes your ears are your best ally.

Some zones are designed for you to fail in order to learn how to finish them. There are also other areas where you can spend 20-30 minutes fighting off an army of thugs only to face a mini-game challenge that if you fail requires you to repeat the previous combat. While you have the ability to save at will, this only saves the current/last checkpoint you triggered. There are plenty of checkpoints but they aren’t always in the best location. On puzzles that are easily failed like diffusing the bombs it should have been a no-brainer to checkpoint prior to the mini-game. Instead I would have to replay up to five minutes of game to get to that point and possibly fail again.

As frustrating as I am probably making all this sound, it really isn’t that bad. Even the most challenging parts of this game – namely the final boss battles which include multiple bosses and multi-location fights - are merely a pattern learning process that tests your patience and problem solving abilities more than your reflexes. I spent two hours fighting one boss in the back of a cargo plane while the final boss took me all of five minutes to defeat.

Once the adventure is over your only incentive to replay would be to unlock any undiscovered disarm moves. While these moves are good – really good - I doubt they will entice anyone to spend another 10-20 hours on this game. I would have enjoyed a mini-game menu where I could play the various mini-games found in Dead to Rights, perhaps even keeping track of high scores or best times for disarming bombs.

Namco has quite possibly redefined the action genre or at least given it a fresh new look. I anxiously await their next venture into this genre while at the same time look forward to seeing what other companies will be releasing to go up against Jack and Shadow. While the closing movie was ambiguous about a possible sequel, there is always going to be criminals and crime in the seedy Grant city, and where there is crime there is always a place for a cop and his dog.