Dead To Rights: Retribution – Review

Story

Betrayed, cast-out and ruthlessly hunted, Jack wages a war of mass eradication, armed only with a gun, his deadly hands and a loyal and ferocious canine, Shadow. Together they must shoot, brawl, claw and tare their way through the dark underbelly of the City, only to uncover a shocking conspiracy that threatens to shake the world to its core.

The game takes place in a stereotypically dark and gritty city called Grant City. The law enforcement doesn’t really have any authority and the local gangs are starting to take over. Well, they’d like to think they are. There are still some good honest cops around, including Jack Slate and his father, a legend on the force. However, when following up on a lead, Jack’s world gets turned upside down and he isn’t just a cop from that point on, he’s a cop looking for some retribution.

Gameplay

The gameplay is fairly simple to grasp as most of the time you will either be fighting hand-to-hand or using a gun.  Jack has a number of melee combos he can use to take down opponents and there are even some enemies who can only melee, so gaining practice with this is helpful. There are essentially five key moves: quick punch, strong punch, block breaker, guard and counter. The first three can be put in combination with each other, while the others are actually quite important later on when facing stronger foes. It’s also possible to attack in different directions if surrounded by multiple enemies.

The gun combat is also fairly standard, however ammo is often quite limited. This may be to encourage players to engage in hand-to-hand more often, as the easiest way to get more ammo is to simply disarm opponents. Jack can carry a pistol and a larger weapon and can also carry a grenade of some kind. The guns are pretty well rounded, but nothing about the gun combat really excels. There’s a cover system which can seem pointless at times as it is often easier to dispatch enemies simply by running up to them, disarming them and instant killing them with their own weapon. Getting involved in a fire fight isn’t the best of ideas simply because ammo depletes so quickly and while Shadow can fetch guns and bring them back, it doesn’t really help to resolve the situation much. However, in these cases, Focus mode can be of great use to the player as it enables Jack to essentially slow down time and become more powerful for a brief period. It can be used as little or as much as players want, but they must refill the bar by performing certain actions.

Design

The graphics in the game are fairly decent but aren’t exactly pushing any graphical boundaries. The character models all look a little similar as they just seem to have some kind of generic quality to them. However the animations of characters in the game seem quite smooth and fluent and are always in time with their voices.  I was quite impressed with the detail in locations used as a lot of the skyscrapers and buildings in the background always have a sharp image and don’t fade out the farther you get from them. I also enjoyed the subtle glimpses of weather change like the rain falling just to set the right mood either when running through industrial estates or fighting on building rooftops.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack used is always there to put you in the right mood for the situation, even the menu music is extremely tense. It really helps to set the scene and the music throughout helps to make everything seem more urgent and important than it might be. There isn’t really much more to say about the music used as most of it is there to keep you on your toes but I can honestly say that I enjoyed the feeling of constant danger but also loved the little parts when the tense music fades away to make you feel a little accomplished that you have eradicated the danger.

Conclusion

Overall, a decent gaming experience so I would give it a 3/5. This is simply because the different gameplay mechanics are nice, and often players are spoilt for choice, but there’s nothing in the game really makes it stand out from any other game similar to this. It’s fun and decent for what’s there, but it doesn’t really go above and beyond what can be expected.