By Gary Kearney
A good cop in a bad situation. Sounds like the plot to a lot of actions
movies but in this case it’s the premise to Dead to Rights (DTR) for the PS2.
Sure this was released last year but now it’s part of the “Greatest Hits”
edition and with that comes an affordable price tag. But some games should be
avoided no matter the price. Should DTR be on the list for your budget gamers or
should it be on the naughty list? Lets’ find out…
In Dead to Rights you play Jack Slate, good cop with a tough sounding name.
One night while responding to a shots fired call you find out that your dad has
been killed. You have a real good idea who is responsible so you go to “talk” to
the scumbag. Unfortunately the weasel is already dead by the time you find him
and you end up being framed for the murder of the man that killed your father.
Yea, that was a bad night for good ole Jack. So there you are all innocent and
everything but you quickly find yourself in prison about to be put to death in
the new accelerated death penalty system. Well that wouldn’t make for such a
good ending, so Jack escapes from prison and the hunt is on for the real killer
and for the reason why he was framed.
Dead to Rights is a third person action game along the lines of Max Payne.
There are no doubt a lot of similarities between the two games. Both fall under
the Action Noir genre, both allow use of the now famous Matrix style
“bullet-time” targeting system, and both have the hero providing narration
throughout the adventure. But DTR isn’t a total copy as it adds different
elements to the mix through mini-games and a fairly unique attack ability that
involves Jack’s best friend, which I will go into later.
At its core DTR is a pretty violent game that does what it can to validate
the M rating it has. Sure you go around shooting bad guys and all of that stuff,
but there is also some adult language and even a little sex mixed in. Well the
sexual stuff isn’t really that interesting to be honest. The most provocative
part is near the beginning where you get the help of a dancer to distract some
guards. This is one of several mini-games tossed around in DTR. In this case you
have to press buttons in sequence with the on screen display. The better your
timing the more the dancer shakes what her mama gave her and the more interested
the guards become, thus allowing you to sneak one by. Other mini-games include
several more rhythm type button tapping, a reflex game for lock picking, and a
nerve-racking bomb defusing game. The rhythm style games seem very out of place
in a gun heavy game like this. While it’s interesting to have certain breaks in
all of the action I’m just not convinced that it should be a dance break.
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