Cheapest Dead to Rights: Retribution

Tellurye here with another review. This time 'Dead to Rights: Retribution'!

STORY: You step into the shoes and behind the badge as Jack Slate, a hard-boiled detective who's the most wanted man in Grant City. The story unfolds backwards, starting in the present, cutscenes bookend the chapters, and you play as Jack details the story to his friend. He and his dad get caught up in the middle of a conspiracy, city police and government corruption, and down right murderous deals. Nothing too epic, a good summer fun action flick. This is a remake from the first Dead to Rights, and in my opinion, the only one up until now, that is awesome!

GRAPHICS: The engine looks nice, though hard to show as the story takes place in one big rainy night. The environments are varied with great attention to detail, but lots of browns and grays. The lighting is cool, but again, the colors may make some feel they are playing the same level over and over.

AUDIO: The music is typical action style - no Metal Gear Solid orchestra for this one. But not cheesy acid rock either. Good pumping music that doesn't get in the way, nor is all that memorable. The voicework is good and the acting not bad, though sometimes the writing can be a little cheesy. The characters do make you care about them though, and they make you love the ones you are suppossed to, and despise the evil ones. The weapon and sound effects are decent, but run of the mill - not something that will engage your subwoofer all that much. But does offer nice 5.1

GAMEPLAY: Here's where its addicting, and a little frustrating. You have a plethora of weapons and grenades you can use, and on-the-fly-switching from gunplay to hand to hand combat is a breeze. Really shines there. The disarms are brutal and each gun has its own different tweak on them, but you can't do specific disarms like you could in the first entry into the series. The hand to hand combos can be a VERY long string of buttons. Not complicated, just long to remember. You might just make your own combos until a finish move button prompt comes up, of which plays out random killing animations. Not for the faint hearted.

What annoyed me was the developers were lazy in some aspects, such as lots of solid objects that you would take cover behind are not tagged as such, so you are taking bullets as you are wondering why the heck he's not ducking. Also, you almost RARELY see where an enemy's grenade landed, so you have to use sound cues to make sure you run in the opposite direction. In fact, I only heard the rapidly increasing beeping and didn't know if that was a grenade, or a bomb they had engaged the timer on. So, a couple of cheap instances, but not gamebreaking or unfair. Playable even on the hardest mode. I only died a few times. They put a decent amount of stealth into the mix as you get to contol his K-9 cop Shadow, which was neat how they implemented that.

OVERALL: This game is fun and brutal for winding down after a long day, or if you are just looking for some action. Maybe not worth $60, but definitely keep an eye out for it when it goes on sale. Not to mention, there are fun hidden things to find, interesting and challenging achievements / trophies, and unlockables such as concept art and cinematics. Whether you are a fan of the original or a newcomer to the series, this is definitely worth a grab as it has action 'Dead to Rights'.Get more detail about Dead to Rights: Retribution.