Dead to Rights Retribution is an odd reboot to the franchise. But the sum of its parts don't make up for its price tag.
- Awesome, noir batman-esque/max payne-ish setting
- Dog fetches weapons and makes a good ally
- Nice, overall artistic touch on the graphics.
- Good presentation overall and slick menus.
What I dislked :
- Unresponsive, dated hand to and combat.
- Weak cover mechanics.
- Some lame technical flaws.
Let's get this out of the way, Dead to Rights : Retribution is not for everyone. Actually, i'm not sure who it is for at all. Action games junkies will most likely be turned off by the archaic design of the game, while only the most forgiving gamers will be able to trek through it.
At first, I had quite a bit of fun with the game. It's setting, as I mentioned, is brilliantly designed. For you see, the levels are flavored with crime-noir backgrounds under dark, snowy skies while the streets are eerily lighted by the yellowish glow of the lampposts.
Well, the whole game is like that, which makes it very great to look at. Not on a technical level, per say, but on an artistic side. Although there are some heavy technical flaws, like sometimes very muddy textures and laughable character models, Dead to Rights Retribution has props from being heavily atmospheric.
The gameplay is where everything takes a plunge. It's a mix of hand-to-hand combat and cover-based gunplay, just like it used to be in the prime era of the original Xbox and PS2's. Remember those crapload of remarkably simple, level to level action games in the likes of Psi-Ops or Rogue Trooper? Well, it's exactly like that.
And with that in mind, it's what you're going to get. From very fun moments to extremely dull ones, this game reeks of old.
For every fun moment you'll get, prepare to face a clunky boss fight that'll make you scream out loud at the screen or annoying enemy encounters against heavily armored behemoths that shoots rockets which will make you cringe your teeth. Not because they're hard, but because they're cheap, mainly due to limitations of the gameplay, which is to say, isn't very strong and borderline wonky at times.
Add onto the mix the very obligatory and funny looking finishers that comes with the not-so-modern action games and you get the idea of what the game is about. Point A to point B while shooting dudes and beating them down.
The finishers themselves aren't bad, the problem is that the camera wants to shift to a '' cool '' perspective, but 95% of the times, it'll jitter against the limits of the environment, making you see only the shoulder of your hero while he beats the dude off-screen.
After a while, experiencing the watered-down finishers because of the camera gets super old, especially after using the weak hand-to-hand combos to get to them. Indeed, the fighting in this game isn't downright bad, but it's far from good. Considering that Arkham Asylum came out about 10 months before the release of this game, it's inexcusable to get a 2002-ish brawling system that not only feels clunky, but that is utterly unresponsive.
Beating on guys consists of mixing light and heavy attacks, and even if there's a meaty amount of combos at your disposition, there's almost no difference to their actual display, except a kick or a shoulder blow. There's also a counter button, but it's downright broken and the timing is extremely off, making it completely useless.
The gunplay is passable, even if the guns looks remarkably similar to Gears of War's ( sniper rifle, i'm looking at you ). Landing headshots grants you a slow mo effect that adds nothing to the game, and after a while, it gets distracting, especially if you're a headshot honcho. The main problem with the gunplay is that you'll be forced to use the wonky cover system. Sometimes, the protagonist won't want to hide, and at other time, the devs decided that this or that surface isn't meant for cover, when it totally should be, leaving you in the open field like a moron.
You'll have some predictable stealth segments ( every time you'll start thinking, hey, there should be a dog level, where, there is ). By using the same old-school rules of stealth, you'll have to snoop around and bite people with super loud finishers that never attract the attention of the dudes nearby. You can '' sense '' them through walls, giving you more chances to succeed. But be prepared to make some trial-and-error during those parts.
Dead to Rights : Retribution isn't a winner, but it's not a total failure either. I'll admit, I had fun during half of the game, but after a while, Dead to Rights fails to reinvent itself enough for the player to keep going. Beating the game itself is an achievement due to its demanding nature.
How long can you keep on with the cheap gunplay, fighting and stealth sequences? It's all up to you.
On a brighter note, Volatile did something pretty interesting, at least for a short while, and now those devs just need to keep working in the right direction. Eventually, they'll make it.