Dead to Rights: Retribution is fun while it last's, the story really makes this game.
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games America
Developer: Volatile Games
Platform: Xbox 360
Rated: Mature
Released: April 27, 2010
Visuals:
The visuals for Dead to Rights: Retribution are not the greatest at all but they are not all that bad either and the detail's to the wonderful city of Grant City was decent but really dated and when some one like you or myself that expect a reboot to a series that was pretty good with the original and a sequel that was basically a prequel to the original and then you get this the reboot where you would expect the visual of the environment's in this game would look almost as good as lets say Mafia 2, Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption and even Alan Wake and with the games I mention are basically sequels well except RDR and Alan Wake where Alan Wake is a new IP and RDR is more of a reboot of a series, but back with Dead to Rights and honestly I was a little disappointed in this reboot in a game series that in my mind as not been really good since the original and so I'm just going to keep this short and say that the detail to the Grant City is just decent and I will be honest their was local in this game that looked really good in the detail of that area and it was the part when you have to travel down into what looked like a sewer and you know if was not it was one of the few locals in this game that looked really well done in detail and the other area of this game looked half decent was in the detail was the location of the final chapter of the game and I believe it was a prison/lighthouse or both but what ever that location along with the sewers that you got to go through were the only two locations that looked really well done and was more than decent.
The detail's to the character's even the main character were a little over the the top and honestly I do not know what they were thinking with the making not just the main character Jack Slate but almost every male character look all ripped and Chiseled liked they were modeled after a young Claude Van Dam, Arnold Schwarzenegger or even a young Sylvester Stallone and they just looked way unrealistic for cops and even the so called Mayor like business man and their was one of the villein that kind looked normal but that was it and the one female character that is in this game kind of looks alright for a female that is in a video game but I'll just keep this straight forward and simple that character's are just simply overly detail and just was a little too much to look at in the game. So in short for the visuals for this game with the detail to the environments that were a little dated for a game that was released in 2010 and the characters that were just overly unrealistic and the visuals were just simply okay and nothing all that great to look at.
Audio:
The audio for Dead to Rights: Retribution is quite good but not great and the great was with the voice over work and the soundtrack/musical score and the noises Shadow made where quite good and the voice over work was so good from the main character Jack Slate to his Father and to the main villain which I can't remember his name for the life of me at the moment and even the non-playable-characters have great lines and even great one liners from time to time and it completes the atmosphere even with the dated visuals and still the voice work is just great in this game, the sound track/musical score was just pretty great as well with some dramatic moments and even with the action packed moments they were all great.. Now for the not so great for the audio in this game and they the sound effects for this and that goes for the guns and the hand to hand combat sound effects which they all sound dated and basically old school and when firing the most of the weapons they just do not sound guns and in fact they kind of had sound that felt like they were being fired through a plastic bottle or something in that regards and when doing hand to hand combat and every time you would throw punch's and kick's and if they landed they sounded like you were hitting punching bag when you or the enemy that you are locked in with goes to block you punch's and kick's and even the other way around it sound's like you are hitting a pillow but that is just me and weather it was the weapons or even the hand to hand combat it just simply did not sound right. So in short for the audio for this game is that the voice work is just great all around and the sound track/musical score was simply good and the sound effect of the weapons and hand to hand combat did not sound that good at at all and the audio is just simply good.
Gameplay:
The gameplay for Dead to Rights: Retribution is okay but it get's repetitive at time's and even though the gameplay is fun and okay but it get's repetitive after a while and you get to play as Jack Slate and you switch from Jack to his trusty canine friend Shadow and even though as jack you do get a good diverse of hand to hand combat and take downs and action packed shoot outs it just get's a little stale and repetitive from time to time, but their is some fun here playing the game as Jack with some gun fights and going through a few boss battles and you can go through some of these boss fights with hand to hand combat and go through some of the other boss battles with a a shoot out and either of the two are pretty fun and they are also equally frustrating at time's as well and their are some really fun moments in this game especially a part where you get to go through a portion of a level in mech armor and take all the GAC task forces that is made up of Grant City task force members, Ex-military and Mercenaries and as you go through this portion of the game in this mech body armor you get to take down all types of these GAC tack force from the little guys and the ones in heavy armor ones as well and seriously playing as Jack as it's really good moments but again it just get's stale and boring after a while and the only thing that was really great about the game play was the actual story itself but I'll get to that in a bit. So now I'll talk about the moments in the game where you play as Shadow and yes you get to take control of Jack's trusty canine friend in this reboot and these moments are quite fun because these are the stealth moments of the game where as Shadow you get to sneak around and make some growling noises to get your enemy to come to you so you can take him down with a good verity of take downs with Shadow from chomping down on the enemies private areas or taking him down from the neck and have the enemy squeal like a pig and just try to keep Shadow from getting hurt unlike Jack where he as is trusty flack jacket body armor cause with about one or two shot towards Shadow will kill him.
Now I'll talk about some of the bad now in this game and that is the fact that this game get's really stale and for most part of the game you get to kill an arrange verity of enemies from a Gang known as the Union, the Tri-ads and GAC task force and that is just for about a few chapter's of the game then you are just facing the GAC task force where unlike the original Dead to Rights you got a good mixture of enemies to kill through out the game until the end of the game then you had to take down the corrupted GAC task force and so that is one problem, and there were some other issues like some technical error but not a lot of these issues, but some of these issues all came with when you were not controlling Shadow he would either lose his way or get stuck some where or even from time to time get in the way these were some issues, the so called bullet time or what ever they call it is nothing like the original where in that one when you click the button to go in to this slow motion gun play you can jump in different ways to kind of maneuver and dodge bullets and even use it to take down an array of enemies that may or may not have you in a sticky situation where you just can't get out of, but in this game the bullet time function is just rather pointless and yes it still help you out of a sticky situation but not in the same way as the original using this effect just was bit lame this time around with out no jump function and the gun play seemed to just too under powered with most guns. So that is it for this game issues and I'm sure their is more I just can't remember them all right at the moment and so plainly this game as a lot of issues.
Now I'll talk about the really excellent part of this game's gameplay and that is that this game has excellent story telling and this game as you play and that is the one thing that this series as ever had is great story telling and from start to finish this will be the real one reason you will come back to play this just to see what's going to happen next and the story just the original as you playing as Jack Slate where you and his Father will go check out a lead on a case that at you go through at the opening part of this game and when the story as you thinking you are going for one guy you end up getting into twists turns as you go through a great story of revenge, corruption, betrayal just to find some answers and the story is this game real great strong point. So in short for this game and this game may put you in the shoes of Jack and Shadow but the game play is plagued with quite a few issues and but the excellent Story telling really saved this game and the gameplay is just plain fun while it last's and the story is just plain excellent.
Overall:
So the overall point for Dead to Rights: Retribution is a fun and decent game and you can find this game for about $20 dollars or less new or even used and yes this game may have some issues and has dated visuals but the story really makes up for the problems this game has and kind of saved it as far as I'm concern and for the price tag it definitely worth checking out.
6.5 out of 10