Dead to Rights is a very flaccid attempt at hardcore action...
User Rating: 6.6 | Dead to Rights PS2
Upon watching the initial cutscene of Dead to Rights you’re likely to feel that you’re in for one hell of a ride. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that the opening movie is one of the best action sequences I’ve seen in a videogame. What you’ll soon realize though is that the gameplay mechanics are nowhere near the level of quality of any of the cinematics. And for me, this is where most of the fun ended. The visual and audible clarity of the cutscenes is pristine. The voice work sounds as clear as any film you’ll ever watch. However, once you actually begin to play, things will instantly change for the worse. The sound is incredibly muffled on all levels from voices to music to the effects of gunplay – it all sounds quite lousy. Admittedly, I often times play with headphones on which can really pick up a game’s flaws. But even through my television’s speakers the difference was noticeable. And while the graphics may not be quite as good during gameplay as they are during cutscenes, they are still passable. The problem comes more in the animation of the characters. This is a rather clunky game, which I would have easily forgiven had there been something more to sink my teeth into. Which brings me to my biggest complaint of the game… The action. My first problem with it is that you are forced to auto-target everything. I generally don’t care for this approach, however I was prepared to forgive this since the game throws tons upon tons of bad guys at you at one time. At first I enjoyed it somewhat, but by the halfway point it became boring and routine – auto-lock, fire; auto-lock, fire; auto-lock, fire…you get the idea. It was mindless button mashing that provided no real strategy or sense of achievement. And don’t get me wrong…I like mindless button mashing when it’s done right. Unfortunately, it’s not done right in this game. Plain and simple. I felt no real sense of control over the character and as a result killing hundreds of grunts and lackeys ended up being anything but rewarding. The bottom line is that, for me at least, this game never achieved anything greater than repetitive and lackluster gameplay. And while there are a couple of neat things thrown in (slow motion dives while taking out your targets; a few initially impressive disarming maneuvers that become old hat soon enough and the ability to use a human shield) in the end the core action in the game was hardly robust and in fact came across as amateurish and flaccid. Rent it first. 
