It’s been a few days since I arrived at the credits of Dead to Rights: Retribution and I still can’t decide whether or not I enjoyed the experience. DTR:R is Namco’s reboot of the series that was hit and miss on the original Xbox. It was at first hard to imagine that Namco should even attempt another addition to the series, but they took a chance on Grant City’s Officer Jack Slate and his faithful companion, Shadow. The game only shares characters, locations and title with its prequels, but the plot sits nicely in a newly created universe. Jack and Shadow get mixed up in a deep cover up after a death pulls Jack into a conspiracy that can only be put down with lead, lots and lots of lead. The plot is a revenge story that doesn’t really impress or pull any punches at any point in the game, but it never really annoys either. Nothing you haven’t seen before in other games/films. There really isn’t any reason to play this game for its intriguing plot, but the gameplay on the other hand is an up and down affair. The game seems to heavily borrow Gears of War cover system with a dash of hand-to-hand combat and stealth sections. The cover system works decently never really causing frustration. The combat on the other hand has some decent elements along with some glaring issues. Gunplay is a mixed bag, as Jack can only carry two weapons, a handful of ammo, and drops the gun after all ammo is depleted. This means you have to constantly be searching out a new piece or acquiring one using a method to disarm enemies.
The disarm move is usually one of the cooler moves for a bit, as when the action ends and you know have your opponents weapon the reticule is often automatically positioned over the stunned baddies’ head in turn giving you the option to brutally end his life with his own weapon. On top of that, every time you land a headshot the game slows down for a second to let you soak up the brilliant display. Cool effect, but the fact that it happens on every headshot wears on you after a few hours. There are plenty of weapons at Jack’s disposal with some cool/cheesy additions near the end when a new force is introduced. I found myself trying to avoid the hand-to-hand combat as much as possible throughout, because of how rough the system is. When Jack has to use his fights, things get ugly and I’m not talking about the level of violence. You can land a light or heavy attack along with the ability to block. The glaring issue with the combat is how annoying it is to land a fist in your enemies face. Since Jack is terrifying, you’ll find most everyone running in terror as he goes to knock their block off. This ends with a lot of missed punches and a slowly built annoyance at the fact. As I said earlier, I stuck with guns as it is the least frustrating method of putting a foe down. With each kill you add onto your “bullet time” mechanic that allows you to temporarily slow time and inflict more damage, allowing you to make quick work of a room full of enemies. Nothing really all that spectacular about it, but it definitely can save you in rocky situations.
Finally, the most important piece of the combat is the brutal-as-hell takedowns. Once you beat enough pulp out of an enemy, you have the chance you end their life with a level of cinematic flair. Whether it consists of you blowing the kneecaps of some guy as he begs for his life, or breaking someone over your knee, each different takedown is just as brutal as the last. There aren’t many variations unfortunately so expect to see many of each repeated often. Overall, the shootouts hide the rough edges of combat whereas the hand to hand really makes some of the games issues come to light. Easily one of the best pieces of the game is the ability to command and take control of Jack’s dog Shadow. Shadow is constantly with you throughout the duration of the game, and you can have him hunt for ammo or tear out someone’s throat. Shadow usually operates on his own without needing much command, but if he goes down you have to find him and coax him back to his feet. There are also stealth portions of the game where you must take complete control of Shadow to drag Jack to safety or to retrieve a key or keycard. These portions are a welcome break from Jack’s killing rampage and Shadow controls well for the most part. Shadow can creep, walk or full on dash with each being used for separate purposes. When Shadow creeps, you can detect enemy locations through walls allowing you to pick the best route to do a stealth kill on an unsuspecting victim. Stealth kills are a must as once Shadow is detected it only takes a few rounds to put him down, thus sending you back to a checkpoint. I never had too much difficulty working through any of these segments and it was always satisfying to have Shadow in full sprint racing to jump and tear out the throats of some gang member.
Overall, Shadow is one of the elements of the game that makes you temporarily forgot the games flaws as Shadow typically works well. As far as polish is concerned, DTR:R isn’t winning any awards there. The game looks dated visually especially during takedowns. The dialogue is hammy in a good way and the voice acting tends to be up and down. The visuals is really where the rough edges of DTR:R stand out, even more so than the sloppy combat. After you finish out the campaign, there are no online elements at all. No co-op and no multiplayer. Not much going for the game as far as building a desire to play the game again, other than police badges that can be found throughout the campaign. After sitting down to write this out, I think Dead to Rights: Retribution is more of an enjoyable experience than a terrible one. Sure it’s basically a cheesy popcorn flick that you most likely won’t remember in a month, but it’s still not nearly as bad as I expected it to be. Should you go out after reading this and pick up a copy? Probably not, but for those of you who have been considering playing the game and have avoided it until now, go for it as you’ll most likely gain a decent amount of enjoyment out of the game. For a series that was considered to be dead, Dead to Rights: Retribution greatly exceeds the poor reputation set up by previous iterations in the series.
