Dead to Rights offers a thrilling, over-the-top action experience with gunfights, hand-to-hand combat, and even your loyal dog as a weapon. While the story is a bit thin and the graphics haven't aged super well, the core gameplay loop of blasting through hordes of enemies with acrobatic dodges and brutal takedowns is undeniably fun. Some frustration can arise from occasional camera issues and a lock-on system that can be finicky, but if you crave a pure, action-packed thrill ride, Dead to Rights delivers.

When nostalgia hits you like a truck…. For the wrong reasons.

There will always be games you remember from your childhood that you never got to play. Maybe because of a trailer you saw or because the cover art is so ingrained in your head for whatever reason. Dead to rights was always that game for me even though I don’t really find the cover art that crazy for some reason always popped up in my head every once in a while. A while back I bought 1-2 and they were just sitting on the shelf so I thought it was finally time to throw down with these games that I never grew up with. Sadly that is where the fun memories end because this game does not hold up well.

Fun but flawed

I want to start off by saying I played the Xbox version which on paper shouldn’t really mean much HOWEVER idk how true this is but I heard this version was way more difficult then the others. Obviously I haven’t played the PS2, Gamecube versions so I can’t fully say but I will say I can believe due to how frustrating this game got at certain points. To begin, this is a max payne clone through and through and that doesn’t have to mean anything bad because in general the formula for Max Payne is immensely fun so I wouldn’t mind more clones. Dead to rights gets this aspect right enough to make a fun enough experience but lord does it get frustrating. To explain, I like the gunplay honestly but whoever thought of the melee aspects should never touch a game again. Not only is the Melee in this game horrible but they had the bright idea of making a WHOLE LEVEL BASED AROUND IT on top of MULTIPLE BOSS FIGHTS THAT ARE MELEE only. The hand to hand combat makes ZERO sense and will make you want to throw your controller across the room. It seems simple on paper with punch , kick , grab and block and yet they somehow make it the most mundane thing ever. When you fight enemies sometimes they will power through your punches , will block and instantly punish you in which you can do NOTHING about it. The grabbing is somehow even more annoying because you can break out of a grab but if you do not press the button within .5 seconds you will get thrown and SO MUCH of your HP will be gone. Honestly I wouldn’t ramble about Melee if it wasn’t shoved in your face as much as it was in this game because it was really that annoying. Luckily the gun sections which do take up most of the game's runtime are fun and will keep you entertained enough. You have a decent amount of gun selection in the game in which you pick up from the enemies once you defeat them. And how can we forget about the best boi Shadow who is not only a good doggo but also VERY helpful during annoying segments. During the game Shadow can be used to instantly kill an enemy if you are within range in which he will grab their weapon to give to you. Using Shadow is insanely important as he will lower the enemy count on top of giving you weapons / ammo from them.


Why?

Oh boy oh boy here we get to the fun part of this review in which I will complain about everything. To begin, the damage counter makes zero sense with weapons because some pistols do piss poor damage while others do a lot. Snipers in particular do literally NO damage and it got to the point where I thought I was doing something wrong. In which game do you know a sniper to be the weakest weapon? Using a sniper should make you feel powerful when you land shots but in Dead to rights you mine as well be using a nerf gun if you pick up a sniper. This only escalates even more annoyingly since enemies from what I can tell have the most OP versions of these guns and will mow you down with the same exact gun you pick up and shoot green pea bullets with. Furthermore , the lock on system gets insanely annoying with it flinging to everyone around you but the one person you want to aim at making you slowly cycle through them until you aim at the one you wanted to aim at. When you dive into slow down the lock on system will sometimes just straight up not work even though you literally are right next to enemies. You can actually free aim in this game but why in the world you will freely use it I will never know because it's terrible lol. Furthermore , this game's difficulty only brought out the more terrible aspects of this game to me. There were certain segments where the game clearly wants you to try stealth killing some enemies but the issue is enemies will almost instantly catch you. On top of spotting you instantly everyone in this game apparently is a trained gold medalist for disc shooting because EVERYONE will laser aim at you and sometimes will even shoot you through the tiniest hole in a wall. I understand shooters from this era usually had laser aim enemies but when you mix it with the BS difficulty this game has it will not make you feel good. In addition , the bosses were all underwhelming and the final boss was insanely annoying until you figured out what you had to do. Cover mechanics are present in the game but I almost found them pointless since the moment you pop out the enemies will instantly beam in your direction thus having you struggle to get out of cover. Weirdly enough this game isn’t super long but I still felt like the ending portions of the game dragged out making me believe they could have cut 30 mins to an hour of the game out. Story is very basic but it will get the job done for the most part. LAST BUT NOT LEAST as it's been brought up throughout this review let's get into the difficulty. To put it simply it is outrageous imo since there isn’t even any difficulty option so you are just stuck with one option which will put you through pain. Certain level segments are set up to have you instantly get showered with bullets and if you have no armor your HP will instantly DRAIN. It gets so bad to the point you almost can softlock yourself during a level if you load into a segment with little HP where enemies instantly shoot at you from every direction. This actually almost happened to me when I got to a part where you walk up some stairs and are greeted by 3 snipers + a buttload of enemies with NO armor to pick up. I am not sure why the xbox version is so much more difficult than the other console versions and it made me want to actually try the versions just to see how much of a difference it is.


In the end

Honestly this game isn’t the worst thing ever, it just simply doesn’t hold up well and maybe the other console versions are a bit better. This game runs for cheap so honestly I still say give it a spin and see for yourself since it won’t break the wallet and may provide you some fun. I do recommend staying away from the Xbox version and going for the PS2, gamecube version but I would not expect anything out of this game for the most part. I wonder how the sequels will be!


I just realized even in what should have been the positive section that I was rambling about the bad more LOOOL

Among the various games that heavily derived from Max Payne's rumbling entrance with its gritty third-person shooter-focused combat, Dead to Rights is probably the best one. It's a pretty simple game that stands out with its quirks and diverse pace-breaking sections that require you to disarm bombs, jimmy-open doors, etc. Also, the unique mechanic of sending out your dog to maul unsuspecting goons and create new paths for our armed protagonist are also fun and add more diversity to the gameplay.

The story isn't exactly groundbreaking either, but it sets the mood right as a tale of pure revenge that sets Jack Slate on a path that unveils crooked capitalists and citywide plans of corruption and greed . . . huh, that all sounds a little too familiar.

Overall, the gunplay is really satisfying, it always encourages you to act fast and tear through your enemies, and its lock-on function is more than handy. Some of the mini-games stay their welcome a little too long at times, though. This all made for a fun package when I was just a teenager craving more gritty goodness, but these days I won't argue when someone describes how unremarkable it is these days.

For two decades I dismissed this game as the "Namco Max Payne ripoff", after all, why would I play a lame copy of Max Payne on PS2 when the original Payne was right there on the family PC in all its tight, sharp glory?

Well I fucking missed out. This game's pretty good! Not a great game but it's a good game.

The shooting is fun in most sections and the setpieces are mostly pretty good, with intuitive level design and ammo/health/armor placements. Honestly some of the best I've seen in a shooter. After the halfway point the game gets pretty tough, too, forcing you to think about enemy placement and actually use them as meat shields as well as which weapon is best.

There's some silly minigames for cinematic purposes which are all really easy, and they're goofy enough to be fun.

The story is extremely simple but ridiculously cheesy. It's going for a noir detective atmosphere, but unlike Payne, it feels like a parody of noir movies at points. The voice acting for some of the villains is so bad it's good, and NPC lines on some levels had me chuckling for a few solid minutes. It's hilarious and completely took me offguard.

The main flaw with this game is just how long it gets. There is a very clear point where you feel like the story is wrapping up, yet it still goes on for a few more chapters, all of which are very stretched out. It's a bummer considering everything before that was pretty nice and concise. And the helicopter level. They really shouldn't have made that.

Overall, it's worth a play. Maybe not worth beating, but definitely worth checking out.

Max Payne knockoff by Namco is a pretty strong selling point, and then they throw a dog in there? Please, of course I'll play all four of these freak ass games. There's a real Burton-esque beauty to the made up city the game takes place in, a weird neon gothic vibe that makes the levels quite atmospheric and beautiful. One early graveyard stage could easily have been grey and dull but the grass is bright green, the fog is yellow, and the sky is streaked with purple, so in conjunction with the oversized graveyard props it gives a sort of fun-house feel to the whole affair. Once you get to the docks the game starts to run out of ideas, with boss fights that take the piss and much duller spaces that are reused quite a bit, but the first half is good campy fun, great shooting and slo mo grappling action. Wish the Shadow mechanic worked better