Dead to Rights Screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay 8.1 Graphics 7.8 Sound 8.2 Value 8.0 Dead to Rights  - reviewed by Tory Favro Review Date: 14 March 2003 Review Score: 8.3/10 Not based on an average  Distributed By: Electronic Arts

Dead to Rights comes to us courtesy of our friends at Electronic Arts and is one of the grittiest games I've played on the XBox in terms of real life environments and sheer levels of interactivity. Not to mention the fact that you command a bloody big dog!   Dead to Rights Features Players 1 Genre: Third Person Shooter Rating: MA15+ Dolby Digital   Your name is Jack Slate and you are a good cop set up in a pretty forgettable storyline concerning gold. In the quest to clear your name, you get to shoot a lot of guns and also take on the enemy in hand to hand combat. This is a title that will drag you screaming into the mean streets of the city with little but a gun and your dog to keep you company, along with a lot of folk who want you dead! One of the first things to be noted about this title is that you better have a damn good memory, because after the introductory training, you have to remember a hell of a lot of commands to steer this baby.  I found this to be very encumbersome and I would say that the learning curve for this title would be well over an hour to satisfactorily do everything you need to.   The title looks and sounds good. Graphically Dead to Rights certainly pleases and everything moves along at a nice pace. Although linear, the game certainly keeps you on the go and the enemy is not exactly a pushover either. An important facet of the game to remember is that everything that is used against you may in fact be used by you and vice-versa. It's a really cool feature: in Dead to Rights there are a number of disarm moves that can get you the bad guys gun!   The disarm moves not only look cool but also get Jack's greedy mitts on hardware when he's down and out. The more you use the disarm technique, the more "disarms" you will unlock. There are also a number of special effects given to the title when doing rolls and jumps, like the Matrix and on the computer, Max Payne. Bullet time has been done to death however and for the most part, the slow motion sequences are just a pain (no pun intended).   A nice addition to the game is the use of your living enemies as shields. I have enjoyed using this technique in games such as Metal Gear Solid 2 and more recently Splinter Cell. The only thing to be aware of is that if you present your unprotected back to the enemy, you quite frankly are gonna be toast.

As previously mentioned, Jack has a big dog by the name of Shadow. Whilst Shadow is cool and can get you out of all sorts of trouble, he makes can sometimes take the challenge out of some areas. All you have to do is sic Shadow onto someone and it's instant kill and he even brings the weapon back to you. The dog is there for almost the full game and looks excellent and is animated very well. As I said, he takes the challenge out of it sometimes.

Utilising Dolby Digital means that this game  not only looks a trick, but sounds great as well. With a half decent sound setup you should be able to have a very immersive experience that fully does justice to the game.

Dead to Rights is an XBox game that is fully worth the purchase. I think that there are going to be many people who pick it up and it will collect dust in their cupboard however. Why? It's not an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, even with Shadow helping out, you will have to be able to grasp some basic strategy in order to get through the game. There are so many options there for players that at points you might even find it helpful to have a notepad and pen out when plotting your next move.

Give it a try! Recommended.

- Tory Favro