Dead to Rights II Review

Just like The Punisher game a couple of months ago, Dead to Rights II tries to sell itself entirely on mindless violence and the result is a shallow experience that most gamers have outgrown by now. It simply isn’t a thrill anymore to see buckets of blood or hear the “F” word in every other sentence, but that is pretty much all Dead to Rights II has to offer.

Gameplay

Dead to Rights II follows tough-as-nails cop Jack Slate as he runs through level after level killing everyone he sees. There is a story buried in there somewhere, and this is actually a prequel to the original Dead to Rights, but it is so stereotypical a tale that the story is ultimately irrelevant.

So it is basically a murder simulator, and not even a very good one at that. It is a third-person shooter similar to Max Payne or The Punisher where you enter enemy filled rooms and clear them out as quickly as possible. In another nod to those other games, you can even enter “bullet time” and dive around in slow motion in order to pick off enemies easier. DtRII simplifies everything even more but not even requiring you to aim. All you have to do is lock onto enemies and hammer on the fire button until they are dead. Every enemy you kill drops a weapon, so rather than even reloading your character just throws their empty gun away and switches to a fresh one. You have a number of disarm moves that result in grisly executions, but it is considerably more difficult to get close to an enemy to disarm them than it is to just shoot them so you’ll use the disarms a few times just to see them and then go back to shooting everything.

We've Seen It All Before

The overall problem with Dead to Rights II is that it is simple, stupid game design at its worst. I’ll admit that the extreme violence and point and shoot gameplay is fun for a while, but when that is all you ever do the game becomes tedious and repetitive and not all that fun. When you see the disarm moves (there are actually quite a few) and blast your hundredth thug into oblivion you have literally seen all this game has to offer in the span of only a couple of levels. The game only takes about 8 hours to play through, and once you do everything once there is no reason to do it again because it was already repetitive and tiresome hours before.

Dead to Rights II is also perhaps the most obscenity-filled game yet. Enemies will constantly shout things at you to the point that it is just ridiculous.

The point is that we have a lot of other games that do all of this and wrap it in a much more compelling package than what Dead to Rights II does. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Brothers in Arms, Unreal Championship 2, Manhunt, Def Jam Fight for NY, Chronicles of Riddick, etc. all do a much better job of delivering violent and “mature” content and those are the games you should be playing.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, Dead to Rights II isn’t very impressive. The level designs are plain and repetitive and Jack and the enemies you are constantly blasting aren’t very detailed, but the simple graphics ensure that the game maintains a high framerate and fast feel. Enemies recoil violently when they die and there is some good blood and gore, but it gets old pretty quickly.

The sound is similarly uninspired. Bad voice acting and subdued, unrealistic weapon sounds are the name of the game here. Also, the music consists of short, forgettable tracks that loop over and over again as you play.

Bottom Line

Dead to Rights II suffers from being too simplistic and too stupid and it really isn’t all that fun. Underneath all of the blood and gore and violence and swearing, the gameplay has the depth of a kiddie pool and that just doesn’t cut it anymore. It is sort of fun for a while, but it loses its appeal very quickly. The bottom line is that there isn’t enough to Dead to Rights II to make it worth a purchase. At least, not at full price. Rent it if you are desperate for some mindless violence or wait for a price drop.