Mega City One, home to hundreds of million peoples from all walks of life. With its massive skyscrapers and buildings of varying shapes and sizes to its snake like freeways, Mega City One could be described as a perfect example of a potential vision of our future. A place where unemployment and boredom is rife Mega City One is also home to a number of street gangs, workers and general lowlifes who have no respect for the law. This huge sprawling city is a hive of activity and a haven for both the legal and criminal minded. Set in a future Earth, Mega City One bears a resemblance to many regimes seen throughout the world today albeit on a larger scale. A place such as this needs to be kept well within an established order to prevent complete anarchy. Rather than the use of the military to keep things in check as seen in some of the regimes of today a deployment of a well armed police force is used instead. However there is a twist to the judicial system used in Mega City One. Gone are your typical men and women who listen to cases brought before them and then hear the verdicts of a jury before passing sentence. These practices are time consuming and with the sheer number of perpetrators that act out various crimes each day in this huge city, are not feasible. Let me introduce to you The Judges, namely Joe Dredd or what he is more commonly known as, Judge Dredd. These judges have the power to dispense instant justice on those who commit crimes. Whether it be for minor or major offenses, all that is required are the discretion of the judges to determine criminals fates.

In another episode in this law enforcers life, Dredd is called into action once more. After a quick re-training program (which Dredd sees no need for) its time to hit the streets again and establish some all out law and order, with a little dash of fear thrown in for good measure.

Having completed training Dredd stands proud in the Halls of Justice, a huge building that overlooks the city and the main headquarters for Mega City One’s judges. Perusing the street below from his perch like an eagle waiting to strike, the hustle and bustle of every day life goes on. However today sees some activity directly outside the Halls of Justice. Some protestors have gathered complaining about the system and the power given to these judges. With banners waving and chanting their mantra, Dredd looks on without so much as a twitch. Although you can feel there is some pure hatred in Dredd’s eye for such scum that should know better than to break the law, his law. Like a caged animal waiting to be released into the wild, Dredd acts as if his hands are tied.

You almost get the sense that if he could, Dredd would smash the thick glass and dive out of the window. landing several stories below on the ringleader, crushing him then arresting the remaining protesters after giving them a good beating. However it transpires that Dredd is in fact waiting for his superiors to give him some orders, the real reason why he was called into duty here. Joined by senior Judge Hershey and Psi Divisions Judge Anderson ( Psi judges have abilities that enable them to view the future amongst other things) it transpires that a plague has been predicted to hit the city. Judge Hershey explains that this would be catastrophic with all these millions of people living so close together. Dredd is then ordered to take to the streets and keep his ears close to the ground regarding this issue, naturally with no questions asked he gladly accepts this. However his first port of call lies with taking care of the protestors down below.

Joined by some other judges Dredd makes his way to the protestors. With his Mk 3 Lawgiver gun drawn he can hear the chants of these protestors, “one citizen, one vote, freedom for all”!!

Without any unnecessary small talk Dredd starts firing bullets close to the protestors heads. As if apprehended by fear itself they promptly fall to their knees dropping their banners in the process. Moving swiftly and ignoring the disgruntled comments Dredd begins cuffing the protestors. “Ten years creep” here, “five years for disorderly conduct” there, until they have all been cuffed and ready to be shipped to the Cubes (jail cells). As a final remark Dredd reminds them. “In this city justice comes at a price. That price is Freedom”. Welcome to Dredd’s world. He is the law.

Dredd vs Death is based on one of the characters from UK based comic 2000AD. A movie was made starring Sylvester Stallone who played Dredd in the 90’s and a game on the Mega Drive was made in 95. However both of these paltry attempts failed to capture the essence of Dredd’s comic book world. Rebellion have bought the rights to the Judge Dredd name and have produced Dredd vs Death on multiple formats for next Gen consoles. Is it any good? Read on.

Gameplay:
Dredd vs Death is a first person shooter based around the distinctive world of Judge Dredd. The player’s job as he or she controls Dredd himself is to make sure that the people of the city obey the law and to uncover the mysteries surrounding the potential plague that is set to overrun the city. Controlling Dredd is pretty simple with the usual Xbox fps control schemes being employed. The training at the start of the game introduces the nuances of the game to the player such as movement, hostage rescue and weapons training. Armed with his primary weapon the Mk 3 Lawgiver, this gun is unique in the fact that it operates with several modes of fire that can be changed with a simple tap on the d-pad. These include, standard, ricochet, incendiary, hi explosive, armor piercing and heat seeking rounds. However the way the clip is set up means that using hi ex rounds will drain the clip quicker than say standard rounds. This means the player has to decide on the fly how one should tackle the various situations that are presented to Dredd. Luckily Dredd is able to carry a secondary weapon as well (although not as versatile as the Lawgiver). These range from a shotgun to heavy machine gun type weapons to sniper rifles and lasers to name a few. Dredd is also able to grab these from fallen enemies should the situation require it. As with many games these days Dredd can only carry two weapons at any one time. Again it's down to the player to find which weapons work best against the hordes of enemies that Dredd will face on his travels around Mega City One.

The enemies come in various forms too and offer a limited amount of intelligence. Some will run at you with the intention of smashing Dredd to death while others will try to stand ground shooting at you from afar. This can be seen as either good or bad, maybe even both. However this brings in to play one of the main features of the game. Dredd has a law meter on screen at all times, represented by a bar. It is here that Dredd’s ability to judge is gauged. Should Dredd needlessly kill civilians or even criminals then this bar will fall lowering your ranking at the end of the level. If it is at the lowest point and Dredd commits more acts of mindless violence then the special internal judges will come to kill him for going rogue. This ends the game and requires restarting at the last check point.

The impressive feature here is that Dredd is able to challenge criminals before engaging them with bullets. Challenging comes in the form of one liner quotes lifted directly from the comics such as “Drop em creep” or “Dead or alive you are coming with me”. If you are not familiar with the comics then these lines are more akin to characters such as Robocop or Duke Nukem. If the verbal approach fails then Dredd is able to shoot weapons from enemies hands thus disarming them and often forcing them to surrender. I found this aspect to be very challenging, especially on hard mode as enemies were more reluctant to surrender. This method also drew a fine line between your health risk , ammo use and the law meter, often creating scenarios whereby you would take a few extra hits trying to disarm rather than simply aiming for the all killing head shot. Once you have apprehended a criminal the player is then able to cuff them dishing out an instant sentence along with the obligatory Dredd remark. Cuffing criminals is a great way of raising your law meter thus improving your ranking at the end of the level. Scoring highly will unlock more modes of play and characters for multi player mode.

Graphics:
Graphically Dredd vs Death looks good and captures the look from the comics pretty much perfectly using some nice texture, weather and lighting effects. It has an unique look of its own and adds greatly to the overall Dredd experience. There are some authentic 2000AD urban locations on offer here which have some great features. Such as flying vehicles overhead, huge billboards and sprawling city skylines wherever you look. The character models are reasonable but not perfect, although this can be excused by the use of a rag doll physics engine and plenty of gore. Some great moments can be had with most if not all the enemies here.

I was in a prison that was being over run by the inmates and vampires. I was faced by a group of vamps and armed inmates. Having disarmed the inmates with some cool weapons fire the vampires began to attack, killing the inmates first. The vampires then turned their attention to me. Switching to incendiary rounds I began opening fire as four of them burst into flames but still attacking. One by one they died falling to the floor as a skeleton. The last vampire decided to lunge at me like a huge fireball, however I dodged to the side and watched as it hit a nearby fence, dead and smoldering with the fence holding upright the skeletal remains. Excellent stuff.

Sound:
Sound is also very good and of a futuristic nature with a lot of ambient sound effects being used, such as adverts from boards having an audio playback. The citizens and criminals also have various comments to make which helps to convey the world of Dredd. Music is typically Futuristic , if that is possible with techno type sounds and beats. Dredd himself sounds macho and bold as you would expect him to and has enough one liners to make you laugh or weep.

Longevity:
Dredd vs Death comes with various modes of play for one player or more. The main story mode which is a little on the short side asks for replaying as scoring highly unlocks more goodies for the other modes of the game. Also the story mode can be played with two players in a co-op mode which is a neat addition to the package. There are some featured mini game levels which involve killing to a time limit or survival with limited health. These add something extra to sink your teeth into if you feel the need of a break from the main story mode. Some multi player modes are also supported for up to four players along with a number of bots. This will keep you entertained for sometime whether you are alone or with friends. Some worthy additions to the package, although there is no Live play or system link.

Round Up:
Overall Dredd vs Death is a cool game and has enough to please both fans and non fans alike. Some dodgy AI will certainly not hamper your enjoyment of this title as this can sometimes be put down to the crazed zealot type maniacs that would reside in Mega City One. Looking rather impressive in places and less in others will also have no bearing on your enjoyment of the game. Getting stuck on some of the scenery poses a problem in some places but once again does not detract from the overall experience. My only major gripe is that the game could have been a little longer in story mode. However this is partially made up for in the other modes on offer. I say well done Rebellion for making an excellent Judge Dredd game.