How many cops, heroes, villains, game characters are called Jack? It seems the name is blessed with high drama and in this sequel to Dead to Rights from Namco the return of the Jack is nigh. Someone’s been naughty again and kidnapped an important Judge, so who do we send in? Swat, Special Forces, The A team? No way, we send in lone cop Jack Slate and his canine buddy Shadow. Let the shooting commence (and yes there is lots of shooting).

Gameplay:

What more can I say about the game play in this 3rd person action game. It involves you controlling Jack as he undertakes the task of killing as many enemies as possible whilst following a predictable story line through linear levels that you’ve seen many times before in other similar games. You the player basically get to shoot, beat up or maul (well Shadow the dog gets to do the mauling) plenty of unsavoury types as you travel from level to level armed with guns, fists, feet and the odd melee weapon such as clubs and knives.

This all sounds very generic and perhaps it is but what Dead to Rights 2 does is borrow some ideas from the Matrix movies or Max Payne games. That’s right, Dead to Rights 2 has the slow motion effects to help you out in a gun battle. This means that you’ll be able to dive through the air in slow motion whilst still being able to shoot pretty fast as your enemies turn into 3 toed tree sloth’s or at least move with the same speed as a three toed tree sloth!

Realism isn’t a big part of the game, as Jack (your character) can take a number of bullets and still live and if wounded badly can simply patch up with a medical kit which has been left lying around in the strangest of places; and by whom? Oh the mystery! Shadow the dog is a unique feature of the game and can be quite useful in taking out enemies who are not wearing dog breath protection. Well ok I lied; there are no dog breath protectors in the game, so those pesky enemies best watch out! Shadow can also do some other tricks such as retrieving items and the like which makes him a handy partner, although sometimes he suddenly becomes disobedient and will leave you in the lurch; so that will be no dinner for pooch once the job is done!

Graphics:

The graphics are reasonable if you like lots of blur effects and repetitive looking enemies. The opening porno level is about as sexy as stepping in dog poo, as the blandness and posters looked liked they had as much effort put into them as a 5 year old splashing paint over a piece of paper on the floor or even a dog attempting to wow humans with its artistic skills. Animation is reasonable and there were no negative things like slowdown, err wait a second there’s loads of slowdown in this game, in fact probably more than any other game; but I jest, as the slowdown is deliberate (bullet time) and a much needed game play feature.

Sound:

The in game sound features gun shots, lots of gun shots and some typical hammy acting from the cast. That best describes the sound in the game. The music is pretty generic as well and to be honest you’ll be focusing on the gunshots more than the music. Nothing award winning here and once again I comment on the opening porno level where they looped a 2 second sample of a woman being excited after winning $10 or £10 on a lottery scratch card, so contrived it’s unbelievable.

Longevity:

Games can be made to appear longer if as a designer you fail to add any checkpoints or if you do, you make them spaced far apart so that if a player should die, mere feet away then they have to start from a long way back. This is a clever trick and truly adds much longevity to any game. Waiting for things to recharge also has a similar effect of increasing the length of a game. Ok a little harsh, but in some cases in this particular game true enough. Dead to Rights 2 can be frustrating long at times, especially as its quite easy to get too confident and then get blasted. Dead to Rights 2 is a single player experience only and one that is not geared towards Xbox Live or any other multiplayer element.

Overall:

Dead to Rights 2 is an average shooter at best and in some cases offers a little bit of fun for the tough as nails gamer. There are plenty of un-forgiving moments where a little bit of tactical thinking is required (as in wait for the enemies to appear in full, hide behind an object and then dive out in slow motion to kill them all). The hand to hand sections are a little weak and can result in simply pressing a single button as you look at the glorious day that’s happening outside your window. Either way, the game has none of the style or effectiveness of other similar games and as I’ve said several times in this review, the whole thing smells of generic. Rent it first or buy if you loved the first game. Oh and please don’t be fooled by the porno level (it really is as naff as I’ve made it out to be).