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Dead to Rights: Reckoning Review
Written by Señor Cha Cha on Tuesday, July 5, 2005
Fast-paced gunplay, tons of blood, and disarms galore.
The game's various glitches will cause extreme frustration.
When videogame publishers continue to pump out sequels to a horrible franchise it means two things: either this particular publisher doesn't have a clue (and is a glutton for supreme punishment) or a decent amount of people are purchasing the damn things. With Namco's horrendous series flop fest Dead to Rights, the latter must be true, because I refuse to believe that the same company that brought us Soul Calibur and Ace Combat 5 actually thinks that any of its DTR games are fun to play. The original is boring, its sequel is marginally better (so instead of awful it's just bad) and now the third chapter, Dead to Rights: Reckoning is also a technically brain dead piece of PSP shovel ware. It's sort of fun, but only in the same way that fire is sort of hot. Explore too deeply and your @$$ will get burned.
Dead to Rights: Reckoning is actually a prequel to the original game, not that I really care (nor should you) since the story is pretty forgettable. Once again you control Jack Slate, a tough as nails cop with a penchant for destruction. In this tale of murder, drugs, and kidnapping, you'll explore alleyways, your apartment, and mansion grounds in search of a hostage. That's really all there is to it. The boring cut scenes don't feature voice acting of any sort, and developer Rebellion somehow lost Slate's personality. This is a run and gun shooter, folks, a bare bones package that is as predictable as they come.
The game plays out like this: run into area, become temporarily trapped, fight off a few waves of bad guys, locate the boss, watch his or her cheap @$$ run away when hurt, kill some bad guys who magically appear out of nowhere, re-engage the boss, kill that stupid $#&%, and move onto the next level. That's exactly how each mission plays out, which is fine considering that a portable system is perfect with this sort of game (DTR flounders on the consoles because of the stiff competition), but numerous technical issues mar what could've been a mildly entertaining videogame.
Point blank, DTR: Reckoning plays exactly like the other games in the series except Jack can perform some new moves and the cut scenes are boringly simplistic and yawn-inducing. I do like Slate's new features, such as being able to dive, stay on the ground, and fire from that position, and by and large the shooting elements work surprisingly well, but this game is so beyond broken that Namco and all parties involved should be ashamed of themselves. That's how bad this #$%$ is. In fact, it's so $%$#$%& atrocious that I don't even know where to begin. Should I talk about the wonky camera that is incapable of providing me with a decent view of the action? How about Slate's awkward decision to target enemies through walls? Oh I know! Let's discuss the awful targeting system where you cannot hit enemies when you're butted next to an obstruction, even while Slate's pointing his weapon above the obstruction. Of course, I can't forget about how short the game is. Early reports listed it at 6-7 hours of gameplay but that's just silly. I was digging the gun play, the new disarms, the ability to command Slate's dog Shadow to attack the bosses, and the wide selection of weapons, but the numerous glitches really damage what could've been a very solid shooter.
The single player campaign is dry like burnt toast but the multiplayer has a sweet juicy center. Featuring both ad hoc and wi-fi, it allows up to four people to blast the hell out of one another in a small handful of different maps, some of which can will be unlocked as you progress throughout the single-player mode. You'll also have access to quite a few character models from the game, so there won't be several Jack Slates running about, though feel free to capitalize on four Jack Slates.
Multiplayer is really your basic set of stuff, so you can deathmatch and...umm...deathmatch. There's nothing about the online mode that stands out, though it's certainly well put together. However, the same issues from the single player pop up, so expect to target opponents through walls, fail to successfully target the correct person, and become a victim of the whacky camera that allows you to take bullets to your back without actually seeing who is shooting at you.
Just as Reckoning plays like other Dead to Rights, it looks like them too, which means that it's largely unimpressive and drab, even for a PSP title. Battling in such locales as rooftops, a slaughter house, and on the grounds of a beautiful mansion have all been done before, though these environments are all a nice size for up to four people. However, the blood is cool, being able to blow up cars and barrels is a nice touch (though good luck actually targeting these objects), and watching Shadow bite into the soft, warm necks of hardened criminals never gets old.
To Rebellion's credit, I really like the in-house physics engine that the developer used (which allows for some uncompromising bad guy situations), and the 15 plus disarms are $%$&%^$ sweet! I also dig how Shadow can launch into action by just tapping Square, though it's a shame that he's never on screen with Slate the entire time.
This was a very tough game for me to score because I elected to accept Dead to Rights: Reckoning on its own terms as well as for what it is, and if you're willing to do that you'll find it to be a semi decent shooter. Actually, it's a solid product considering its predecessors. However, I just cannot let those technical glitches be. I was having fun at first, but when I was constantly dying because I couldn't target the boss (the result of too many on screen characters...and barrels), and when the camera went medieval on my @$$ whenever I was fighting in a narrow space, I cursed like a sailor.
I really love how shallow this game is, but at the same time Namco should be ashamed for even releasing it since it obviously needed more time to cook. Dead to Rights: Reckoning is worth a play through, but once you're done, the ride's over. Speaking of the word "over", it's about time Namco slits this series' throat and moves on.
