"Dead to Rights" is a flat-out, balls-to-the-wall, non-stop action video game. It's also a shameless ripoff of "Max Payne". However, unlike "Payne", there's rarely any strategy that comes into play. For the most part, you're just placed in the middle of an intense firefight and are forced to shoot your way out.
The story is about a "Dirty Harry"-like cop who's father is killed during an investigation surrounding a senator's dirty little secret involving the discovery of centuries old gold. The cop is named Jack Slate and the player who controls him has access to a number of ways to dispatch the bad guys with extreme prejudice.
Since you're usually surrounded with enemies and constant gunfire, it's a bit difficult to put some of these moves to good use. However, the ways that you can kill your enemies are numerous and creative. You can use the bad men as human shields, unleash your pet dog to maul them and throw propane canisters into the air and shoot 'em, destroying everybody in sight.
The best way of wasting bad guys, however, are the disarms. You can play "director" with slow motion and camera angles as you watch Slate kill an enemy and take his weapon. Speaking of weapons, there's about a dozen of them or so up for grabs. The least effective tactic you have in your arsenal seems to be the slo-mo dive. It's a gimmick that usually has you taking in more bullets than dodging them.
On occassion, Jack is forced to take on his advesaries with his bare hands. These segments are made up of generic attacks, but they are far and few between. A number of mini-games, such as disarming bombs and picking locks also drop in from time to time. Variety is obviously the name of the game and it's nice to have it. However, "Dead to Rights" wears out its welcome about the halfway mark.
It's an extremely lengnthy adventure, but by chapter 9, I was ready to put down my guns, get the girl and save the world. The non-stop chaos occurring on screen seem to get monotonous. Without the ability to take control of the shootouts (the bulk of the game) with strategy, I felt like I was being manipulated. Neglected to only staying low to the ground and firing out a few shots, rather than running around and creating havoc with all the nifty moves I have been given.
The joy of "Max Payne" is the way you can play anyway you want as long as your mindful of the results. "Dead to Rights" gives you all the moves you could ever want in an action game, but keeps you pin down by gunfire most of the time. That being said, the level design is not exactly ingenius, there are very few places you can duck and hide. Keep in mind, the baddies are not stationary, they usually rush in to flush you out.
All these issues aside, "Dead to Rights" isn't a bad game, it's just as I said at the beginning of this review, it's a non-stop action game. That is where it differs from the more slow-paced, strategic "Max Payne". I admired that title alot more than this one. However, if non-stop chaos is your thing, "Dead to Rights" is your game.
