Dead to Rights (Xbox)

This game has to be one of my favourite titles on the Xbox.

It's like playing a game in an cop thriller movie.

The biggest attraction to me was the moves that can be executed by your character: you can perform slow motion dives while targeting multiple enemies at once, sneak dissarm attacks and my personal favourite the human shield - basically sneak up on an enemy, grab him and use him to protect you from enemy fire while you point your gun over his shoulder and blast away!

The game isn't just straight forward shooting, there's puzzles to solve, like unlocking doors, hotwiring vehicles and making a stripper dance... yes thats right "Making a stripper dance!". There's also obstacle elements where you use Shadow (the dog).

The controls are really easy to use.

The game has an all round dark, gritty atmosphere. The character animations are spot on. Graphics are really good, but not the best I've seen on the Xbox.

The only annoying thing is that there is a lot of movie sequences tat you can't skip.

Overall an excellent game that will keep you busy for ages!

Die Hard meets Tombraider!

Dead to Rights, however, is an exception to this rule, and in all honesty, has to be the worst game I have ever had the misfortune to play.

The game kicks off with an excellent introduction, which, to be frank, had me hooked from the beginning.With a kind of John Woo-style to the action, the game promised to be a rich blend of Hong Kong noir and hard boiled action, with a certain cinematic feel to the atmosphere and style of the game.

So what went wrong?

As soon as the intro finished and the game started I realsied all too soon the mistake I had made. The controls are too complex, often requiring numerous button combitations to perform actions. Targetting the enemy is a nightmare, as you cannot strafe and target at the same time, resulting in many frustrating moments. In fact, the only way you can actually kill anyone is by using the targetting mode, which limits the playability of the game, resulting in very little skill. Press the R Trigger to target, then repeat until everyone is dead. No skill needed.Poor.

The mini games seem to be rushed, and offer nothing new or varied from what other games seem to have done, and are very frustrating. The scene with the stripper, for example, requires precise timing to make her dance. Yet even when you time each press of the pad, it often dosent work, resulting in some very annoying back tracking.

Its obvious that the programmers have tried so hard to make this a Max Payne beater, but they seem to have forgot the fundemental aspects which made that game so enjoyable. In Dead to Rights there is 'bullet time' but executing it requires the use of four hands to dive, target, aim, shoot, etc. An impossible feat.

The graphics are diabolical,too arcadey, and resemble a poor version of Operation Winback on the N64. I was so disappointed with Dead to Rights that I sold it after playing it for only twenty minutes. The game offers no incentive to progress through the chapters, the control system is a joke that only a four handed mutant can use, the action is repetive, the ideas behind it, although sounding good on paper, are far too complex and frustrating to pull off.

Do not, under any circumstances, buy this game. Wait for True Crime to come out, or stick with Max Payne.