Dead to Rights - My first impressions(Now Updated)

Well, I've been raving about this game, for the last month and a half Constantly trying to protect it from unjustifyable bashing, and lame comments. I had it reserved, and both me and DJ were counting days till it release

And finally, the day came. So at my lunch break, I got into the car, and drove to the mall near my work place, to pick it up, from the GameStop inside, where I reserved it. On my way I also stoped by Barnes & Nobles, and looked through the recent issue of PSM mag, they had some cool info on the Shinobi game(Shinobi VS Tank fight looks cool ), so I might get the mag tomorrow.

Then, I walked stright to GameStop, and talked to the guy working there, to pick up my copy of DTR. While he was getting it, I also saw that they had newest issues of Play and GI(the one with Vice City), so I picked those up as well. Guy offered me a subscription for GI, with the Discount card, and I said what the hell, GI might be ok to read on the boring work day, so I get that as well

Now, Since I'm still at work, I cant really say anything about the game itself yet , but I can share my impressions of the Box, inside booklet, and the disk, and comeback later with REAL game impressions

The box is your usual Xbox, yaky green, and the US box art for DTR is nothing to speak of. Just your generic guy in coat and 2 guns. On the back there is a game summury, features and few in game screenshots, not of the best quality, except for one.

The manual is nicely done, with the information on various moves Jack can perform, and other game information. Note bad, so I will read more of it, before I get home.

I will be back later today, with more impressions, so stay tuned

LOL great post Despair.
I'm looking forward to your game impressions tonight/tomorrow :)
- Kabuki

You know a guy is excited about getting home to play his game when he posts impressions of the freaking manual!

I love this stuff!

I hope is doesn't disapoint, Despair. :D

Umm, my first impression of the demo was OMG...this is awful...and it probably will stick with retail version....

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Originally posted by Despair
The box is your usual Xbox, yaky green,

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:lol: Thanks for the info!

The general impression from people who have had it somehow awhile (not me), is that it's very cool, but extremely hard. Then again, most of these people probably don't finish to many games... if you know what I mean..... wink wink, say no more.

I love it, the varitey of moves is great and my only real complaint is that the hand to hand fighting (while cool) is not very responsive... especially the dodge and evade buttons.

ºTracer

I can't believe I just read first impressions about a freakin box!!

What's next, are we going to be reviewing warranty cards?

Well, Here I am back :) but this time with real game impressions.

As I was driving into our driveway, DJ was sitting on the deck infront of the house impatiently waiting. He screamed YEAH !!! and run towards the car. I gave him the game, and we proceded inside to finally play it.

It starts with one of AWESOME CGI movies, that Namco is famous for. If you downloaded a trailer I posted a while ago, thats the one.

After that the real game begins. We chose Start new game, and our journey into the underworld of Grant City started.

First level is a tutorial, in which as encounter enemies, you learn how to do moves and tricks. Aiming, disarming, giving comands to your dog Shadow. Fun stuff. ANd while doing that you got to kill alot of bad guys wearing hard hats :) It takes place in Construction site, and the level looks pretty good. Sure its not highest Xbox quality graphics, since we all know that the game began as PS2 project, but those are not bad at all. Good use of lighting fx, and once the action heats up, you can see the bullet holes, puddles of blood and charred spots everywhere.

It takes a little while to get used to controls, you control Jack with left analog, and camera with right. Right trigger does auto aim, and you can help it with pushing right Analog towards the enemy you want to target. And thats where one of the flaws comes to play. As it was mentioned in reviews, game sometimes tends to aim on the bad guys, not necessary close to you, and that can be confusing. But with time you can get used to it, and with practice, moving crowds of baddies becomes more easier.

You can dive/roll with use of Y button, and double tapping it takes you into Bullet time mode, which is fun to use, but not required. Also with use of B button, you can disarm your enemies or use them as human shield which is great fun.

But here is another flaw in the game, no Jump button. Not really a big deal, but it would have been nice to be able to jump once in a while.

So far there been couple mini games, one is lock picking sequence where you need to select rolling pins at the right time, (somewhat simular to Judgement Ring in Shadow Hearts :) so I felt right at home there :)), another was a Stripper dance sequence, which wasnt very hard either.

Also once you get into Nightclub, you get a chance to duke it out with bunch of bouncers Tekken style. You can punch, kick and throw, and also dodge enemy moves or block them(dodging depletes your Bullet Time gauge). Once you beat them up, and mine boss comes out to challenge you, which was pretty fun.

You can save anywhere, but the game has a checkpoint system, which will start it from the nearest checkpoint. Good thing there are alot of them :) But sometimes you have to go through more lenghtier shoot out sequence before you reach checkpoint, and if you die, its start over. But so far its not very bad in that matter.

We didnt get to use Shadow much yet, but I will definately will use the dog more. There are many instances when you might run out of the ammo, and his ability to get you enemy guns comes in very handy :)

So, To sum it up. I like the game. Graphically its very nice, eventhough not a groundbreaking. It controls well, but aiming, some camera placements and absence of jump button, could have used more work. Still, does the game worth the money? Yes, it does :) It still fun to run around moving the armies of baddies left and right, and thats what DTR lets you do :)

But if you still not sure, give it a rent, you might still change your mind :)

And I will post more impressions, once I get further into the game. :)

:)

You let your son watch the game? What'd you 2 do after, watch a porno flick? Freak....:bang:



Good impressions anyways. :D

No, He is playing, and I'm watching :)

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Originally posted by Despair We chose Start new game

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:lol:

That is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time!

Most smilies in a review.... EVAR

Quote:

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Originally posted by Despair
No, He is playing, and I'm watching :)

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Ummm... I'll assume you meant the game.... I hope....


:p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p

Quote:

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Originally posted by phoenix angel wing


:lol:

That is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time!

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Plus the word WE leads you to think they both had to work together to choose Start.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Korly
What's next, are we going to be reviewing warranty cards?

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The warranty card is a nice size with clear bold printing and ample space to fit you name and address. The layout could use some work and more system choices that you own would also be nice but overall I give it a 4 out of 5 ;)

Ok, Here I am back with EVEN MORE impressions :)

We got to play more of DTR last night, and got littlbe further into the game.

And if you ask me how is it? I will say - Pretty Good :) Not perfect, but fun never the less. Once you get used to sometimes erratic aiming, and get ahold of right analog to hlep aiming, you shold be doing fine. One of the most important aspects, will be dodging bullets, and using your opponents as shields. And its a great fun: you see 5 guys coming up to you, guns firing, you roll to the closest one, dodge his shots, grab and disarm him, and using him as a cover pump his few friends full of lead, but then one of the still standing enemies, shots him up, so you drop the now useless dead body, do another jump, go into bullet time, and finish the last bad guy. Fun :)

Another fun thing to do, is pick up a one of many canisters that can be found in many places on the levels, throw it in the direction of group of enemies, bring out your gun, and then in the right moment blow it up in the air. It causes a very fun explosion, and takes out the baddies in process :)

Your dog, Shadow has a gauge, which will deplete as you continue using him. He is invisble unless you call him, and enemies cant hurt him, but he is very usefull in taking out, some bad guys, that you just cant get, or when you in desperate need of ammo, and you send him to get you that lovely machine gun that bad guy was firing at you with :)

Once you procede with storyline, you get arrested and framedfor the murder, so now you have to escapre the Jail, where you been unjustly put. But before you can do that, there are quite a few old friends that you helped to put away, and who now is more then happy to kick your ass, and you also in desperate need of good ammount of cigarette packs to pay off your way out. And here you Prison adventure begins. You faced with many challenges, such as go one round with Prison champion boxer, lift some weights and beat the record, or punch the punching bag to beat the previous guy score. And once done with those, why not visit other cell blocks, beat up some scum, and get paid for it :)

Since there are no guns or other weapons in the Jail, its all hand to hand combat, and game doesnt dissapoint here. Sure you can be just cheap and use the same Punch, Punch, Punch combo over and over, but if you like to have fun and experiment, you can do variety of kick and punche combos, that include some nice jump kick and low roundhouse finishes. Sure the fighting is not deep, but still fun. And dont forget to block or dodge enemy moves, or you might find your ass beaten on the ground in no time :)

Well, I'm looking forward playing more of the game, later tonight, and I will be posting more info and impressions as the time comes :)

Keep up the great impressions Despair !!
- Kabuki

Keep up the great smilies Despair!!
- Korly

Thanks guys :) I try to entertain and attract people to try this game :)

Here few more thoughts about the game:

Got to try Arm Wrestling challenge last night, and it was pretty good. It doe require you do to a timed button presses to keep your strenght, but also power up your forced attack. After few tries, DJ got passed it victorious :)

Once you collect enough cigaret packs, the story mode moves forward, and you get to attend your own execution party, but luckily you have friends to help you escape. So you need to make to the SHower room, but cant hurt any of the cops that get in your way trying to stop you. What do you do? WHat do you do? :)

And once in Showers, just through the drain we go, and your undeground adventure begins, complete with narrow passage ways, endless pits of fun, maze like structures, and plenty of baddies in ambushes waiting for their change to pump your ass with lead. Its quite a challenging level, since once you die, it takes you right back to the beginning, but its challenging and fun. I just with those human shields walked little bit faster, my finger always itches to just shoot them in the head, and move forward faster, but dont let your temptations gets ahold of you, using human shields is the key for your survival, so do it once, do it again and do it all the time :)

I wish you could play as Shadow through some parts of the game, that would be cool... plus I just love wolves :D

Actually you do, Werewolf. THere are some instances where you have to controll the Shadow :) I dont know if you also get to kill some enemies while doing it, or its more of SHary Birkin(or whatever the name of little girl in RE2 is :)) type of play, where you just guide your character to reach certain goal, and try to run away and avoid all enemies.

I've had this and Buffy since day one, but I haven't played this past the stripper level yet. Buffy has dominated my XBOX, but I think I'll go play this right now, since I've made it pretty far in Buffy.

Yeah, You do that Korly :) Fun starts right after the Stripper part :)

Well, the fun started, and then it ended.

PLEASE tell me there are better combos than PPKK, KKK, PPPP, or the popular PPK.

I just got the throw break (which I shoulda had from the start). Also, why do throws suck so much? Is there a way to grab someone and then punch 'em a couple times or something?

I'm really disappointed with the had to hand combat, especially coming from playing Buffy, which has a great deal of variety in moves.

I'm currently looking for Mad Dog in cell B, if you're curious how far I am.

The weightlifting game was cool though.

Well, Yes, the hand combat is not greatest, but it was never ment to be. It was addition to the game, which is more about Gun shooting, so dont expect any VF4 deepness here, or even Tekken variety of moves. True, Buffy has better fighting system, but again, you dont expect Buffy to run around firing 2 guns either :)

Yeah, but she has a flamethrower, and the ability to impale people on jagged wood.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Korly
Is there a way to grab someone and then punch 'em a couple times or something?

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Yes you can. Grab an enemy and immediately start hitting the punch button before he gets thrown.

Yes, Just like Mr_Furious said, once you grab the enemy and about to perform a throw, press punch button few times, and Jack will give bad guy few smacks in the face with his fist, and then will do the throw.

Both DTR and Buffy are fun games :) So lets not fight over them :p

I'm not fighting, I'm just tellin' you what I think.

And, cool about that throw thing. I coulda swore that hitting the punch button after a grab just threw the guy. I'll go back and try that...

That second checkpoint at the Chinatown level is freakin' brutal!

I love this game. I'm currently on Chapter 6. So far, chapter 5 was my favorite. The bomb defusing mini games are great. Hopefully this game is popular enough for a sequel.

Yeah, The Chinatown level is quite challenging. Very action packed, with tons of bad guys everywhere, snipers on the roofs, alleys and behind cars. Use of shields is a must. And dont forget to use dog, on the enemies that have heavy weapons to get them for your own use.

Once you escape the hideout, it getting even tougher. Pinned down by snipers, and tons of baddies with shotguns and AK47s, and trying to survive. And with lovely lock challenge at the end, that requires some good timing skills.

Is it just me, or does the main character look a lot like Ryo Hazuki when he's in the brown bomber jacket?

Actually, he does a bit :)

Use of Shadow does really come in handy, especially for taking out some more powerful enemies, when fighting against the group of them. Aim for the one carrying the weapon of your choice, and sic the dog on him. After a lovely dog mauling, you are now a proud owner of said weapon, and you have less enemies to worry about. It takes some time to recharge Shadow use gauge, so you cant abuse it too much.

I dont understand why critics were ripping so hard on it. Sure its very challenging, especially with check point system, but thats one of the things I like about it.

I agree that Mini games, dont really distract you from the game, and suite the game well.

We kinda moving slow through the game, and just finished the Chinese parlor chapter. Now that one was pretty fun. Especially army of hooker assassins with machine guns and shotguns showed up. And it was very challenging, since you have to protect a hit girls, that takes your side in the fight. Computer tends to run towards the enemies, so you need to be quick on your toes to follow. Use of Bullet time really helps there, since bad guys all have heavy weapons, and most of them cant be taken as shields, and even if you succesfull, one or two shotgun blasts, rips tright through them, and you. I also liked rainy streets of Chinatown, with armies of hitmen and shooters everywhere, and you running around with 2 guns blazing :) And then Fat Chow showed up with Rocket Launcher :)

Next level took us to the Graveyard, and I enjoying it so far. Neat touches like some good lighting, blown leaves flying in the wind, fog are cool. Hide between old crypts, and watch out for the mercenaries dressed in Clown mask hunting you down. And dont forget about a Helicopter in the air whose pilot's fingers are itching on the trigger to blow you away :)

Well, I dont have any problems with Jack killing enemies he disarms. He is at war, and there are no time to take prisoners. Once they served their purpose, they useless, and why leave enemies leave, so they can later to come after you, so it seems right thing to do. Makes Grant City less polluted with scum :)

Plus those kills are cool looking, and thats a pretty much main reason why they are there.

With dive, you need to use the obstacles for cover, like cars, garbige dumpsters, corners, etc. Also dive + slow mo and concentration on one enemy at the time, quickly firing, takes care of some of the more annoying bad guys. And dont forget to use dog, on most dangerous ones, to kill them and get ahold of their weapon.

Character models are not impressive, I agree, but the game focus is not on them, but on the action.

I personally like how he dispatches of human shields. Plus, you have to think about it for a second. He is holding these guys up as a shield. They are being filled with bullets. If he just knocked them out, they would likely suffer and bleed to death. He is doing them a service by putting them out of their misery. Plus it looks cool. :D

I'm still enjoying the game. I'm on chapter 9 now. I absolutely hated a certain mini game at the end of chapter 8. I don't want to spoil it for anyone but it was quite annoying.

Yo, UK! What the hell is that in your avatar? I've been wondering for the longest time.

All I can make out is that it's a Saturn import...lil'help?

[/OT]

Just got a Dirty Disc Error.... >:( The disc is new, unscratched and not dirty. I hope this isn't a common occurance. Anyway, Chapter 10 now, and I must say, this is easily the best chapter as of yet. Lots of gunfighting.

Captain Vegetable,
Don't worry, you aren't the first to ask that question. It is the import Saturn game called Ninja Jajamaru Kun Gold. It is a 3D action game starring a superdeformed Ninja(Who has been in quite a few games). I've got some very low quality screenshots and a review that needs updating posted at my site(link is in my sig).

Well, Here is another update :)

As we went further into Graveyard level, more challenging it become. Damn helicopter with its machine gun fire, was very annoying, and could strip you off your armor and life bar in no time. DJ didnt really had much time to try and take it on, so we pretty much just concentrated on dodging its fire, and make sure we get all the enemies on the ground. Using them as shield helped alot, and we made it inside of big crypt. After another heavy firefight, we made it trough to another side, to the second level of crypt when the helicopter showed up once again. By Quickly rolling into the hole in the ground, we escaped enemy fire, and landed in the closed chamber down below, with all kinds of goodies waiting, especially Handle we needed to open passageway out of that area.

In the next narrow Graveyard court, you are besiege of multiple snipers and the walls, and have to act very fast, locate the swich, use it, and escape alive, back to the crypt.

Once done, we found out the a lovely boss encounter was waiting for us :) The armored van blocked the onle exit from the cemetary, and we have to get close and personal with it. Dodging heavy machine gun fire from the turret in the back of the van, hiding behind statues, and fountain decorations, we got closer to the target. Thats where those explosive containers come into play, pick one up, toss it towards your target, watch it fly, and at right moment blast it with your gun, and enjoy the fireworks :) Repeat as needed, and watch out, since that van not the only enemy in the area, and multiple gunmen all happy to fill you with bullets.


After that, you get a chance to play some On-Rails GUn game(it reminded me of the ones in AUF), where you have to snipe the baddies on the ground with machine gun(you are in helicopter), while protecting your hit woman friend Eve on the ground. It was fun, just watch out for the girl to not to get in the line of your fire, and make sure you get enemies before her life bar ends.

And as another lovely surprise for you, you need to disarm bombs, between those shooting sections. Well, disarming is fun, as you need to guide a small metal ball in the labyrinth, without touching the walls(or boom), and with time running out. These sequences are very nerve breaking, and you need to do it, otherwise, it goes back to the beggining of sniping section, so you have to do it over again. Its quite challengin, and can be aggravating to some people. But DJ did great, especially on the 3rd disarm, where at the end its a long stretch without any time bonus, and we made it right on the last second - JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIES :).

And once you done with playing around with bombs, why not to shoot some baddies on the ground. You need to get through the army of enforcers crowded on the parking lot, and shooting at you. And damn, those guys hurt, best idea is trying to do as many head shots as possible, since those take them out instantly.

After you played enough sniper, another exciting challenge comes in. You chase 3 escaping enemy cars in your chopper, and you have to shoot them down. Now thats fun, blow everything in sight, tires, doors, hoods, and watch out for machine gun fire from the henchment popping out of the sunroofs, and the main baddie firing rockets at you. Remember, rocket hits - say your life good bye :)

As I said before, we having a great time with the game. Many areas a very difficult, and might seem cheap, but dont give up and give them another try.