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Brain Meat. That’s the thing that sticks out the most to me after playing this game.
They used the term “brain meat.” The writers of this game actually sat down and decided
that an appropriate line for a bad guy to utter after wounding the main character would
involve the phrase “brain meat”. That’s awesome, and while this game may not have
aged as well as other games released in the early 2000’s, it’s still an interesting
beast. It mixes attack dogs, gunplay, an interesting story and a dark tone together, adds some
brain meat and throws it in a blender. This is Dead to Rights for the GameCube.
Dead to Rights follows a cop named Slate who shows up at the scene of a crime, only to
be attacked by waves of workers. However, after finishing the last of them off, he finds
his dead father in a pool of his own blood. After being told to move on and stay calm,
Slate ignores the advice and tries to hunt down the people responsible. By the way this
involves a chase with a man who sounds like he’s doing a horrific Christopher Walken
impression. A series of events then leads to Slate getting put on death row for ***.
The story is actually quite interesting, but the one issue I have with it is how it starts
with very little exposition. The events after the first 20 minutes or so are very well thought
out, but you’ll have to make it through some “meh” moments at the beginning.
Gameplay in Dead to Rights is all about third-person shooting. Pulling the R button automatically
locks onto enemies, and the A button fires shots. This lets you move between several
targets quickly, even if the game locks onto a target that you actually can’t see. There’s
a variety of weapons to choose from, and the pace of the game fits perfectly with the shooting.
You’ll always be moving, so this system actually works better in this game than one
based around manual aiming. You’ll also be able to use your dog, Shadow, as a weapon
against enemies. He does more damage in 3 seconds than your gun does.
The only issue I really had with Dead to Rights’ gameplay was the camera. While it usually
does a pretty good job of giving you a good view, it’s a pain to adjust and some spots
fix it in place for no reason. It’s not as bad as some other games on the GameCube,
but it’s worth noting. One thing I do really want to spend some time
on though, is the game’s mature rating. This game earns it completely. Before the
story even really gets going, you’ll execute human shields and play a mini-game that makes
you time button presses to make a stripper dance so Slate can sneak by some bouncers.
I know some M rated games may be okay for some younger gamers, but this is definitely
not one of them. Dead to Rights is almost 10 years old, and
the graphics are a little bit rough, especially with character models and faces. Voice acting
is also a mixed bag; Slate sounds pretty believable, a bit like Nolan North, but some other characters
sound so terrible, I can’t believe they let them record dialogue.
Dead to Rights has some issues that are common from games released a decade ago, but it’s
actually still a lot of fun. That being said, definitely keep this away from the impressionable
minds of younger kids. This will screw them up.