Namco Bandais cop on the edge, Jack Slate, and his shaggy sidekick, Shadow, punch, gun and bite their way on to consoles this week in Dead To Rights: Retribution, Volatiles revamp of the slug and gun series. The pixel equivalent of bottom shelf entertainment, Dead To Rights pits Slate and Shadow against a plethora of garishly dressed thugs in digital cesspool Grant City, mixing vicious fisticuffs, wincing takedowns, Gears of War-inspired cover-based gunplay, all ad furiously peppered with hilariously blue one-liners from gamings least likeable hero.
With ten missions to wade through, Dead To Rights is fast food gaming on a silvery spinner that, while blowing its coded load in the first three missions, can actually be grotesquely enjoyable fun, provided youre willing to exonerate it for all its faults and garnish the experience with a few tins.
Cribbing its combat system from Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dead To Rights never once reaches the same fluid heights as Rocksteadys BAFTA champ, instead youll find yourself consistently resorting to button clubbing as you steamroll your way through the bland campaign. Lewd, crude and just plain silly, its probably not worth the asking price but you might pony up for a rental just for the chance to fillet a goons goolies when playing as the toothsome hound.