Dead to Rights

Maxim Online

The body count is rivaled only by novel game-play features and production values that make blood spurts akin to snowflakes—no two are the same.

Game Informer

Never before have I seen an action title with such deadly depth. [Sept 2002, p.86]

netjak

Despite the less-then-mediocre camera movement and control, Dead To Rights is a fun romp through a Hong Kong-like movie with all the thrilling elements and action sequences that would make John Woo proud.

GamingTrend

This game is about variety to the Nth degree. You can fight a hundred different ways and still never be wrong.

Media and Games Online Network

With so many ways to kill your enemies, you will never get bored of the same sort of stuff every gunfight.

Official Xbox Magazine

The challenge comes from learning how to avoid the enemies, not figuring out what to do...it provides a quick paced progressive story with a very nice game. [Sept 2002, p.89]

IGN

Had the fighting engine been better, this one would easily trounce "Max Payne" as king of the bullet-time games. But the fighting is too plain, too poor, and there's far too much of it.

Playboy

But taking it for what it is -- a fast-paced, story-based action game with plenty of enemies and violent ways of eliminating them -- Dead to Rights is a highly enjoyable adult diversion for Xbox owners.

TeamXbox

A game that won’t bore you after an hour of gameplay and will literally leave you speechless at times.

Armchair Empire

An unapologetic action game in the same vein as Max Payne, but with a dog sidekick and hand-to-hand combat.

GameSpy

Even with its visual shortcomings and ambition that keeps the game from being as tight as it could have been, Dead to Rights is a riot, packed full of non-stop action that will have you and the buddies playing hours through the night.

ActionTrip

Finally, I should just add that this game features sexy looking strippers in tight thongs! And you get to play one! I mean, what more can you ask for really?

TotalGames.net

There’s no denying that this brave attempt at combining styles has resulted in a good solid title that’s entertaining and fun to play.

Game Over Online

The escalated difficulty of mixing all these together (now instead of one or two game types, you have half a dozen) and inconsistency in pacing the sequences ironically makes the holistic package less accessible.

Cincinnati Enquirer

This story-based, action-adventure title is probably the most gratifying Xbox-only game this summer, even though it does have some flaws.

eToychest

A great game for action lovers, even though it lags at points. It doesn't quite compare to the total immersion of "GTA3," but when you're more kicking ass than Charles Bronson and looking better than John Shaft while doing it, who cares?

Yahoo! Games

This game is jam packed with a range of fighting moves, weapons and a particularly vicious but faithful attack dog that our Max could only wish for.

Electric Playground

I think DTR should also get some credit for its control scheme, which is very intuitive.

AceGamez

The run-and-gun portions of Dead to Rights come together so perfectly that you become enraptured by your ability to take down hordes of bad guys in classic Jon Woo style. It's these intense, visceral, wicked gunfights that make you forget reality and draw you completely into Slate's fantasy world of fast and furious gun-slinging action. Sadly, the beat 'em up sections of the game mar what otherwise would have been a perfect title.

GameZone

The lock-on targeting system can be a royal pain as well, since it almost always targets the enemy that is closest to you. This leads to an abundance of problems that occur during the game's most difficult scenarios.

Gamer's Pulse

Could have been great, but has to settle for being good because of the annoying camera issues and the graphics shortcomings.

GameSpot

No one said being the hero was going to be easy. Overlooking its problems and getting past that learning curve certainly won't be, but if you manage to, you'll find that Dead to Rights is an intense and challenging game.

XenGamers

An intelligent action title that injects some strategy into the usually mindless action genre. Although the graphics are unremarkable, and the difficulty can be unfair, the gameplay has a lot to offer.

Gamezilla!

Beyond the disarms and shot dodging, it’s not worth much more than a rental.

GamePro

It’s worthwhile to trudge through the occasional dull punch-fight and inane spat of dialogue to get to the next wicked little gunfight.

All Game Guide

One of the few tough-as-nails games with the power to keep drawing you back to it, long after you've screamed enough words at the television screen to make a sailor blush.

GamerWeb Xbox

Namco threw in everything except the kitchen sink in terms of gameplay, and DTR suffers for it.

Xbox Evolved

You can tell this is a PS2 port, which doesn’t make it a bad game, but it doesn’t let it shine as it could have.

Entertainment Weekly

DTR is weighted down with too many bad minigames, most of which seem designed with the sole intent of inducing repetitive-stress injuries. [6 Sept 2002, p.89]

Eurogamer

Despite throwing in a canine companion, button-tapping mini-games and retweaking difficulty levels and so on between NTSC and PAL, Dead to Rights is fundamentally underwhelming to look at, repetitive to play and riddled with more flaws than bullet holes, and this'll stick like rigour mortis after your fiftieth fistfight.

Gamestyle

Strictly a single player event and with no additional modes outside that of the repeating chapters or limited mini games there is no reason to return.

Play Magazine

An outrageous display of frenetic excess, pulled off with enough grimy flair to plunge us into its pestilent world, Dead to Rights is a satisfying jolt of adult gaming. [Aug 2002, p.64]

Game Revolution

Someone had a good idea and great reference material, but the end product is repetitive and lackluster.

GameNow

Each level starts out as fun, but with the gameplay so frustrating and immensely difficult throughout, what starts out as entertaining often becomes mere work in no time. [Sept 2002, p.42]

Into Liquid Sky

Even though the graphics are weak, the gunplay is nice and the various mini-games help break up most levels.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

But where DTR falls flat is in the execution. Why learn the subtleties of the fighting controls when the most effective attack is "punch, punch, punch"? [Sept 2002, p.156]

GameCritics

It is a mere sheep in wolves clothing that uses only the most socially timid and comfortable clichés like cigarettes-for-trade and prison escape maps to paint a PG-rated teen-friendly novelty amusement park interpretation of prison life.

Xbox Nation Magazine

Uneven graphics, hollow gameplay contrivances, and a wholesale lack of compelling drama mar the enormous effort which was clearly put into the game. [Fall 2002, p.104]

G4 TV

Between the dull punchfests, the insanely accurate enemies, and the extra difficulty created by forcing the player to rely on autotargeting, completing Dead to Rights quickly becomes an act of will.