Dead to Rights continue to blend fisticuffs with firefights quite successfully.

User Rating: 6.5 | Dead to Rights: Retribution X360
I remember playing the first Dead to Rights way back and I enjoyed it, it was pretty hard but satisfying. I didn't play the second game but Dead to Rights: Retribution continue to mix brawling with gunfights and it does it well. There are rough edges to be sure, the execution moves can look a little weird depending on where you are as you initiate them. You play as Jack and sometimes his trusty dog Shadow or whatever he was called, I hate dogs, but the dog in this game sure proves himself to be a reliable sidekick in fights and sections where he has to wander off on his own to retrieve keycards or stuff like that. There's the focus ability, which is kind of like bullet time, only everything becomes greyish, kind of black and white, this enables you to line up one headshot after another with ease and get a break amidst the battles to regenerate a little health. I don't think the original had replenishing health, you had to pick up medkits if I remember correctly, which meant the boss battles in that game were a lot more challenging than the ones here, only the final one gave me a bit of trouble, until I figured out I actually had time to gain more health in the fight.

The story is not very memorable, it eventually becomes all about revenge and well, retribution, and the guy who becomes the villain is really obvious, you know you're gonna have to take that person out by the end of the game, there's some woman called Faith, yeah, are you as sick of that name as I am? The game is of fair length, the missions run on for a while and become fairly challenging towards the end with countless enemies coming at you from all angles, some enormous enemies can take some effort to kill. Only a few missions can be classified as hard on the normal difficulty setting, but I had way more difficulties getting through the first Dead to Rights, but then my skills left a great deal to be desired back then, as usual, my skills are pretty average right now but aside from a few isolated moments in a couple of stages, I didn't have too much trouble getting through the campaign. The game looks nice enough, didn't listen to the music or voice acting, had the game muted, not because it was awful or anything, I didn't listen to any of it, I just listen to podcasts while I play most games. Dead to Right: Retribution is an excellent rental, not terribly special, but fun as long as it lasts.