12.7.2012

Judge Dreadd Vs Judge Death is, in my humble opinion, a great title which doesn't get the respect it deserves. It's witty, charming, bags of fun and immensely playable.I played this originally on release via the medium of game rentals and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I completed it in a weekend of non-stop play and even rented it again the following week. When I saw it going cheap for the PC on Amazon a few years later I snapped it up and I haven't regretted it. I've been playing it on and off since yesterday and can honestly say it's aged pretty well. usually when you go back to games you enjoyed in the past you'll find yourself feeling a little disappointed as it's never quite as fun as you remember it being,but in the case of Deadd Vs Death I found it to be enjoyable as ever.Let me be clear, this is by no means a perfect game. It was made by British developers Rebellion, and like all Rebellion titles it's ambitious. Occasionally this ambition outstrips the budget and the game just can't quite deliver on what was intended. However, you have to respect the effort put in, even if, from time to time, it falls flat and misses it's target.There are bugs. The physics engine is 'tetchy' at best. Occasionally you'll snag on a bit of scenery and it'll take some jostling to wrestle your character free. Likewise the grenades physics are off and when you release one it'll follow your movement slightly, so it doesn't go where you targeted when you pressed the appropriate key.The AI is daft as a brush and characters you need to escort will often snag and get stuck. Usually this isn't a huge problem as you can 'nudge' them free, but sometimes it'll lead to you having to reload the last checkpoint, and this can be frustrating.There is some resource management via the 'law meter'. As you play you have to be mindful of your behaviour. Setting fire to 'perps' or capping civilians will quickly see you getting in trouble with the Justice Department and if your law meter falls too low a crack team of judge hunters will come after you.To get your law meter back up again you need to arrest people. You do this by shouting 'hands up' and 'on your knees perp' and other choice phrases and if they resist you have the option of shooting the weapon out of their hands or beating them into submission.However, although initially fun this system starts to feel a little two dimensional after a while as you can arrest anyone you like, barring other judges. Protecting civilians soon becomes a secondary concern as you'll be more interested in getting your law meter up to improve your end of level score.Speaking of scores, at the end of the level you're 'judged' on your performance. The score is based on how high your law meter average is throughout the level, the mount of kills you made, the amount of cumulative years 'perps' spend behind bars, and the overall time your took to complete the level. The higher your score is, the more items you'll unlock in the other game modes, and this leads to a good deal of re-playability as you reach for the highest 'ranking' per level.Other game modes include the fun (if a little sparse) Arcade mode in which your skills are pitted against various score based challenges, similar to those in Timesplitters, and the standard multi-player mode. Multi-player does include bots for practice and while they won't win any awards for their intelligence they do offer a decent challenge and its enjoyable to while away the hours slaying your way through them.The game does occasionally have some obnoxious difficulty spikes, which can be frustrating, but mercifully these are few and far between and won't impact too heavily on your enjoyment.Overall the game is not without its flaws, but, and its a big 'but', the overall package is enjoyable enough to counter those flaws. As I said before its fun, witty and generally enjoyable, and even if your not a fan of the source material Dreadd Vs Death still does enough to keep interest. At under a fiver I'd say it was totally worth the price of admission.Technical note: The game has an 'auto-update' feature which no longer works. You may find that, after the initial boot up, the game will take you on a 'update/can't update' roundabout. However, the patch needed is readily available on the internet and once you update the game manually it should work with no problems at all.

21.10.2003

When I bought this game, I must admit, I was prepared to be disappointed. We all remember the film, right. (Or try to forget it, take your pick!) I kinda hoped the fact that Rebellion liked 2000 a.d. so much, they bought the company, boded well for this title. Well on the surface it did.I got this little baby loaded up, and boy did I think I was in for a treat. It looks absoloutly stunning. The graphics capture the feel or Dredd with delightful precision. The voice acting is great, and the dark humour that we know and love is there too. (Just wait till you need patching up by the medic.) The cutscenes are well directed, and would bode well for a 'Roughnecks' style Dredd cartoon.The main 'Story'element of the game is a nice little tale about the four dark judges escaping (again) to wreak havock on Mega city one. With the aid of Judge Anderson, Chief Judge Hershey, and a force of nameless street judges, you pass through levels ranging from wrapping up some small time criminals, to fighting vampires and zombies, and the dark judges themselves.Progressing through the levels unlocks extra 'arcade' levels. These are small subgames that can be played on their own, and also unlocking characters to use in multiplayer games.The gameplay style will be familiar to fans of Halo, of which this seems to 'borrow' quite openly. You have a basic shield which protects you from damage. When the shield is depleted you take hits on your health. You can also pick up extra health packs, so that once your health is at zero it is refilled. The shield recharges after a few seconds and even has the same 'vooop' noise as in Halo. Mission objectives are also shown by an arrow on your heads-up display. with a distance in metres to the target. Familiar? Not half. However there are some nice little innovations, such as the fact that you are a judge, and must UPHOLD the law. Rather than just blasting everything that moves, you must try to arrest perps. Some come quietly, some fight back, but you must watch your lawmeter, and stay on the right side of the law. Be too naughty and your lawmeter drops to zero, before you know it the Special Judicial Squad are out to bring you down.Where this scores points over Halo for me, is the true star of the game. The Lawgiver Mk III. What a weapon! With a deft roll of your mouse wheel, you can choose between standard, high explosive, heat seeking, armour piercing, incendiary and ricochet rounds. The ricochet is a beaut. Fire it into a confined space and WATCH OUT as it pings around the walls!Great stuff, and makes you truly feel like you are playing the comic.However, (You just knew this was coming, right?) the single player game is, how can I put this? Short. Nope that doesn't really do it justice. Minute? Teeny? Miniscule? Well lets put it this way then. I consider myself an adequate gamer. Certainly not brilliant. On normal setting, this game took me less than three hours to complete. Start to finish. Box to Binned. Now that ain't good. I'm hoping that the subtitle 'Dredd vs Death' means that there are some expansion packs on the way, cause if not, all the hard work on making such a lovely looking, playable, and accurate game will have been wasted.The arcade games really just feel like padding to make up for the length of the single player game, and although fun, aren't going to hold your attention for long. (Although shooting dozens of crazed Walter the Wobots was amusing.)I'm looking forward to giving the multiplayer game a go, so I may see you in the block wars!Please give this a try. It deserves to be a success for the sheer attention to detail, faithfullness to the source, and playability of the game. Just beware of the length. P>This should have been a five star game, and shocked as I was by the briefness of the one player game, can only bring myself to dock one mark.

6.2.2004

Judge Dredd. Futuristic icon, judge, jury and executioner, The Law in Mega City One. Unfortunately for him he shares the burden of other classic comic book heroes in the poor attempts to recreate him in other media.Well, Rebellion (who now own 2000AD of course) have finally brought "Ol' Stony Face" to life in a sympathetic and faithful way with an immersive first person shooter.Very reminiscent of Half-Life in its look (especially the Clooney Hospital scene) it is an inventive FPS without being a classic. Where it scores highly is in a stable and versatile game engine that appears to be bug-free (apart from the occasional AI oddities). Weapons are great and varied,

22.10.2003

Just bought it and am really quite amused. The game has a wonderful british humour from the comic with even a few of the funnier parts from the film making it in (although that's about it, thank god). The adverts (and talking billboards) around the city are hilarious - from the "Grot Pot" which looks suspiciously like a Chicken and Mushroom Pot Noodle - to the "Stuff a snuff" dead pet to handpuppet service, you get the feel of comic's black humour. The comments that the civilians (and robots, Judges or even yourself) come out with are true 2000AD style. I love the arresting perps section where not only do you see a list of all the laws they have broken (dynamically created too,

6.12.2003

There have been a number of criticisms that this is not Half Life 2 or any of the other new games out this year, why compare, this is unique?Dredd v Death is a faithful reproduction of Mega City 1 directly from the comic books and the gameplay is great. The uniforms, bikes and especially the Lawgiver (Judge's sidearm) are spot on.So why 4 stars? Well the Death campaign was not one of the most famous of the Dredd storylines and as a game, they could have done with some extra hours of gameplay.This does not detract from an excellent game and a perfect platform for future expansion packs. Some of better episodes such as; the Judge Child, The Cursed Earth, Apocalype War,

19.10.2003

Rebellion are off to a good start with their first use of the 2000AD license, but oh, it could have been just that _little_ bit better. First off, the good stuff: It looks and sounds great, the music may be forgettable but its unobtrusive and the voices are well acted. The characters are well-detailed but a little samey- you can watch Fatties wobble past, but there are only two Fatty models- one male and one female, for example. Some levels also seem very small, blink and you'll miss the smokatorium, for example. Unlike a lot of FPS, the basic enemies are more dangerous than the bosses, and there are some annoying AI bugs, like friendly Judges ambling into blazing wreckage- especially annoying if it's a med-judge.

12.3.2004

What's been said already pretty much sums up what I wanted to say. The Game is Fantastic and I loved being able to arrest Perps but what really made the game is when me and a Mate linked up for the Co-op! FANTASTIC!!!! It brought a new element to the game and you really had to watch your fire (admitedly I did shot my friend once or twice but it was an accident!!!!). Anyway in Co-op it gives you some real decent backup. Particularly when your running down a corridor ammoless and several vampires hot on your heels!!! Buy it For the Single player but most of all buy it for the Co-op!!!

4.1.2016

Bought as my old copy had died. Friendly seller who made sure the item arrived quickly and it was exactly as promised. Definitely recommended.

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