Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death

Judge Dredd is perfect as a protagonist in an action packed FPS game, unfortunately Dredd vs Death just falls short. There are a couple of interesting concepts here but they aren't really fully realised. Firstly, you can arrest perps which increases your lawmeter, rather than just mowing everyone down. The problem is that after the first couple of missions you will mostly be fighting the undead. Also, the lawmeter doesn't have much of an impact on gameplay as it seems to mostly exist to give you a better score at the end of a level in order to unlock cheat modes and skins for multiplayer etc. Dredds multi-ammo type gun could also have been a great way to stand out from the crowd, maybe using different fireing modes on different enemies, maybe even using it for solving environmental puzzles. But, instead you will find yourself using just one or two modes, for example rebound shot is next to useless and even the standard shot is overshadowed by pretty much every other secondary weapon you can pick up in Mega City One. This is not to say Dredd vs Death is a bad game, it is just a very middle of the road paint by numbers and is the sort of game you might play through on a rainy afternoon then never come back too.

I decided to check this one out because I thoroughly enjoyed Rogue Trooper , and this was from the same creators. Despite the fact it is obviously a previous generation of 3D graphics, it didn't disappoint. It has a great single player adventure, and while it isn't really long, the extra 'Arcade' challenges give you something more to do. The game is obviously not without flaws. The only-one-extra-weapon logic often had me constantly going back and forward juggling weapons, especially if you run out ammo for your primary weapon. But, as always, old games have to be seen in their time spirit. Having played both Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper, the improvement of weak points is very clear in the second game, which makes it very hard to complain about them when playing this. Two things did annoy me a bit. One was the fact the objectives weren't always very clear. Sometimes you got a very clear pointer telling you where to go, while other times you're stumbling around in the dark hoping to find something. A little more consistency would have been nice, there. A second point was ally AI. Strangely, hostages that needed rescuing never had any problems following you, but the Judge I had to escort at one point got stuck behind every bench, wall and staircase.

You will have some fun with this shooter. It´s really cool walking the streets as judge dredd and arresting or sometimes blowing off heads of criminals.

Overall it's a pretty fun game for the few hours that it lasts. I started and finished the game in two nights on hard. Set-up is a bit console-like as you can only carry two guns, one of which is always the Lawgiver pistol. It has multiple firing types (6 or so) which are varied but I ended up only using a few myself. As for problems with the game. 1. The boss battles are pretty uninspiring and forgettable. Sometimes they're finished before you know they've really started. 2. Enemy variety is lacking, you end up fighting the same enemies near the end as you did in nearly the beginning. 3. Some of the later levels have balancing issues particularly in respect to how much ammunition they give you. I was so low on ammo I had to fire incendaries and watch the enemy burn for 30 seconds before I could continue. It really ruined the pace. With that being said the shooting is pretty satisfying and fun. Arresting people and saving civilians can vary up the gameplay and make it a bit more enjoyable. Maybe wait for a sale to pick this up.

So the adventure is just OK, and the boss levels are mostly anticlimactic, but it's a means to an end as finishing levels with a high enough score unlocks deathmatch levels and one-off missions, which are where the real fun is.