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Dead to Rights Feature Feature
TVG Staff
26/08/2003
The acclaimed Bitmap Bros are handling the port of the popular action blaster; we check out the details with the producer of the project...
Many console owners will be familiar with this intense, action thriller from Namco - Dead to Rights - featuring Grant City officer, Jack Slate, who's been framed for murder and seeks revenge on those who have killed his father and set him up. Thanks to French Publisher LSP, PC gamers will have the opportunity to play this game and one of the worldās premier development teams, The Bitmap Brothers, is responsibly for ensuring the PC version is nigh on perfect. We spoke with the producer, Aymerick Despres, to find out what new touches and ideas have been added.
The Bitmap Brothers need no real introduction. Founded in 1987, The Bitmap Brothers are the original 'rock star' developers: a small but highly successful development team with a history of creating unique, critically and commercially acclaimed IP. Continually striving for originality, attention to detail and new levels of playability, the company has been responsible for several of the games industry's most memorable titles (Xenon, Speedball, Speedball II, The Chaos Engine), and has developed for nearly every hardware iteration to date. The real surprise to many is the fact they have undertaken this project. With this in mind it will be interesting to see what kind of changes will be made to the game.
Dead To Rights is an intense, hard-hitting, action-thriller in which police officer, Jack Slate, discovers and unravels a conspiracy that threatens not only himself, but the city he's sworn to protect, Grant City. The adventure has him progressing through various game chapters by taking out hostile threats, solving challenging puzzles and mini-games, and defeating sinister bosses in 15 varied environments. DTR is an action shooting 3rd person game with plenty of extreme violence! Along with mini games, it also serves up events like - helping a stripper to dance in order to distract guards' attention, using your talent in lock picking, disarming a bomb in a short time, measuring your strength with weight lifting and speed bag and a lot more.
The PC opens up many opportunities.
"DTR has been optimised in order to be played on PC. The resolution is not the same as on consoles. Now it can be played in 1600x1200 on PC instead of 640x480 on a TV. For the PC version we have used uncompressed textures and this improves the general graphical aspect of the game. The PC version is based on DirectX 9, which is offering optimal use of available graphics hardware acceleration and input devices (the game support rumble pads). The game also supports graphics hardware acceleration (hardware Transform and Lighting) and enhancement features, including vertex and pixel shaders (where hardware permits). The PC supports 3D directional Dolby Digital on suitable sound cards (e.g. nVidia nForce and nForce 2), a feature dedicated for all hard-core gamers and people looking for pure tone! For Creative Labs sound card fans, we are also looking at adding EAX support. The PC version will allow the user to save the current game to the hard drive. The number of game save slots will be increased to 16. The adrenaline meter, the 360° slow-motion possibilities and the slow-motion killer combos offered to the player really improve gameplay quality."
On the negative side, Dead to Rights has been called the poor manās Max Payne and although it did well, the game did have a few problems in both its controls and camera views on the console. All, it appears, is being worked on as was explained.
"DTR is āMax Payne-likeā, for sure, but improves on the weaknesses of Max Payne and adds additional gameplay. If some people got the feeling that it was a poor manās Max Payne, wait until they see the graphics and the playability of the PC version of DTR. I would rather call it a Max Payne killer."
"In DTR, it is possible to fight with your hands and your legs when you do not have any weapons. By fighting this way, you can kill some bad guys, take their weapons, or capture a guy in order to use him as a defence shield. It is also possible to use your police guard dog to kill enemies and get some weapons."
"Other great features are the combos. Each time you succeed in doing a combo, the time will slow down, a zoom on your character will be done, and you will kill your enemy in a special and destructive way. More than 15 different combos can be made. Just try them!"
Players can now control the camera with the mouse and look around without any constraints. There are 2 views available on PC: you can choose a 3rd and classical person view and it is also possible to select the First person view (manual targeting) when shooting enemies and when remaining totally still, whenever you want and when using all classes of weapons.
Jack, who you assume, and Shadow, his dog, share a bond rarely seen between people, much less differing species. Their common sense of cold justice streams from similar troubles in earlier times. While Jack endured the trials of Marine Corps Boot Camp, Shadow was raised to combat drug traffic in and out of Canada. Jack learnt to fight during his Marine Corps days with his fists and with all kind of weapons. Jack knows a little of Martial Arts and can disarm enemies. Moreover, when fighting hand to hand and doing special combos, Jack can get rid of all opponents by killing them radically! Jack knows perfectly each weapon. In the game, he will use weapons such as automatic pistol, flamethrower, snipe rifle, rocket launcher and lot of others destructive weapons. Jack can also slow down the time in order to be more efficient and precise when shooting. His dog can be set on enemies to eliminate them and bring back their weapons.
As to the all-important controls and intuitive fast play, things are looking good. DTR on console, as well as Max Payne, is quite difficult to play because of bullet time, weapons changes, view, moves and locking on at the same time, on one paddle. Thanks to the use of the mouse, L and R buttons and keyboards, it is easier to play 3rd view/shooting games on PC. Successful tests have been made in order to improve gameplay in DTR. All keys can be re-configured and you can also connect a controller. It is possible to change difficulty between rookie, normal and āsuper copā mode, according to your own level.
The in game targeting is more precise when playing on PC with a mouse. Moreover, there is unique colour coded targeting to ensure lethal hits in order to help the player locking his different enemies when action is sustained. DTR is an action shooting game melding fighting sequences, beat'em all and shoot. You will meet lots of different enemies, there are many offered possibilities to kill them so action is renewed every time and everywhere.
Diversity in both game action and even locations offers plenty of focused interest and excitement. Jack Slate will have to move around different places during his missions from docks to west coast, passing by a police office and its prison, a bar and its discotheque, a frightening cemetery, a flying plane ready to crash ā¦ You will really have lot of work and lots of enemies to defeat in a total of 15 different levels.
If ever conversions, not mere ports, were really necessary then this radically enhanced version could pave the way!
