In my travels, I've found certain journalists' views to be quite confusing. On one hand they give low scores because certain games aren't innovative and feature gameplay elements that were unique several years ago, but on the other they're always clamoring for retro compilations, so I kept this in mind as I played Vivendi Universal and Rebellion's Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs Death for the Xbox. A brutal and decently-paced first person shooter, it's by no means ground-breaking, but it provides an incredible amount of fun at a bargain price.

First things first: do not associate this game with the awful 1995 movie starring Sylvester Stallone, as it's more like the comic book than the infamous Hollywood blunder. Playing as the tough-as-nails Judge Dredd, you must explore Mega-City One and dispose of various types of street slime, though you won't spend the duration of your Dredd Vs Death experience blowing holes through graffiti artists and other riff raff. The evil Dark Judges have somehow escaped from their prisons and there are a whole mess of vampires and zombies meandering about. With the world on the brink of destruction and NPC Judges who aren't much help, you're the only man for the job.

Judge Dredd is a basic first person shooter that would've possibly been a success a couple of years ago. It's powered by an aged graphics engine that's put to shame by the likes of Halo 2 and Doom 3, and it also suffers from some old school problems such as getting stuck (literally) in poorly-designed areas, slow reloading, and weak special effects. However, that doesn't make it any less fun, as Dredd Vs Death is still an enjoyable experience due to its simplicity. Aside from being able to arrest street toughs to uphold the law (life for spray painting a wall...ouch), you're going to spend the duration of your time just running from point A to point B (the game actually has a distance meter that tells you how far you are from your next objective) and blasting enemies of all shapes and sizes. That's it. There are a wide selection of weapons (Dredd's main gun has several firing modes and it actually announces each one when selected) and the environments are varied (zombies in the shopping mall comes to mind). It's just that the game won't rock your socks.

Dredd's single player campaign is actually quite extensive, and there's even a co-op mode that actually enhances the solo experience, but the multiplayer component is equally satisfying. I expected the game to feature a rather simplistic set of modes, but there are some truly unique ones including Umpty Raid, Runner, and Thief. If you examine each long enough you'll notice that they exist in other games under different titles, but for a game like Dredd the inclusion of these modes is very much appreciated.

The visual and audio portions of the game are nothing special. Its graphics do the job but they're by no means eye popping, though it does feature gooey head shots and for that I'm happy. As for its aural treats there's nothing earth-shattering about the experience. Guns sound as they should. Voice acting is over the top and borderline corny. It's all pretty standard stuff.

As you already know I didn't give this game too high a score and for good reason, for while Dredd Vs Death is a lot of fun it's by no means perfect, far from it in fact. What really irks me is how I occasionally get stuck in certain areas, and by stuck I don't mean not knowing where to go. I'm talking about actually walking through two objects and not being able to move (hence needing to restart the game). It doesn't happen a lot, and when it does some persistence will pay dividends (nine times out of ten it'll jerk Dredd free), but it's just poor gameplay design.

I'm also a little perturbed at this game's HUD, which is without question the worst that I've ever seen because it doesn't really tell you anything. For the life of me I still cannot figure out where the ammo counter is, though it's easy to see Dredd's health. Speaking of which, for someone who is supposedly this huge bad @$$ he's actually one of the wimpiest heroes that I've ever controlled. A few hits and he's finished.

Lastly, what's up with the product placement in this game? There is literally Red Bull everywhere. Not only is there a corny (but amusing) scene where Dredd gulps down a can and tosses it onto the street (where the camera zooms in real close to show us who paid lots of money to put its product into the game), but you'll actually battle enemies who elect to take cover behind boxes of Red Bull. This is bad because [pops open a can of Red Bull, drinks it] the advertising [tosses can aside, drinks another] is pretty effective [burps].

Unlike some of my peers, it doesn't take all that much to satisfy me. Just put a gun in my hand, tell me who's the enemy and I'll take care of the rest. Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs Death isn't going to replace your copy of Half-Life 2. In fact, I highly doubt Vivendi's even trying to do that with this product, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game, and it certainly doesn't deserve all of the negative press that it's already received. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but Judge Dredd is still a very entertaining blast fest that knows where it came from, and when you factor in its budget $19.99 price, it's a sweet pick up for any available platform.

Our Final ScoreMediocre

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