The cop-on-the-edge, despite the heavy going lifestyle, is getting to be an abundant breed nowadays, what with all the Paynes, Slates and Kangs (not to mention that forgettable geezer from The Getaway) bounding around in a John Woo fashion. The question you have to ask is when do they get the time to really enjoy life, eh? The average vigilante plod probably spends most of his off-duty time wiping himself clean of other peoples' brain matter, gargling gravel for that extra gruff voice and working on ever deeper metaphors for his next bit of script. It's got to be a tough life; I seriously doubt if they manage to squeeze in a tranquil walk in the park or a soothing Radox soak between bloodbaths - and just think of the size of the dry cleaning bill.

Anyway, all that aside, your run-of-the-mill lunatic copper seems to take great pleasure in one thing above all else - the savage massacre of hoards upon hoards of maniacal bad guys. If said mass execution is something that floats your particular boat, then Namco's third person shooter Dead To Rights is about as good as it gets.

Opening with the murder of the main protagonist's father, Dead To Rights chronicles the fortunes of the world's hardest dog handler - Jack Slate - as he seeks to uncover the mystery behind his papa's early demise. This rather stale premise gives rise to a wealth of overworked lines of script and buckets of film noir rain scenes, as well as some truly magnificent morsels of gameplay. The story itself is not amongst the best in the world but it beats the hell out of that lame Jim Belushi film K-9, or the only slightly better Turner and Hooch and, as a story, it does the job well enough to keep you playing.

It really is remarkable how many ways there are to kill a man (at least in a videogame), and Dead To Rights demonstrates a fair few of them with some snazzy disarming manoeuvres, human shields, magic dogs and exploding canisters on top of the regulation melee and armed combat moves. There's nothing in the play mechanics that hasn't been done before - and better - but altogether it works favourably and gives a good basis for the game. For the time you're not engaged in massive gun battles, Dead To Rights offers some badly executed mini games to give your thumbs a much needed break. These lamentable lumps of code have been blatantly stolen from a range of titles, such as Britany's Dance Beat, Track and Field and Splinter Cell and thankfully don't last too long. That said, they break up the game and make the mindless carnage that much more enjoyable. Often these mini games involve your magical dog, Shadow, who also has the ability to appear from nowhere and remove a necessary organ from the nearest baddie. Essentially, the game lives or dies on whether you can handle the huge amounts of gunfire and death required to complete it.

The audio remains understated throughout apart, of course, from the incessant gunfire. The frequent snippets of voice acting show little to no emotion at any stage in the proceedings and in spite of the occasional flash of brilliant dialogue, it's hardly worth listening to Jack's inane rambling, as you know what you've got to do next: kill everything in sight.

Unfortunately, the graphics are far better suited to the capabilities of the Xbox and the overall package is pretty unsightly. None of the effects are as classy as the gameplay, the animation is jerky and nauseating and the less said about the environments the better. Very little is destructible - a few chairs can be knocked down and the bullet holes and blood are great to survey after a particularly fierce fire fight - but there's nothing to make you stop and take in the scenery. The camera is a touch slow and rarely does anything to help you, but as long as it's kept under control with the right analogue stick it doesn't present a major obstacle, as in so many similar titles. I guess it's no surprise, coming from Namco, but I got a heavy wiff of Time Crisis with Dead To Rights and there were moments, especially with the 'jumping out from behind walls and blowing stuff away' bits, where I was waiting for someone to shout 'Action!' before leaping out in front of a heavily armoured boss character. It's a pleasant feel, but it certainly lacks the polish of other third person titles.

It's unfair to compare this game with Max Payne, as Dead to Rights takes as much from other games as it does from Rockstar's classic with the largest similarity being the amount of bloodshed. Past that, the parallels are unimportant. Where Mr. Payne takes us, things are dealt with in a manner that is not too hard to believe; Monsieur Slate, on the other hand, plays his part with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. The whole experience is a mish-mash of ideas, many of which you can pick from this review. I do hope the series will develop, as it would be a shame to let this one go without tweaking it at least once, but I have the sneaking suspicion that Dead to Rights is going to be left dead in the water.

Reviewed by Tom LeClerc for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).