Dead To Rights Interview

Name/ Nick Dixon
Company / Volatile Games
Job title/ Creative director
Working On/
Dead To Rights: Retribution
Did you know? Volatile Games is a ‘mature division’ of Blitz Games, which created such greats as… erm…
Bad Boys: Miami Takedown

Why did Namco decide to revive the Dead To Rights franchise after so long, and how did you become involved?
It seems like the revival of the series is kind of a red herring, given that it’s not doing it in-house… In so many ways the timing seems to be right. The current generation of consoles provided a great opportunity to relaunch the series in an exciting new way. We have the freedom to do something different and unique for a very different audience of gamers. Very early on we had meetings with Namco and it became evident that we shared the same vision for the franchise. They saw that we had the passion, skills and tools to realise that vision alongside them.

What about Dead To Rights attracted you to it in the first place?
It was the chance to completely reinvent something – taking what is known and presenting it in a new way or telling a story in a different, more mature fashion was very appealing and exciting to us. So many people will have various expectations about what we will or should be delivering with Dead To Rights: Retribution and we’ll meet the best of those expectations and, I think, surprise a lot of people.

How much is the game focused on hand-to-hand combat, as opposed to gunplay?
That is the beauty of the seamless combat system we have created. It really depends on the most important element: the player. We present a toolbox of mechanics that can be used and interpreted to create a unique and cinematic playing experience based on the player’s preference. We do, of course, orientate certain situations in certain biases to create differing combat scenarios, but ultimately the player may use the triumvirate of combat – gunplay, hand-to-hand and Shadow – as and when they wish.

It was mentioned in the announcement press release that you’ve hybridised the way Jack uses guns and melee combat. Can you explain?
This is one of the biggest visions and goals for the project. When we looked at the previous Dead To Rights games – and a few other similar third-person shooter/hand-to-hand games – we noticed that often hand-to-hand and gun combat were separated out into either level types or via QTE and cut-scenes. In order to stand out from the competition and to set a new benchmark, we wanted to ensure the two systems were integrated on a single control pad layout and that the entirety would be extremely intuitive. We’ve achieved that. Basically the principle is quite simple. We have guns on the triggers and hand-to-hand combos/mechanics on the face buttons, which actually isn’t overly complicated. However, there are many nuances to fine tune in order for that system to work, many of which are ‘under the hood’. For example, we’ve managed to create a system that allows the player to fight multiple enemies at one time without having to worry about having to constantly reposition the camera.

What’s the role of Shadow, the dog, in the game now?
We wanted to put time and energy into showing how Jack and Shadow come to be partners and to create moments within the narrative that reinforce the value of this partnership. We also wanted to further reinforce the value of using Shadow as an AI wingman through his combat mechanics. A lot of the combat in the game is dangerous and very desperate at times. The player will need Shadow to help them cope through these situations. Although there is a large repertoire of multi-opponent mechanics, the most valuable is Shadow himself, who can often swing a fight in the player’s favour through judicious command of him. Of course he can go down too, so the player has to protect Shadow in order to protect himself. It really is a true, symbiotic, tag-team relationship. Shadow is a mix of stealth and savagery. From an AI perspective he will contextually shift into a stealth attack if commanded from a hidden position. Likewise, when the player goes loud, so does Shadow. This also works in a similar fashion when playing as Shadow. In those moments the choice of stealth or savage attack is at their fingertips.

What kind of setting is Grant City?
Is it modelled as a mixture of existing real-life cities, or did you create something new that precisely fits the tone of your game? Any kind of contemporary setting, no matter how pushed into hyper-reality, is going to be based on contemporary architecture. We certainly wanted Grant City to possess its own history and character, and we’ve achieved that, but we certainly looked to existing cities for reference – Philadelphia, Chicago and Seattle, for example. But we’ve twisted and re-worked those so Grant City has its own unique flavour. It’s as much a character in the game as Jack or Shadow. In fact, the architecture of the world has been deliberately designed to match the mood of the level, character or moment within the narrative.

Is the story of Retribution canonically linked to the events of the preceding Dead To Rights games?
Yes and no. I can’t say too much here and want to leave much of the story to be discovered by the player when they finally get their hands on the game. Suffice to say that, as a reinvention, we have, like other filmic reinventions, taken certain hallmarks and characters from the canon and interpreted them in our own way. There will be some distinctly familiar elements but not necessarily presented in the way you’d expect. There will be some big surprises for sure!

Dead To Rights: Retribution is hovering so far under the radar at the moment that we’re worried people will miss it in the run-up to release. The idea of seamlessly fusing beat-’em-up mechanics with third-person shooting sounds conceptually unique, but will memories of the franchise kill its appeal?