Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death

You are the law.

EU release: 12th December 2003
NA release: 1st Match 2005
NA release: N/A
Developer: Rebellion Developments
Publisher: Vivendi Universal (EU), Evolved Games (NA)
NGC Magazine Score: 84%
Mods Used: None

Judge Dredd is something I’m only vaguely familiar with – I’ve been meaning to see the extremely well liked Karl Urban film. I’m aware that he’s essentially a cop with a lot of power, taking its law by its literal interpretation. I was not prepared, however, to discover that Judge Dredd is essentially a cop that wilfully and gleefully fulfils the will of a fascist, evil government. He’s very much a villain that occasionally has to battle even worse villains. The first thing you do after the training level is arrest a bunch of peaceful protesters and give them obscene sentences.

Arresting people goes far beyond just required objectives. The majority of human NPCs can be arrested and jailed for pretty much bogus reasons – loitering, having a goldfish, being a nuisance. There’s very few sentient NPCs that you can’t lock up. There is some sense of “justice” as you can’t wilfully shoot everyone, although arresting people does essentially give you permission to waste a few innocent civilians on the way – you just can’t do it too much without arresting some random people to make up for it.

This arrest mechanic works better when it comes to enemies you fight. When you order them to stand down, some will do it straight away. Others require some convincing (via shooting them or killing their friends), while fanatics refuse to give up. Unfortunately, sentient beings aren’t what you’re fighting for half the game. As you’ll be fighting a lot of mindless zombies and vampires (which are just fast zombies), and the gunplay just isn’t satisfying enough for these.

You will occasionally find some NPCs running and cowering for their lives, and sometimes you can arrest these for petty crimes in the middle of a zombie outbreak, but the monotony of blasting the enemies with bland weapons soon wears thin.

Fine

While Dredd vs Death doesn’t do anything particularly new, it does at least stack up all the elements you want to see in a first-person shooter, and the excellence of the source material means the atmosphere – created by rain-soaked back alleys, flickering neon signs, huge cargo bays – and storyline are both on the money from the very beginning.
Tim Weaver, NGC Magazine #89

Remake or remaster?

A re-release is fine.

Official Ways to get the game

Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death is available on Steam.