Comments on: Retro: Dredd Versus Death

By: juice

juice — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:02:15 +0000

DvD was a definite disappointment back in the day, and I’d love to understand the background story behind the way it turned out – I’d guess a key factor was the decision to port it to the home consoles, which would have limited both the engine technology and the controls – I still firmly believe that FPSs should only be played with a keyboard and mouse (give or take the odd flash of inspiration from the Wii)!

One interesting point was the claim that DvD’s game engine (Azure, IIRC) was a new, super-flexible engine – as far as I could see, it was a relatively straightforward update to the engine used in Aliens vs Predator (still one of the greatest FPS games ever) coupled with a ludicrously buggy physics engine. Half the fun in the game was in playing pinball with dead bodies :)

Ah well. It could have been so much more – and it’s odd that Rebellion don’t appear to have bothered doing any more with their 2000AD IP. Rogue Trooper was a reasonable effort, but where are things like ABC Warriors and Strontium Dogs. SD especially would seem to be a perfect fit – licenced mutant bounty hunters taking on ne’erdowells across multiple planets in a post-apocalyptic future, complete with time-manipulation weapons and an overarching “racism politics” plot? There’s definite potential for something like Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath or GTA3 there…

By: Shadowcat

Shadowcat — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:50:02 +0000

I was likewise excited about DvD, and pretty disappointed by its demo. It still showed some potential, but the thing which guaranteed that I wasn’t going to buy it was the shameless product-placement. Advertising in games is a horrid advent, and in DvD it was beyond a joke.

By: George

George — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:09:06 +0000

Judge Dredd’s engine was supposed to be an AvP sequel. If you look at the zombies/vampires and understand that they were originally built as aliens, it makes more sense. That and Rebellion has long suffered under poor upper management, whose only redeeming trait is striking profitable deals.

By: Diamond Lil

Diamond Lil — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:24:14 +0000

I played it, was good, not great. and the use of the lawgiver was decent

By: Parado amancebado

Parado amancebado — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:21:26 +0000

Amen brother.
Judge Dredd is still waiting for a dignified place in the videogame universe (and in hollywood). It´s not easy to adapt all that lovely satire and black humor from the brilliant comic but Rebellion did not care at all about their final product.

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:40:46 +0000

OAB: That’s a great piece. I was going to link it myself.

By: Solario

Solario — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:37:59 +0000

Gaze into the face of fear, indeed. I’d love a good Judge Dredd game.

By: Po0py

Po0py — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:01:14 +0000

I could swear thats Ian Brown under that Judge Dredd helmet

By: JonFitt

JonFitt — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:48:20 +0000

I played this on my brother’s PS2. It was a below par shooter at the time, and I do remember the initial level(s) looking good, but it quickly deteriorated.

A Dredd themed GTA clone would be great though.

By: OAB

OAB — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:33:39 +0000

Got that wrong didn’t I. http://disraeli-demon.blogspot.com/2009/04/lowlife-creation-part-five-all-joy-i.html

By: OAB

OAB — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:32:17 +0000

Odd to read this the day after .

By: Kalle

Kalle — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:57:06 +0000

I loved the premise of the game, but as you said the zombies killed it. There’s not much else that can be said about it because while it shows amazing promise it is just beyond redemption for the most part.

I’d love to see a retrospective on Rogue Trooper though. Now there was an underappreciated gem of a game.