Everyone's favorite "cop on the edge" Jack Slate makes his anticipated return. While on an investigation, Jack uncovers a labyrinth of corruption and betrayal. Since Jack is a lonely sort of fellow, his best friend and the only one he can trust is his K-9 companion Shadow. Not only is he a good cuddle buddy at night, but it seems that Shadow can kick some major ass too. It's up to Turner and Hooch... err... Jack and Shadow to solve this crime wave and bring what little peace there is left in the city to light.

Dead to Rights lends some proto typical visual styling to the third person action genre. What you get is cramped hallways, bad camera angles, loads of repeated enemies and textures, and don't forget that bullet time effect used by every Matrix/Max Payne wannabe in the gaming industry. While sporting better visuals than its predecessor, Dead to Rights 2 still looks very average. Some really nice and large backdrops are vastly detailed and take damage, but don't ever expect to be wowed at any point in the game. There are hints of goodness in Dead to Rights 2 in the form of the disarming techniques, but like most "cool moves", once you have seen them a few times, the coolness wears off quickly. There are some good animations, but Jack is still too stiff in transition. In any case, Dead to Rights to is not going to win any beauty contests and the game is really a lot like Jack himself... hard, gritty, and edgy.

Audio is a strong mixture of butt rock and bad acting. Think any "B" action flick and you have the idea. The metal soundtrack tries to capture the moody feel of the game, but what you get is a headache. Speaking of headaches, I hope that with the next generation's promise of no more jaggies comes the promise of no more bad acting. Seriously, this is a multi billion-dollar industry, can't we splurge for some better talent? I am not asking for Kevin Spacey or Al Pacino, but I am sure there are better aspiring actors out there who can portray more feeling and add plausibility to the characters. On the other hand, maybe it is the writing. Whatever the reason, it should be better.

What keeps Dead to Rights 2 from being a total waste of time and money is the fun and frantic game play. You get to play with some fancy weaponry; your mutt comes in handy in dealing out pain to your foes and bringing you more ammo and Jack has some fancy copper tricks that deal with punching, kicking, and disarming your enemies. Let us not forget the bullet time stuff, and honestly, no matter how many games use it... it still can be a blast. Sure the game is as basic as running into a room, killing every enemy in sight, collecting the goods, move to the next room, but it is still fun without the annoyance of being complicated.

Dead to Rights 2 is a mildly long romp for the style of game it is. You have a good amount of levels to weed through, each at least providing you with various backdrops to keep the action interesting. You even have a few difficulty settings to choose from, and while the endings don't change for beating it on harder levels, at least there is this option.

This is a single player affair, so unless you are just a Jack Slate fan boy, you won't be repeating this mission a second time. In the end, Dead to Rights 2 is for die-hard fans of the first game that could not get enough of the crime drama. For the rest it may just seem a bit of the same old song and dance provided by most shooter games on the market.