Hands-On: Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death!

"I am the law creep and you'd better believe it!" Ah, the dulcet tones of Judge Joseph Dredd, Mega-City One's premier lawman. Forget the rather questionable Sly Stallone movie of the same name, because the pages of 2000AD, the galaxy's greatest comic, is where JD has always best plied his own ...er unique brand of futuristic urban justice.

However unless you've spent the past couple of years crawling around in the bowels of the Undercity, you'll also be aware that the Justice Department's number one lawman is set to star in his own game.

A willing dispatch droid has just dropped off the latest preview code from maker Rebellion, so we hopped onto our Lawmaster and went on patrol with Mega-City One's finest to render judgement on first-person shooter title.

This build of Dredd vs. Death in our possession opens with Mission 2, The Nixon Penitentiary, a maximum security facility built on the deadly waters of the Black Atlantic out beyond the fringes of Mega-City One. When a prison transport crashes into the roof, it unleashes not only a horde of dangerous category-A perps, but, bizarrely, a host of vampires as well.

Could this be the work of the Dark Judges? Well ours is not to reason why, but simply to kick perp ass, and with the criminals and vampires running riot and the Judges already taking heavy casualties, it's up to JD and his size twelves to impose law on the lawless.

What's evident right away is the power of Rebellion's Asura engine, which not only looks exceptionally good close up, but seems ideally suited to rendering the vast outdoor levels and futuristic environments of the sprawling megalopolis.

The penitentiary itself is absolutely huge and alive with flying traffic, burning vehicles and mini-scripted sequences. What's also rather impressive is the real-world architectural feel, and although a waypoint system always guides you to your next task or checkpoint, it all feels very freeform with plenty of back ways and avenues to explore.

The character modelling is equally decent with an authentic comic book look and feel, and the fire effects and explosions are, at times, suitably spectacular.

Still there's little time or no time to admire the scenery as you're soon in the thick of the action.

Dredd's principle weapon is the Lawgiver pistol, and a quick flick of the D-Pad or keyboard keys allows you to select one of six ammunition types. Standard firing mode unleashes a short burst of machine gun fire and there are armour piercing, incendiary, high-ex and heat-seeker variations.

But our particular favourite was the ricochet round, which is ideal for firing around corners when room clearance is a high priority.

There's some reasonable close support from your fellow AI judges, but if the perps do manage to make it through your hail of gunfire, there's also a nice melee attack a la Halo, which tends to floor the creeps with a single whip of your pistol. That's justice up close and personal!

Occasionally the power of your weaponry or Dredd's reputation alone is enough to scare the crims into waving a white flag. While they're kneeling with hands on their heads, a quick tap of your action button reveals their crime and pronounces their sentence which can range from six months for loitering, to life for assault on a judge.

It's a nice touch and reinforces the whole judicial aspect of JD's work, as well as scoring you extra judgment bonuses.

However when the need to deploy some heavy weaponry arises (which is pretty damn soon, truth to tell) it's time to switch to the Lawrod, JD's heavy machine gun which also converts to a sniper rifle at the flick of the pad.

Both Lawgiver and Lawrod also feature a nice zoom facility which is handy for taking out creeps at a distance, and our old friend the headshot is very much encouraged, if you feel the need to conserve ammo.

Are there problems? Well yes but not that many. Dredd vs. Death can be a bit fiddly switching weapons or ammo types in the heat of battle, and the long-ish weapon reload times mean you have to judge each burst of fire pretty carefully.

The AI is good on the whole, but occasionally the perps will simply stand there after you've just shot seven bells out of them, which does look a bit odd. Still this is beta code, and given Rebellion's reputation as a perfectionist, we're pretty sure these things will be balanced and tweaked in the final game.

So has Rebellion created a fitting home for Judge Dredd, or is this offering more of a Judge Judy?

Well, we'll have to reserve final judgement for the finished code, which should be arriving within the next couple of weeks, but the signs initially at least are very promising.

We can't help suspecting that the PC version of the game will offer the truest FPS experience for Dredd fans, but if all versions live up to the promise of the code we've played, there are going to be a lot of happy 2000AD fans out there. That's the word and we are the law.

John Houlihan