Name: Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death
Publisher: Evolved Games
Developer: Rebellion
Media: 2 CDs
HD Installation: 1.40 gig
Dirt Cheap Price: $4.99, new
Judge Dredd was played on a Pentium M, 1.6Ghz machine under Windows XP MCE 2005 with a 64 meg ATI Radeon Mobility X300(PCI-E) card and 1.25 gigs of ram. It was running with all options turned to their highest settings and at a screen resolution of 1024X768. The game was played through on the "Normal" difficulty level.
Patches?
Yes, one		 Just for kicks, let me present the recommended system requirements:

Retail v1.01 patch - Size: 12.4 megs

 Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 128MB of RAM, Pentium III or Athlon 700 Mhz, 1.3 GB HD space, 32MB DirectX 9-compatible video card, DirectX 9-compatible 16-bit sound card.
Zombies, vampires, street punks and Dark Judges(oh my): What's a Judge to do? Uphold the law, of course! It's day to day life in Mega-City One for the Judges until a sudden outbreak of vampires ravages the city. On top of that there is a plot to free the Dark Judges from their ethereal holding cells. Will Judge Dredd and his team be able to stop this from happening, and save the city yet again? Motherfucker, you're going to find out!

What's it all about?
A very Halo-inspired take on Judge Dredd. Playing as the Dredd-man himself, you'll run around Mega-City One following whatever objective has popped up on the screen, doing your best to achieve it within the parameters. This usually consists of eliminating all enemies, arresting suspects, assisting other Judges or rescuing civilians.To keep you on the straight and narrow, a "Lawmeter" tracks your willingness to uphold the law within a certain set of boundaries, and sends out a Special Judicial Squad if challenged. To help you do your job there are an assortment of weapons at your disposal ranging from your Lawmaker pistol(and its six types of ammo) to the mandatory shotgun, to heavier weaponry like the Spit Gun or Grenade Rifle. Like Halo you can only carry two weapons at a time, but this time around you can only switch out the second one, always being forced to keep your Lawmaker pistol. Also, like Halo, you have a personal shield the recharges, as well as a health meter that is automatically recharged via health packs you either pick up or are given by "Health" Judges. Oddly, you don't find a whole lot of stuff just laying around in the game, most of what you'll acquire will be taken off dead enemies or given to you by other Judges. Boss fights can be interesting, with most of the Dark Judges requiring a unique method of extermination(though some still enjoy eating copious helpings of lead). Enjoy your stay in Mega-City One...
Graphics - Nice! The environments sport some solid texture work, as do the enemies(especially the zombies). A lot of what makes the graphics something to remember are the way the guys at Rebellion handled a lot of it. Though in terms of "Wow" factor they're nothing to write home about, little touches like the constant traffic flying through the sky and people walking around(not to mention well done 2D bitmaps) in the city really help bring the graphics to life. Another interesting touch were some of their decisions on what got drawn in on the 2D bitmapped backdrop, and what actually gone done with polygons. There are buildings WAY in the background that you couldn't possibly get a closer look at, but they're in 3D and it looks great; just a really nice, little touch. Unfortunately, some of these little touches tend to get in the way of the gameplay...like the gun animations. Whether it's shooting or reloading, some gun animations are just pure hell in terms of waiting for them to play out so you can shoot again.
Finally, the ragdoll physics are really amusing...and really just way off. The sheer number of goofy-ass results that can be given out when blasting an enemy will crack you up, from them flying forty feet in the air to watching them go into convulsions while the game tries to figure out how they should act when pinned against a wall. Good stuff.
Sound - Decent. The music, though fitting, isn't anything that you'll walk away humming, or even remember three minutes after quitting the game. Sound effects are pretty good, if a little generic. Voice acting is about the only thing that really stands out, and that's mostly due to the large emphasis on humor most things have. The announcements in the Mall are the best...
Control - Not bad, just kind of odd at times. Moving is weird: You move at full speed going forward, but backing up and strafing isn’t as fast, so it takes some getting used to. Other than that, the only real issue is the fucking lack of a "Quicksave" key. I cannot, cannot, cannot believe they managed to forget about this. Every time you want to save you have to go through menus to do so. Sucks ass...sloppy ass.
AI - In a word: Sucks. Enemy AI is either a complete push over, or entirely too cheap. On the cheap side, they'll pull stunts like hitting you the second they see you, hitting you through walls, etc. Plus, add in just how amazingly annoying enemies like the vampires can be(running all around the screen) and you finally have found something that will piss you off more than the enemy AI in Halo. To top it off, NPC AI is disgusting; much worse than even Daikatana's. You’re constantly having to find new or alternate paths because the idiot fuckers behind you get stuck on benches or walls or...you name it and they’ll get stuck in or on it, any sort of vertex. If there’s a hole or crack in the floor, and they’re supposed to be following you, they won’t go around it, they’ll just run straight into it, falling down to the next level, or to their deaths. It wouldn't be that bad if you weren't *required* to save them in order to finish certain levels.
Replay value - Mixed. Though I don't see anyone going through the single player campaign more than once, you may attempt to do it again with a buddy, as the game does feature a Co-op mode. Adding to that, there are the "Arcade" levels that offer some short-term amusement and most seem to be infinitely replayable....just depends on how it floats your boat. Finally, there's the typical deathmatch mode which features ten different types of games, all based on the world of Judge Dredd.
Getting it to run - Easy. Just go through the two disc install, update the game and you're done. Once you've installed the game, you don't even have to have the CD in the drive. Nice.
Tips for better gaming experiences:
Anytime you see zombies just laying on the ground and they’re kind of moving, you can shoot them(or just like in Halo, hit them with the butt of your gun) to kill them before they even get up. Also, shooting zombies in the feet(oddly enough) or head with certain weapons(like the shotgun) result in a one hit kill

If you do want to arrest people, try shooting their arms or legs a few times, this’ll generally have them surrendering quickly. Also, constantly hit the “Challenge” key.


Still Supported?
Yes. You can receive support for the game through Vivendi, just follow the instructions given on the game's official site.
My rating: 70(out of 100) - It starts out being a really well done, old school title. Lots of fun levels, good humor and decent mix of action and story. Unfortunately, towards the end of the game it just starts going downhill pretty quickly. The enemies-to-ammo ratio gets dangerously close to ludicrous, plus the difficulty just seems to shoot through the roof. Still a decent romp, just one that you may end up only going through once...or just to the halfway mark.

Sleepy Meister's thoughts: I'd rather scrape my eyes out and play Tekwar again.
Note: As there is now way to get in-game screen shots while playing, all screenshots have been borrowed from the game's official site.
Street trash makes for great target practice.
Damn these vampires!
Lighting'em up.
Fucking zombies!
Fun Stuff on the CD:
Direct X 9....that's it...(yawn)
Judging the consoles:
Dredd vs. Death has made its way to all three of the current generation's major consoles: Xbox, PS2 and GameCube.