Written by: Rik
Date posted: April 30, 2025

My game purchasing habits must have changed recently, as I’ve noticed a slightly pleading tone to some of GOG’s recent marketing emails, urging me to convert my recent visit to their store into a purchase of some kind. Isn’t that new Robocop game meant to be quite good? And under ten quid now, as well. ‘No, Rik,’ I told myself. ‘You don’t need a law enforcement shooter set in a dystopian near future, you’ve got one at home that you’ve never even played.’

And so, to the dark games dungeon I went, to retrieve an external DVD drive, rip the cellophane off an unopened Sold Out box, and ignore the temptation of the very same game being on Steam for about a quid in order to fanny around with physical media and the bypassing of ancient and defunct copy protection mechanisms.

While I’m even familiar with some of the less well-known entries in the Robocop universe (Prime Directives, anyone? Remember RoboCable? Anyone?) my knowledge of Judge Dredd can be summarised thus: he’s a character from the 2000AD comics, they made a Hollywood movie starring Sylvester Stallone in the 90s that no-one liked, and another one with Karl Urban in 2012 that more people did like, but which still wasn’t a hit. Oh, and he says, ‘I AM THE LAW!’ – a catchphrase which neatly summarises his role as street cop, judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one. Dredd feels like the kind of thing that a man my age should have known something about at some stage, even if a man my age should probably have also forgotten all about it, in the interests of retaining more crucial information, by now.

Playing through Dredd vs. Death, an early 00s FPS from Rebellion (who now own 2000AD) hasn’t done much to enlighten me. In its early stages, the game does acknowledge some of the ambiguities of Dredd’s status as a hero character working to enforce the laws of an authoritarian regime, as you’re introduced to the mechanisms required to challenge and arrest low level street punks, and the dark humour associated with them being locked up for a million years for graffiti related offences. (This may be slightly less amusing and outlandish than it was back then, given Current Events).

Some give up more easily than others, and may even engage you in combat for a brief skirmish before surrendering. If you shoot them after this point, or go around blasting people indiscriminately, then an on-screen ‘law meter’ will deplete: you’re meant to enforce the law, not break it, and if your renegade behaviour persists, some special hard-ass Judges will be summoned to take you out.

However, this aspect of the game is quickly sidelined by a main plot that involves a plague of vampires and zombies being unleashed on the city. This is a trail that ultimately leads to pursuit of the Dark Judges, including Judge Death, but in the meantime also handily provides the mountain of generic baddies required for this kind of game, who can be blasted away indiscriminately with no further thought of the consequences. This forms the main part of the action, although the graffiti and street punks do occasionally reappear (with greater potential for them accidentally getting caught in the crossfire). The other major enemies are members of a cult supporting Judge Death, who possess more serious weapons and represent a more traditional gun-toting FPS foe.

To say they’re unarmed, the vampires – which resemble bald gym blokes who have pursued a crazy fitness regime and a diet of raw meat until the point at which they lost their clothes, minds and genitals – are slightly tricky as generic baddies go, and an unexpected source of jump scares as hordes of them leap from the shadows and attempt to claw you to death. Their behaviour provided an unexpected reminder of Rebellion’s earlier Alien vs. Predator, which I had to abandon due to extreme cowardice, and with Dredd’s Lawgiver weapon also sounding similar to the pulse rifles of AvP’s Colonial Marines, I had occasional flashbacks to the dark corridors of that game, telling myself to ‘stay frosty’ and fire in controlled bursts.

Those moments aside, it’s generally fairly standard blasting here, with on screen prompts often guiding you to the next objective, although a level of variety is provided by the occasional requirement to rescue innocent civilians caught up in the carnage and lead them to a safe zone, which suffers, as you might expect, from the usual pitfalls, such as them not following you and/or getting stuck on the scenery, and the game failing to recognise that they have indeed arrived safely in the designated area. Still, any irritation during these moments is relatively short-lived, and overcome reasonably easily.

The Lawgiver has 6 types of ammo and so is effectively many weapons in one, although practical uses of some of the more clever sounding options, such as the ricochet bullets, are in fairly short supply. After mucking around with them for curiosity’s sake, I saw no reason to switch from the bog standard gunfire. The Lawgiver is supplemented by a variety of secondary weapons – tthe shotguns, machine guns and rocket launchers that you’d expect – but ammo tends to be fairly limited, and you can only carry one additional weapon at a time, meaning that you tend to make use of whatever you pick up for as long as it lasts rather than having the luxury of choosing a preferred option.

The action is interspersed with cut-scenes, and Dredd makes some trademark quips during the game, but it otherwise doesn’t seem like a great use of the IP, or at least it seems unlikely to convert any non-fans or persuade them to find out more. My understanding of Judge Death and the other Dark Judges – spirit antagonists who are convinced that human life itself is a crime – mainly came through supplementary internet searches rather than the game itself.

As the Dark Judges can’t be killed with traditional weapons, they make for handy boss characters, with non-standard solutions required, although the penultimate battle, with Judge Fear, did just seem to present him as a bullet-sponge who eventually relented after taking several bazooka hits to the face. I also experienced a couple of other glitches with these battles: a fight with Judge Mortis seemingly required the (tricky) rescue of civilians but actually didn’t, with failure having no impact on my law meter; while the final climactic moment was undermined by the boss character continuing to lumber around the map for a while, even though the sound and on screen prompts indicated the game was over.

Completion of each story level unlocks various additional game modes and extras, including an Arcade option which presents you with arena-based challenges, wherein you have to clear all enemies, or survive for a certain period. Some are more diverting than others, but there are moments, such as in the block war mode, or the escape from the Lugosi crime family, which you feel could have been deployed effectively in the main game itself, in place of some of the endless vampire and zombie blasting action.

Otherwise, while there are times – especially where you’re on patrol in Mega City One during the early stages – where Dredd vs. Death distinguishes itself from a generic shooter, they quickly fade from view as you progress. And although you can allow yourself a little chuckle as, for example, you arrest a robot receptionist for obstruction, Dredd himself (and I’m aware this could also be the point) otherwise offers little more as a character than your standard meat-headed action game protagonist.

However, perhaps it’s unfair to expect an early 00s FPS to fully convey the satirical elements of a long-running comic series, in the same way that those side-scrolling Robocop games of the 80s and 90s captured little of the Verhoeven movie’s subtleties in favour of a ‘big robot man shoots baddies’ platform shooter. (A later effort, a contemporary of Dredd vs. Death, also – according to a trusted source – failed to do so).

What we’re left with, then, is a fairly ok run-and-gun caper. Dipping into my relatively shallow pool of knowledge for a point of reference, I’d have to say it reminded me most of Sin Episodes: Emergence, in terms of the kind of undemanding – and reasonably brief – blasting action it provides. My guess is that most Dredd fans will have checked it out already; if not, they might find something to enjoy here. As for this correspondent, who gets the urge to play roughly one ancient FPS game a year, it certainly scratched that particular itch, without threatening to linger in the memory for too long afterwards.