Grant City is an ugly place, and the game's visuals occasionally follow suit. A large number of enemy character models are cloned, but the game's story gives a good-enough excuse for that. Several of the combat animations, most notably the takedowns, look spastic and unrealistic. There are also some instances of visual weirdness; such as an enemy breaching through a window by simply phasing through it. That being said, Dead to Rights: Retribution can look decent at times. Our anti-heroes Jack and Shadow look great, despite the fact that the vice cop looks like a ripped Nathan Drake. Maybe that's not fair; the Dead to Rights franchise is much older than the PlayStation 3's killer app. The framerate never becomes a problem during the bloody and satisfying action.
Retribution's sound design hits the highs and lows of the action genre. Sound effects are a bit on the boring side, with the exception of Shadow's stealth kills. The sound of a throat being torn out is up there with the bone-cracking, raw-meat pounding noises heard in Manhunt. The voice acting is largely solid, but be warned: there's an awful lot of profanity, and most of it is gratuitous. No, it's not as offensive or ridiculous as it is in games like Rogue Warrior, but pretty much everyone drops F-bombs except for Shadow... and he's a dog. On the plus side, anyone who's played Metal Gear Solid will instantly recognize Paul Eiding as Frank Slate. The music occasionally sounds great, but a lack of variation and a tendency to loop holds the soundtrack back from greatness.
