Nostalgia is a funny thing. Sometimes, it’s the random background things that evoke it the most. Case in point, back in August last year, I was looking on GOG for a new DRM-free game to play and I saw that the dystopian sci-fi shooter game “Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death” (2003) had been reduced to £1.19.

This was a game that I played when I was a teenager but had almost completely forgotten about. Yet, the instant I saw it, the memories returned. I definitely played the PC version back then and I’m pretty sure that I also played a demo version on the PS2 as well.

Whichever version I was getting nostalgic about, I was getting nostalgic. Nostalgic for PS2-era graphics, for Evanescence and HIM albums, for school holidays, for glossy physical magazines about videogames and heavy metal music etc… Naturally, I had to re-play this game.

So, let’s take a look at “Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death”. The game itself contains FLICKERING/FLASHING LIGHTS.

Set in a dystopian future, the game takes place in the crime-ridden metropolis of Mega-City One. You play as Judge Dredd, one of the most feared “Judges” in the city – totalitarian police officers who also have the power to pass draconian summary sentences on criminals.

If you’re thinking “Hold on, this is ‘Anarchy vs. Authoritarianism’! Is this game based on a British comic from the 1970s-80s?” then you would be correct. It is indeed.

Anyway, as well as oppressing the locals, Dredd suddenly finds himself confronted with… Zombie vampires! Mysteriously, there are also adverts for a new service offering to re-animate people’s deceased pets. Surely a coincidence.

No doubt also a coincidence that there has been an uptick in activity from local death cultists. Death cultists who are trying to release the “Dark Judges” – four spectral judges from another world who believe that life itself is the ultimate crime….

One of the first things that I will say about this game is that, whilst it has some small flaws, it was a hell of a lot of fun 🙂 Any game that allows you to fight zombies in a cyberpunk shopping centre and to walk rainy neon-lit streets is instantly cooler than at least 90% of other games. As well as cool “Blade Runner” (1982)-inspired cyberpunk visuals in some levels, the game also actually has a personality and a sense of humour as well. Again, there are some flaws, but this is still a seriously cool game.

Most of all, although I’ve only read a couple of “Judge Dredd” trade paperbacks more than a decade ago, I was delighted to see that the people who made the game are clearly fans of the comics. This is best shown by the fact that, unlike some adaptations, Dredd himself isn’t presented as a hero. He’s a satirical character.

The sort of cruel person who will throw someone in jail for a month because they didn’t have the correct paperwork for their pet goldfish (and, yes, you can do this in the game…). And, unlike some films, the game actually gets this about the character. Don’t get me wrong, the 2012 “Dredd” film is one of the very best action movies ever made, but this obscure mid-budget game from 2003 is a lot more faithful to the source material.

Anyway, I’m getting side-tracked. The actual gameplay is fairly standard mid-2000s shooter gameplay. Whilst there thankfully is a traditional health system and a traditional “save anywhere” saving system, the levels are fairly linear and you can only carry two weapons at any given time.

At all times, one of those weapons has to be Dredd’s “Lawgiver”, a cool sci-fi blaster pistol with about six different firing modes. And, yes, there are in-game rules about this. If you use the “incendiary” ammo on anyone who isn’t undead, then you’ll get a stern telling-off from your supervisor over the radio.

You have a morality meter which you have to pay careful attention to at all times. Not only that, when fighting human adversaries, you can press a button to shout intimidating catchphrases like “Halt! Lawbreaker!” at them in a gravelly voice.

Sometimes this is enough to scare them into surrendering, other times they will only surrender when wounded in combat or if someone nearby is wounded. Sometimes they won’t surrender, and it’s a fight to the death. But, if someone surrenders, Judge Dredd can then pronounce sentence on them if you press a contextual button. This is often ridiculously draconian and will make you question whether you really are the “good guy” here or not. Which is sort of the point.

There’s a lot of personality, atmosphere and punk humour in the game – with numerous amusing background details, mildly funny dialogue lines and stuff like that. Virtually all of this seems in keeping with the mood of either the original comics and/or traditional British humour in general. And it is a joy to see.

However, my only complaint is one about hypocrisy. The “shopping centre” level contains the sort of brilliant punk satire you’d expect about consumerism – yet, in other levels, there is literal product placement and/or advertising for a real-world energy drink. That’s not very punk! Thankfully it isn’t too frequent or obnoxious, but I’m knocking half a point off of the review score for it. Justice!

Anyway, the game’s gameplay is reasonably ok – although the “jump” button can be a bit finicky – and there’s lots of mindless action to enjoy. With the occasional mild escort mission and stuff like that too. Interestingly, there are four boss battles – all of which aren’t actually that difficult. The game sort of gets the difficulty right on “normal” – whilst there are some cheap moments where you’ll get sniped from a distance, the game is mostly challenging enough to be fun but also forgiving enough to be good, relaxing fun.

And, although the graphics are more than two decades old, the game’s comic-book inspiration and excellent world-building mean that it’s more immersive than some modern games. The lighting is really cool and it genuinely does feel like you are visiting a dystopian 1970s proto-cyberpunk sci-fi city.

As for length, the main game is a short-medium length game, which probably took me a total of 5-7 hours to complete at most.

However, there is a ton of unlockable bonus stuff and extra game modes too. These include “arcade” levels – a bit like the challenge levels in the “Timesplitters” games (2000-2005) – and various multiplayer modes, including a “bot match” feature for players like me who prefer single-player. You can also unlock multiplayer skins through gameplay too (and only through gameplay 🙂 Because this is a game from a more honest age, before “micro-transactions” became a thing). All of this stuff helps to balance out the short length of the main campaign, which goes for more of a “quality over quantity” approach.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this game. Yes, the product placement is hypocritical and there can be a few mildly frustrating moments but – for the most part – this game is awesome 🙂 If you want a game with a punk sense of humour, one where you can fight zombies in a neon-lit cyberpunk dystopia or if you just want a “Judge Dredd” adaptation that is faithful to your vague memories of the comics, then this classic game is well worth playing.

If I had to give it a rating out of five, it would get a four. Without the product placement, it would get four and a half.