Dead to Rights: Retribution is often remembered by fans as a gritty, no-nonsense third-person shooter released in 2010 by Volatile Games and published under the Namco Bandai umbrella. This game was a reboot of the Dead to Rights franchise that brought back cop Jack Slate and his loyal companion Shadow, delivering a hard-hitting experience that combined close-quarters combat with gunplay. But what most people don’t know is that Retribution wasn’t always the game we got.
Long before the final build took shape, the project began life under a very different title— Dead to Rights: Redemption. This early version aimed to be a grounded reboot — more noir, less neon. Gone were the exaggerated shootouts and over-the-top spectacle. In its place was something colder, leaner, and more emotionally restrained. Jack Slate’s original design reflected this direction: vulnerable, more human than action hero.
Several experimental ideas were on the table during this phase. A set of mini-games, deeper Shadow integration, Co-op features, and even a multiplayer mode originally titled “Banged 2 Rights.” Many of these never made it past early prototyping.
So what brought about the change?
According to Assistant Lead Designer and Story Writer Ben Fisher, the game’s tone was restructured after a shift in Namco’s internal direction, specifically from the American branch. Fisher noted:
“With a producer change at Namco US, the game shifted more towards a ‘core’ Namco tone. What they had in mind was more like Tekken, so we layered up some of the more operatic tone over time — in fact you can see the roots of a more grounded tone in the mocapped cutscenes because they were recorded first.”
What started as a slow-burn crime drama gradually morphed into the stylised, bombastic action game we now know as Retribution. That shift wasn’t just tonal — it bled into every corner of the design, from visuals to pacing to Jack’s final character model, which bore more resemblance to comic book anti-heroes like The Punisher than his original noir blueprint.
Below, you’ll find rare concept art and early design documents from the Redemption phase of the game, showing a version of Jack Slate that almost was.
